Primary Source Analysis: Autobiography/Memoir.

Instructions

Compare two accounts of the creation and reception of the film adaptation of West Side Story (1961). I will upload two autobiographies/memoirs! Study those sections, and write a 750-word essay comparing their accounts. Your essay should be guided by the following question: How do first-person accounts shape our understanding of a media artifact or a historical moment?

Questions to consider (need not answer all):

• Do the two accounts tell a similar story about the film? Where do they agree? Where do they disagree?
• How is each author positioned in relation to the film? Did they have a lot of influence, or a little? Within their scope, how did they impact either the process of making the film, or the final result?
• How do they position the film in relation to their life/career? Was it transformative in positive, negative, or mixed ways?
• What feelings do they express about their relationship to the film from the time in which they are writing? Do they look back on the film with pride, regret, ambivalence?

Autobiographies/Memoirs (compare two sources):

Chakiris, George. My West Side Story : A Memoir. Lyons Press, 2021. () (actor playing Bernardo)

&

Tamblyn, Russ. Dancing on the Edge A Journey of Living, Loving, and Tumbling through Hollywood. Blackstone, 2024. () (actor playing Riff)