About to speak with my class "Conceptualisms, Conspiracies, and Counter-histories" about the Beat writers and thought I should "round up" some of the better links to films and film clips that are now abundant on the web. I tend to do some short presentations on ancient subcultures. Despite the eminently cool poster above, more interested in looking at the films capturing the writers, documentaries, etc. rather than those that clearly attempted to cash in on the craze! ubuweb of course is nearly a one stop shop for certain things, particularly video and sound material on William S. Burroughs, otherwise A Man Within is the most recent full length documentary on WSB. A film called Kerouac: King of the Beats has some important material and interviews. The Source is inclusive but also incorporates some rather cringe inducing "re-enactments" and readings if I recall correctly. Kerouac on the Steve Allen Show is essential, as is Pull My Daisy which I posted earlier. There is a lot of material on Ginsberg as well. And a nice film called Crazy Wisdom retrospectively chronicles the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University, Colorado. Original Beats is a short film on Gregory Corso and Herbert Huncke. The wonderful poet and memoirist Diane di Prima delivers a lecture in San Francisco. The gregarious but not always coherent Neal Cassady sits in with Ginsberg at City Lights in this short clip. A drunken Kerouac asked to speak about Hippies on William F. Buckley's Firing LIne is absolutely excruciating to watch. Photographer Robert Frank, who filmed the Beats on several occasions, is a notoriously "reclusive" figure but there are at least two good documentaries on his work online. Fire in the East dates from 1986, and another profile Leaving Home, Coming Home from almost twenty years later. Also see my last post on Amiri Baraka, formerly known as LeRoi Jones.
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