He was Argentina’s favorite son, one of the great South American writers of the last century (along with Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Carlos Fuentes, and Mario Vargas Llosa), and the winner of 46 national and international literary prizes. We’re talking about Jorge Luis Borges, the master of the postmodern short story. Borges was born in 1899, and to celebrate his 100th birthday (though he died in 1986), Philippe Molins directed the documentary, Jorge Luis Borges: The Mirror Man. The film’s major strength (as one reviewer put it) is that it’s a “bit of everything – part biography, part literary criticism, part hero-worship, part book reading, and part psychology.” It runs 47 minutes and includes a fair amount of archival footage. (You can watch it in a larger format on Vimeo here.)
A big thanks goes to Mike for sending The Mirror Man our way. If you have your own great piece of cultural media to share with us and your fellow OC readers, please feel free to send it along.
Thank you for posting this. It nearly made me cry. What an amazing life. I had no idea who Borges was and the film unleashed a thirst to find out more about the author.
I found this site a few days ago and have really enjoyed all the educational and inspiring diversions that it offers.
Thanks for being here.
it was great.plz mail this film to me.
Very much enjoyed this documentary.
Could you tell me who narrated it.
Thanks.
It’s narrated by Jane Murray, the former presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.