A Word for Human (2019)

The library is a stronghold of humanism, but today libraries are more than places for borrowing books. At The Royal Library in the heart of Copenhagen, researchers and intermediaries work side by side with the library's visitors who come to read and study, but also to participate in talks, concerts, lectures, and exhibitions that fill the halls all year round. 'A Word for Human' takes us behind the scenes in a year where Marina Abramovic and Olafur Eliasson contribute to the program, and where colonial history and climate change take center stage. Elsewhere in the house, a senior researcher is buried in his books while trying to understand the motivation of a book collector who has been occupied by Michel de Montaigne. Mauricio González-Aranda's film is an aesthetically consistent, loving portrait of the library as institution, meeting place, and temple of knowledge.