“CITY LIGHTS has always been about the joining of creativity and political awareness, and how those two work together to change the world.”

– Elaine Katzenberger, Executive Director

DIRECTOR STATEMENT

The COVID-19 pandemic shut down CITY LIGHTS: Booksellers & Publishers on March 15, 2020. Concerned about paying staff and bills, leadership put out a call for help with a GoFundMe campaign. Within seven days over ten thousand people worldwide donated nearly half a million dollars! That’s a lot of love and support. Why is this landmark bookstore so important to so many?

For nearly seventy years, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and a cast of colorful, creative characters shaped CITY LIGHTS Booksellers & Publishers as a force for thoughtful resistance, progressive radicalism, and engaged multiculturalism. This film tracks that journey by weaving the diverse perspectives of those who were there.

From its origin as a gathering place for radical change in postwar America in the ‘50s, through the countercultural and political activism of the ‘60s, to the environmental, antiwar, and civil and gay rights movements of the ‘70s, CITY LIGHTS produced avant-garde literature and provided a home for the voices of cultural dissent. In the ‘80s it’s authors challenged consumer culture, and in the ‘90s critiqued American corporate colonialism.

In the 21st century these themes continue to resonate in a contemporary generation. With the future of the printed book and the demise of the small publisher set inside the larger uncertainties of our troubled present, TURN LEFT follows the trajectory of a cultural icon making the story of City Lights more relevant than ever.