At the 2017 Creative Commons Global Summit, we hosted a special session with filmmaker Robin McKenna that featured an early look at her then-in-progress documentary GIFT. McKenna’s film is now completed and opens today in select cities in the US. Inspired by The Gift, Lewis Hyde’s influential 1983 book about creativity and sharing (and an…

Film still from GIFT, courtesy of Intuitive Pictures

Inspired by The Gift, Lewis Hyde’s seminal work on creativity, culture, and art, McKenna’s film tells moving stories of remarkable generosity and sharing, from Alaska to Black Rock City to Seoul to New York City.

This past weekend, The New York Times Magazine published an excellent feature on author and scholar Lewis Hyde, best known for his book The Gift, a landmark assessment of the gift economy and the value of doing creative work in a commodity-driven culture. I read The Gift a few years ago, and pieces from it…