Murder she wrote
By Daily Bruin Staff
Jan. 28, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 Illustration by RODERICK ROXAS/Daily Bruin
By Chris Young
Daily Bruin Contributor
In the world of mystery novels, a relatively new class of female
writers has emerged, bringing new ideas to millions of readers with
novels centered around strong lead female characters.
Marcia Muller, Sara Paretsky and Sue Grafton are three authors
at the vanguard of mystery writing. Filmmakers Pamela Beere Briggs,
a UCLA alumna, and William McDonald, vice chair of production in
the Department of Theater, Film and Television, pay homage to these
writers in their new documentary, “Women of
Mystery.”
“We live in a storytelling culture, and the power of
storytelling is tremendous, and stories can change peoples’
lives,” said Briggs in a recent interview.
“There’s a lot of interesting contemporary issues and
themes that are being written about in these novels in a very
engaging way.”
The film, which screens tonight at the James Bridges Theater,
examines Muller, Paretsky, and Grafton in their hometowns. In
addition to featuring the writers as they collect research and sit
down at the typewriter, the documentary also creates dramatic
enactments of a scene in each of the writers’ books.
“I think the film is inspiring for anyone who’s
interested in writing,” Briggs said.
The movie focuses especially on the relationship between the
writers’ home cities where they live, research and write
their novels.
“The film is about writing as a creative process,”
McDonald said.
Each writer bases her novels largely in the same city where she
lives: Marcia Muller in San Francisco, Sara Paretsky in Chicago,
and Sue Grafton in Santa Barbara.
“San Francisco is a wonderful city to write about,
it’s very diverse, easy to describe, and it changes
constantly; it’s a matter of keeping up with the
changes,” said Muller, who is best known for her fictional
character, Sharon McCone.
 Courtesy of Jennifer Stephens UCLA alumna Pamela
Beere Briggs and William McDonald work on
documentary about women mystery writers Marcia Muller, Sue Grafton,
and Sara Paretsky. Briggs further explained why geographic location
is integral to the film.
“The detective novel is so much about the setting, and
that’s one thing I found most interesting about these
novels,” she said.
The documentary’s careful attention to location reflects
the importance of setting in mystery novels.
“I know a lot of people actually read detective novels
instead of travel books when they go to a new city, because you
really learn a lot about the city,” Briggs said.
The documentary also explores the authors’ writing
philosophies and their relationship to their workspace, McDonald
said.
“What is it like for the writer to sit in that space and
take millions of readers on these various journeys, and having them
be in their own actual spaces was an important part of the
exploration of who these writers are as people,” he said.
The film also focuses on the changing roles of women in society.
According to McDonald, Muller, Grafton, and Paretsky all write
about women’s place in society and in literature, as well as
the empowerment of women.
“The mentality of women in today’s society is very
different than it was for (my generation),” Muller said.
“More people take it for granted that they can be active in
professions that previously were closed to them. They’re more
independent, and they haven’t had to struggle against a lot
of the programming that women of my generation had in terms of sex
roles.”
Briggs notes that even though attitudes in society have been
changing for women, those changes haven’t been reflected in
literature until fairly recently.
“Even though lots of things have changed in positive ways
for women in our society, it’s still a big thing to find such
characters in literature,” she said. “In some ways
it’s as important to have those role models in literature, as
it is to have real- life role models.”
The filmmakers wanted to present the authors in a way that would
capture an audience’s attention and bring the viewer into
their world.
“How do you make a movie about writing that is interesting
and visual? From a creative standpoint that’s something we
wrestled with for years,” McDonald said. “You can
always make something where people talk on camera, just talking
heads, but we were really looking to try and blend the idea of
working in a nonfiction form of documentary, but making a film
about people who make fictional stories.”
Even though many students may not be familiar with these
novelists’ work, the filmmakers encourage them to approach it
with an open mind.
“You don’t necessarily have to read these books to
enjoy the film,” Briggs said. “Anyone who is interested
in picking up a pen or pencil and writing something, there’s
a lot of inspiration and courage to be gained from watching
it.”
DOCUMENTARY: “Women of Mystery”
screens at UCLA’s James Bridges Theater, Melnitz Hall tonight
at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free and the filmmakers will answer
questions after the screening. For more information call (310)
206-8422.
