‘Helvetica’ documentary on many PBS statious Tuesday
Our good pal Darren Sanefski of the Syracuse Post-Standard tips us off:
Don’t forget to spread the good news on your blog: Helvetica is on PBS Tuesday, Jan. 6th at 10 pm.
I show this every semester. It’s wonderful inspiration for students and even an old fart like me.
Yep — the acclaimed documentary about the world’s most ubiquitous typeface is coming to a public television channel near you.
Perhaps. Like Darren’s local station, our local Virginia Public Television affiliate is planning to run Helvetica Tuesday at 10 p.m. as part of PBS’ Emmy Award-winning Independent Lens series. But just across the state line, our other local PBS affiliate — WUNC — is showing it Friday at 2 a.m.
Oh, you know those North Carolinians. They’re probably holding out for the Comic Sans documentary.
But seriously, check your local listings. It’s on at 10 p.m. here. Make sure to set your Tivo or whatever.
Read the backstory of Helvetica at PBS‘ Independent Lens web page. If you can’t find your local TV listings — or of your local paper no longer runs decent TV listings — look it up here.
Many of you will recall they showed Helvetica at SND/Boston in 2007. The week after we returned home, we found this very interesting double-feature playing in a theater in downtown Norfolk:
Typography geeks and smut. A dangerous combination.
So, to recap:
1. Helvetica may be on your local PBS station Tuesday. Or it may be playing some other time this week.
2. Check your local listings for time and channel.
3. Helvetica is a really cool documentary about typography.
4. Darren Sanefski is an old fart.
Glad to be of service.
January 5th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Charles, thanks for sharing my email with everyone, I will choose my words more carefully the next time. But as they say, “No good deed…”
This is not just for designers, if you are a designer, want to be, have to manage one, or just interested in design, don’t miss this documentary.
It has made a big impact on my students and most of them are not in a visual major. So spread the good news of “Helvetica” to your newsroom.
They may finally have a small understanding why designers are so unique.
January 5th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
“Helvetica” is one of my favorite documentaries. If you miss it on PBS, or your local station is not running it, rent it from Netflix.