SF Signal: Harlan Ellison Profiled in Documentary

Harlan Ellison Profiled in Documentary

...the celebrated writer is the subject of a new documentary, "Dreams With Sharp Teeth," the title taken from a three-volume collection of Ellison's stories.

The documentary by Erik Nelson traces Ellison's life from his tumultuous childhood in Painesville, Ohio, where Ellison lived as "a Jew in a world where there were no Jews." Ellison's Jewish heritage made him a favorite target of physical and verbal abuse by the local bullies. He retaliated years later by naming the villains in his story after his childhood nemeses. "What gets you passionate and angry enough to write are the hurtful memories," he told Tom Snyder during a 1974 television appearance.