Ed Sanders

Izzy Young was the guru of American folk music. In this documentary covering his legendary Folklore Center in New York Izzy meets with friends and collaborators like Pete Seeger, Allen Ginsberg, The Fugs, Mayor Ed Koch to reminisce. Includes unique archival footage and folk music from the 1960s.

Retrace les Beats depuis la rencontre d'Allen Ginsberg et Jack Kerouac en 1944 à l'Université de Columbia jusqu'à la mort de Ginsberg et William S. Burroughs en 1997. Trois acteurs proposent des interprétations dramatiques du travail de ces trois écrivains, et le film relate leurs amitiés, leur arrivée dans la conscience américaine, leurs voyages, les parodies fréquentes, la mort de Kerouac et la politisation de Ginsberg. Leur mouvement se connecte au bebop, à la musique de John Cage, à l'expressionnisme abstrait et au théâtre vivant. Dans des interviews récentes, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Kesey, Ferlinghetti, Mailer, Jerry Garcia, Tom Hayden, Gary Snyder, Ed Sanders et d'autres mesurent la signification et l'impact des Beats.

More than 20 contemporary North American poets recite, sing, and perform their work. Early in the film, Charles Bukowski talks about the energy of poets and of a poem. These poets are the children of Walt Whitman and of Charles Olson, incantatory and oratorical, radical, sometimes incorporating contemporary political imagery. Black Mountain poets, the Beats, minimalists like John Cage, the wordless Four Horsemen, Tom Waits, and others capture aspects of poets as troubadours.

Errol Morris présente la vie, l'œuvre et le studio de son amie la photographe Elsa Dorfman, connue pour ses clichés Polaroid de célébrités comme de gens ordinaires.

Semi-autobiographical story of Conrad Rooks, who travels to France to undergo a drug-withdrawal cure. Flashbacks to the beginings of psychedelia in San Fran. Though initially confusing, as Rooks blends drug-illusion with reality, and cuts color with black-and-white and monochrome tinted shots, "Chappaqua" is conventionally constructed with a beginning, middle, and end.

Maria Beatty's documentary exploring the insights and influences of the American Beat Poets. The film conveys their consciousness and sensibility through interviews with William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Diane Di Prima, among others. Also weaves in additional commentary from contemporary musicians, poets and writers such as Marianne Faithfull, Richard Hell, Lydia Lunch and Henry Rollins. Also expands upon how the poets reached new levels of creativity and inspired social change.

An hour-long paean to the art of the kiss featuring fourteen couples, from passionate participants to lethargic lovers, engaging in the intimate act.

A documentary film essay about sociological forces at play surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

From civil rights to the anti-war movement to the struggles of workers, folksinger Phil Ochs wrote topical songs that engaged his audiences in the issues of the 1960s and 70s. In this biographical documentary, veteran director Kenneth Bowser shows how Phil's music and his fascinating life story and eventual decline into depression and suicide were intertwined with the history-making events that defined a generation. Even as his contemporaries moved into folk-rock and pop music, Phil followed his own vision, challenging himself and his listeners. Not one to pull punches, Ochs never achieved the commercial success he desperately desired. But his music remains relevant, reaching new audiences in a generation that finds his themes all too familiar.