Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
From the San Francisco Public Library's Golden Gate Valley Branch program room.
Discover the rich history of classic Hollywood cinema and the remarkable career of film historian Joseph McBride, as he discusses his most recent books — a career memoir and his newly republished first book — in this rare presentation.
Film critic and historian Joseph McBride will discuss his career and the many major filmmakers he has known and written about. They include Orson Welles, John Ford, Frank Capra, Steven Spielberg, Billy Wilder and Howard Hawks. McBride’s two most recent books are a new edition of his first published book, Persistence of Vision: A Collection of Film Criticism, which he edited in 1968 for the Wisconsin Film Society at the University of Wisconsin, Madison; and an interview book on his career, I Loved Movies, But . . ., Conversations with Danny Peary. McBride will also answer questions and hopes to have a lively discussion with attendees.
Joseph McBride is a film historian and an emeritus professor of the Cinema Department at San Francisco State University. His twenty-six books include biographies of Frank Capra, John Ford, and Steven Spielberg; three books on Orson Welles; and critical studies of Ford, Ernst Lubitsch, Billy Wilder, George Cukor, and the Coen Bros.; and two books on the assassination of President Kennedy. McBride spent six years playing the film critic Mister Pister in Welles’s The Other Side of the Wind. His screenwriting credits include co-writing the cult classic punk rock musical Rock ’n’ Roll High School (1979) and five American Film Institute Life Achievement Awards, including the tribute to John Huston, for which McBride received a Writers Guild of America Award.
From the San Francisco Public Library's Golden Gate Valley Branch program room.
Discover the rich history of classic Hollywood cinema and the remarkable career of film historian Joseph McBride, as he discusses his most recent books — a career memoir and his newly republished first book — in this rare presentation.
Film critic and historian Joseph McBride will discuss his career and the many major filmmakers he has known and written about. They include Orson Welles, John Ford, Frank Capra, Steven Spielberg, Billy Wilder and Howard Hawks. McBride’s two most recent books are a new edition of his first published book, Persistence of Vision: A Collection of Film Criticism, which he edited in 1968 for the Wisconsin Film Society at the University of Wisconsin, Madison; and an interview book on his career, I Loved Movies, But . . ., Conversations with Danny Peary. McBride will also answer questions and hopes to have a lively discussion with attendees.
Joseph McBride is a film historian and an emeritus professor of the Cinema Department at San Francisco State University. His twenty-six books include biographies of Frank Capra, John Ford, and Steven Spielberg; three books on Orson Welles; and critical studies of Ford, Ernst Lubitsch, Billy Wilder, George Cukor, and the Coen Bros.; and two books on the assassination of President Kennedy. McBride spent six years playing the film critic Mister Pister in Welles’s The Other Side of the Wind. His screenwriting credits include co-writing the cult classic punk rock musical Rock ’n’ Roll High School (1979) and five American Film Institute Life Achievement Awards, including the tribute to John Huston, for which McBride received a Writers Guild of America Award.
