DC's

 

Christian Skjødt
Ronald van der Meijs
Douglas Henderson
Nelo Akamatsu
Stephen Cornford
Rebecca Horn
Stéfan Piat
Ulrich Eller
Florian Hecker
Benoit Maubrey
Haroon Mirza
Roberto Pugliese
Aernoudt Jacobs
Kaffe Matthews
Ted Apel
Julijonas Urbonas
Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller
Katarzyna Krakowiak
Cléa Coudsi & Eric Herbin

 

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Christian Skjødt Inversion (2013)
Made specifically for a WWII bunker, Regelbau Fl277, located at Furreby beach at the Danish west coast, a translation of the external (luminous) circumstances are brought into the darkness of the bunker in the form of sound. Consisting of eight autonomous systems this responsive environment examines the intensity of light using a formation of solar panels located outside on the beach. These are connected to boxes inside of the bunker, each equipped with analogue electronic circuitry and a loudspeaker presenting the solar energy as an audible and ever-changing frequency.

 

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Ronald van der Meijs Plastisphere (2019)
The stop motion image video gives a clear picture of the growth and decay of the plastic cell structure which is made by shopping bags. While this structure catches the daylight like organisms do on the surface of the ocean in order to live it. This architectonical plastic structure is slowly breathing in and out continuously which takes about 20 minutes to fill it with air and takes 20 minutes to vacuum it.

 

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Douglas Henderson Wonder Woman (2011)
Wonder Woman is a cartoon character invented in 1941 by the late William Marston (who also developed the polygraph, aka lie-detector test), and she was to be the first feminist superhero bringing ideals of “love, peace and sexual equality to a world torn by the hatred of men”. Here represented by two 12″ speaker drivers which pulse up and down, suggestively decorated with the remnants of one of Madonna’s bras. Wonder Woman was remarkable for her ability to bounce offending bullets from her bracelets, and this soundtrack layers dozens of recordings of popcorn popping in resonant pots.

 

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Nelo Akamatsu CHOZUMAKI (2017)
water, glass vessels, magnets, plastic, electronic devices, controllers.

 

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Stephen Cornford Binatone Galaxy (2011)
An installation for used cassette players which looks on their obsolescence not as an ending, but as an opportunity to reconsider their functional potential. Superseded as playback devices, they become instruments in their own right. Replacing the prerecorded content of each tape with a microphone gives us the chance to listen instead to the rhythmic and resonant properties of these once ubiquitous plastic shells. Binatone Galaxy brings the framework within which a generation purchased their favourite records to the centre of attention, revealing the acoustics of the cassette and the voices of the machines themselves.

 

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Rebecca Horn Concert for Anarchy (1990)
A grand piano is suspended upside down from the ceiling by heavy wires attached to its legs. It hangs solidly yet precariously in mid-air, out of reach of a performer, high above the gallery floor. A mechanism within the piano is timed to go off every two to three minutes, thrusting the keys out of the keyboard in a cacophonous shudder. The keys, ordinarily the point of tactile contact with the instrument, fan disarmingly out into space. At the same time, the piano’s lid falls open to reveal the instrument’s harp-like interior, the strings reverberating at random. This unexpected, violent act is followed between one and two minutes later by a retraction as the lid closes and the keys slide back into place, tunelessly creaking as they go. Over time, the piano repeats the cycle. A mounting tension to the moment of release is followed by a slow retreat to stasis as the piano closes itself up like a snail withdrawing into its shell.

 

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Stéfan Piat Rear Window (2018)
“Rear Window” by Stéfan Piat, an installation consisting of two empty rooms – one bordering the begijnhof’s garden, the other a bustling square. The windows are airtight, but thanks to microphones and loudspeakers, visitors can hear the street sounds from outside. In Piat’s work, we watch the outside world from a window that becomes a screen, like in Hitchcock’s classic Rear Window. But unlike Jimmy Stewart’s character in the film, we can actually hear what we’re seeing. We’re not only voyeurs, but also eavesdroppers, since we can discern the conversations of passers-by.

 

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Ulrich Eller Talking Drums (2008)
Forty identically constructed snare drums hang individually at face level on thin steel cords propped on circular wall positions along the architecture’s rhythmic pillars. All of the drums resonate the sound of short chalk strokes via inbuilt loudspeakers, similar to a quick writing process. The interaction results in a staccato-like, coincidental dialogue form, a “conversation” among the drums in different moods, wherein the sound backdrop permanently alters between the original sound of the recording and the typical resonating sound of the snare drum.

 

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Florian Hecker Rearranged Playlist as Auditory Stream Segregation (2009)
‘Rearranged Playlist takes outtakes of existing works I’ve been doing over the last three or four years, and these outtakes are interrupted by monotonous tone sequences that draw on Alfred Bregmans’s idea of sound streaming, Auditory Scene Analysis or better, Auditory Scene Synthesis, and the segregation and reintegration of such streams.’ — FH

 

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Benoit Maubrey The Temple (2012)
Copy of “oracle” temple ruin at Delphi constructed from 3000 recycled loudspeakers and electronics. The Temple stands outside the ZKM in Karlsruhe. Sound: “white noise” from radio receivers and people’s voices (starting March 16th 21012 by calling the German telephone number 0721 – 8100 1818 people could express themselves through the sculpture for 3 minutes).

 

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Haroon Mirza: /o/o/o/o/ (2013)
Attaching turntables and a mixer to an amplifier is a routine familiar to any budding disc jockey, but this kind of set-up process is also a preamble to any display of Haroon Mirza’s work. In other words, his assemblages and installations need to be turned on, plugged in or mic’d up. The 36-year-old Sheffield-based artist plays and creates his own records and music, often directly through his sculptures, which mismatch junk shop-bought hi-fi separates with everything from television sets and keyboards to projectors, lasers and even dry-ice machines. ‘/o/o/o/o/’, titled after the typographic notation of a musical waveform, and features five record players, a reverberation chamber and a room of surround-sound speakers.

 

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Roberto Pugliese Equilibrium Variant (2011)
In this work, the Neapolitan sound artist and composer has positioned a lever with an attached microphone in front of every loudspeaker. The seemingly natural movements of the computer-controlled levers result from an attempt to keep the feedback sound in balance. Roberto Pugliese programmed special software for this purpose. Since the sound tends to amplify itself, it is impossible to maintain it at a constant volume, so the levers stay in constant motion. The robotic units behave differently due to the different features of the loudspeakers.

 

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Aernoudt Jacobs Permafrost (2012)
Permafrost is an environmental sound sculpture about the freezing process of water. An installation has been developed in which we can observe the constantly repeated cycle of freezing and melting. By means of a custom-made sound apparatus the process is made audible. Permafrost deals with the sometimes paradoxical relation between nature and technique.

 

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Kaffe Matthews Sonic Bed (2005)
These [beds], with speakers immersed in their upholstery, create situations that transform the listening experience for the sitter into a stimulating and sensual massage, turning ‘weird’ or ‘boring’ music into something meaningful. All kinds of people would queue for hours, have very different experiences and talk of the musical as well as physical and psychological sensations they have had afterwards.

 

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Ted Apel Call and Resonance (1995 – 2015)
Five very large test tubes are used to impart strong resonances on hand made sound making circuits in each tube. Each circuit independently alternates between recording sound and playing back its recording. The sounds recorded are a combination of the sounds produced by the other tubes, the ambient sounds of the space, and the resonance of the tube. In this way, the combined soundfield is an emergent property of the five tubes, that is, each tubes sound is dependent on the contributions of the others.

 

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Julijonas Urbonas Sounding Door (2009)
Sounding Door is an interactive sound art installation designed by Lithuanian artist Julijonas Urbonas to turn any door into a unique musical instrument and a stage at once. Equipped with custom-designed electronics and software, the installation plays and composes sounds according to the door’s movements, that is, its position, speed and acceleration.

 

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Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller The Killing Machine (2007)
Partly inspired by Franz Kafka’s ‘In the Penal Colony’ and partly by the American system of capital punishment as well as the current political situation, the piece is an ironic approach to killing and torture machines. A moving megaphone speaker encircles an electric dental chair. The chair is covered in pink fun fur with leather straps and spikes. In the installation are two robotic arms that hover and move- sometimes like a ballet, and sometimes attacking the invisible prisoner in the chair with pneumonic pistons. A disco ball turns above the mechanism reflecting an array of coloured lights while a guitar hit by a robotic wand wails and a wall of old TV’s turns on and off creating an eerie glow.

 

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Katarzyna Krakowiak Making the walls quake as if they were dilating with the secret knowledge of great powers (2012)
The sound sculpture is the amplification of the entire Polish Pavilion at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition as a listening-system. Rather than creating a new space the project takes an empirical turn, taking the existing interior in the 1:1 scale as its point of departure, with all its deficiencies and imperfections guiding the work. Architectural micro-deformations of the building’s walls and floor, the renovation of the ventilation system, and reinforcement of the resonant frequencies serve to bring this latent acoustic experience to the fore. The focus is on the secret but audible knowledge inscribed in the niches, apses, bays and vestibules, full of long-acknowledged deficiencies and forgotten paradoxes. None of the sounds in the Pavilion are alien to the building. They are all always already there, all the time. Yet, once amplified, the familiar ambient sounds become alien themselves.

 

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Cléa Coudsi & Eric Herbin Turnletters spirit (2009)
This sound installation is composed of hundreds of tiny metal letters placed on a table guided randomly by a complex machinerie of magnets. Nothing can be read yet everything is to be seen…

 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** Dominik, Hi!!! No, I don’t believe I ever met Andrea Gibson, or if I did it would’ve been brief, a hello sort of thing. I agree about that doc. PHM would’ve been better if the rock alien never learned to speak English, but then it would’ve been a giant flop. Happy birthday to your brother! Are/will you be in attendance? Love making the potato chips I’m eating 1/10th less salty, G. ** _Black_Acrylic, HB to the kiddo! Whenever it actually is. It’s healthy for kids to grow up knowing that they could be eaten by a monster, no? That book has good vibes. ** Bill, Hi. Cool about the barge concert. Kazuhisa Uchihashi does ring a bell, I’ll look him up. As ever, I hope that June concert ends up getting an audio-visual record. Do you know Bob Ostertag? I like things I’ve heard by him, usually collaborations. In fact just couple of days ago I was listening to a piece by Ibrahim Alfa Jar that he was thoroughly involved in. ** Tosh Berman, Hi! Thanks, I trust Brian peeked in and saw your and others’ glowing words. I hosted Jack Hirschman at Beyond Baroque back during my tenure. He was very warm and extroverted. And his reading managed to draw the old Venice poets people who otherwise would never set foot in the place. I hope your recovery is very on pace. ** Carsten, Hi. Thanks for thanking Brian. Everyone, Carsten adds a poetry doc to the array yesterday aka ‘The Bard of Encinitas’, a doc about Jerome Rothenberg. Here. We’re in the 19 degrees range here, which is my idea of ideal. I should be around in July at least most of the time? Still waiting to see if a possible film festival or two around then comes through. Just let me know your dates in advance when you know them. ** Alice, Hey. I’m good, thanks. I’ll see if Sorely Tunnel Adventure is google-able. Thanks. Sounds most curious. I’ve seen ‘Coney Island at Night’. Yeah, very pretty. We barely had any free time in Brussels. If it’s still up, the Lutz Bacher restropectve at a museum called Wiels is very worth seeing. I’m sure Hugo will direct you to the local high points. You take care now and through the weekend too. ** CS, Hi! I’ll look for those documentaries you mentioned. I don’t … think I know them? Thank you. What are you going to do with the white dead tree part? Prop it up somewhere for future contemplation? Nice that you’re proximate to a beach. We just have the fake beach or rather pile of sand that Paris dumps on a certain part of the Seine every summer. No dead trees for sure. Dead rats maybe. I’m happy you settled in here too! Happy day. ** Wes, Hi, Wes. Thanks very much. I feel pretty certain that Brian saw and took your words to heart. How are you? ** Charalampos, Hi from here (you know where). Me too about the producer hunt. I don’t think that part is ever smooth and easy though. Well, when you make strange little films at least. Excellent reading material there! ** jay, Thank you and a special presumed thank you from the mysterious Brian. See, if ‘Swann in Love’ was like ‘Story of the Eye’ I’d probably give up the ghost and read it. Thanks, pal. Nice weekend in the works? ** Adem Berbic, That would be quite an effect. I’d probably be beset with guest-post offers if that were the case. There were some grungy bits of Hung Kong, but not many. I had no beef with Hong Kong. It was just skyscrapers as far the eye could see, and I had hoped for more. One wants -bow to unleash an unremitting wall of noise unless that’s just me. So, good! A bit confused about what had such impact in your peripheral vision, but I suppose that’s the point. ** Steve, Ginsberg seems like the man of the hour there in NYC. I’m putting together my midyear faves list for the blog. Ah, the joys and not of culling and excising. ** HaRpEr //, I’ve never heard that joke. And now I’m trying to think of a French philosopher who looks like a Bond villain with very little success. Maybe Deleuze. Or, wait, Foucault! Enjoy your vacation from your novel. It can be very relaxing to let your brain run free, for sure. I was about to make an Elizabeth Ellen joke but I thought twice because she seems like someone who would google her own name a lot. Try Hobart, I say. That’s a marriage that sure seems like it’s in the offing. ** laura w, Wow, ‘Devil’ and ‘Lancelot’ are my Bresson #1 and #2 too. You and I need to get a coffee someday. I’m generally wary of A24 films too, but you never know, and they do seem to be maybe starting to take some chances recently? My eternal optimism speaking there. No, I need to be a hard ass about Proust. I know if I even read a paragraph, I’ll get stuck there. Like quicksand if quicksand was a real thing. Happy still early Friday on my end to you. We have the whole rest of the day to find enlightenment! ** Uday, Hey. It was Brian’s debut post, and it went so well that maybe he’ll toss the blog another one, one can only hope. That’s so sweet about your grandfather. One of my grandfathers died of a brain tumor when I was an infant so I never met him, and my other grandfather was estranged from his son/my father and I only met him a few times, and all I remember about him is that whenever I saw him he would bite my ear really hard. ** Okay. You people who’ve looked the blog for a while know that I have a fondness for art that makes noise, and today you get 19 more examples of artworks that do that. See you tomorrow.

 

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Aliona van der Horst Boris Ryzhy (2009)
‘The Russian poet Boris Ryzhy was handsome, talented and famous. So why did he take his own life at the age of 26? A quest to find the answer takes the filmmaker to the criminal neighbourhood in the cold industrial city of Yekaterinenburg where Boris grew up. Through conversations with family and friends, she pieces together a picture of passionate and complex life of the poet. What emerges is a penetrating portrait of the perestroika generation, who lost all certainties, becoming a generation of criminals and bodyguards. Above all, it is a haunting film about Boris’love for life. Through his poems, pain is transformed into grace. Directed by Aliona van der Horst. Cinematography: Maasja Ooms. In co-production with VPRO.’ — VPRO

the film

 

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Jonas Mekas Scenes from Allen’s Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit (1997)
‘This is a video record of the Buddhist wake ceremony at Allen Ginsberg’s apartment. You see Allen, now asleep forever, his close friends, and the Buddhist monks conducting the cere- mony, preparing Allen for the travel into the spirit world. You also see Allen being wrapped up and removed from the apartment to the Buddhist Temple. I talk to Peter Orlovsky about Allen’s last days. Later I tape the final farewell at the Buddhist Temple, 118 West 22nd Street, New York City, and many of Allen’s friends, Patti Smith, Gregory Corso, Peter Orlovsky, Le Roy Jones- Baraka, Hiro Yamagata, Anne Waldman, and many others who came to say last good-bye to Allen.’ — Jonas Mekas

Excerpt

 

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Kate Crash Eruptions of Poetry: Anna Homler, LA Woman (2011)
‘Anna Homler is a poet and vocal, visual and performance artist who has been known to invent her own languages; she often plays her collection of antiques, toys and curios thru a variety of digital delays/FX. She is included in Kate Crash’s current interactive documentary created with EZTV’s Michael Masucci. The film, LA Woman, (2011) premiered as part of the Pacific Standard Time initiative sponsored by the Getty Research Institute.’ — collaged

Excerpt

 

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James Brih Abee Full Blossom: The Life of Roberts Blossom (2000)
‘Despite his long legit career, the poet and actor Roberts Blossom is probably best known for his role as Old Man Marley in the Chris Columbus film Home Alone. He also appeared in Slaughterhouse-Five, The Great Gatsby, Escape From Alcatraz, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Quick and the Dead, Always and The Last Temptation of Christ. He also starred in a horror film, 1974’s Deranged, that was based on the life of serial killer Ed Gein. He was also a published poet, writing every day for 60 years. A documentary on his life, Full Blossom: The Life of Poet/Actor Roberts Blossom, was made in 2000 and featured Ed Asner, Peter Brook and director Robert Frank, as well as members of Blossom’s family.’ — Variety

Trailer

An excerpt can be viewed here

 

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Aristede Craig Jr. Aristede the Poet Documentary (2013)
‘Aristede Craig Jr. uploaded a video.’

the film

 

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John Dullaghan Bukowski: Born into This (2003)
‘Director John Dullaghan’s biographical documentary about infamous poet Charles Bukowski, Bukowski: Born Into This, is as much a touching portrait of the author as it is an exposé of his sordid lifestyle. Interspersed between ample vintage footage of Bukowski’s poetry readings are interviews with the poet’s fans including such legendary figures such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Joyce Fante (wife of John), Bono, and Harry Dean Stanton. Filmed in grainy black and white by Bukowski’s friend, Taylor Hackford, due to lack of funding, the old films edited into this movie paint Bukowski’s life of boozing and brawling romantically, securing Bukowski’s legendary status.’ — Top Documentary Films

the film

 

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David Hoffman Michael Yetnikoff: Child Poet (1968)
‘This 30-minute documentary that reveals the life and poetry of a ten-year-old poet, Michael Yetnikoff. Michael says that he has been a poet since he could write. He shares his thoughts and his poems with veteran documentary filmmaker, David Hoffman. The result is a tale about a ten-year-old boy whose poetry contains way with words and intelligence way beyond his years. Michael reads his poems and offers insight into what created them. He even writes a poem about the documentary.’ — DH

Excerpt

 

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Melanie La Rosa The Poetry Deal: A Film with Diane Di Prima (2012)
‘She remains the most famous women poet of the Beat Generation; her friend Allen Ginsberg calling her “heroic in life and poetics”. THE POETRY DEAL: A FILM WITH DIANE DI PRIMA is an impressionistic documentary about legendary poet Diane di Prima. The most well known female writer of the Beat Era, di Prima is fierce, funny, and philosophical, still actively writing in her late 70s in San Francisco, where she is poet laureate. She is a pioneer who broke boundaries of class and gender to publish her writing, and THE POETRY DEAL opens a window looking back through more than 50 years of poetry, activism, and cultural change, providing a unique women’s perspective of the Beat movement. THE POETRY DEAL puts di Prima’s life and work on screen in a unique, beautiful portrait using rare archival material, impressionistic scenes shot in Super8 and 16mm, stories told by friends and colleagues—and di Prima’s powerful writing.’ — WMMNYC

Trailer

The film can be viewed here

 

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Ron Mann Poetry in Motion (1982)
‘To say that Poetry in Motion, Ron Mann’s 1982 documentary, is the greatest poetry documentary of all time doesn’t really quite give the film its due. Thirty years on, the film still holds up as an anthology and time capsule, one that’s on a par with or even surpasses its print inspiration, Donald Allen’s New American Poetry: 1945-1960. It arrived in theaters and video stores at a time when poetry was reasserting itself as an oral and performance-based art, a synthesis of previous countercultural movements with free jazz, punk rock, and theater of cruelty cabaret. The 24 poet performers portrayed in the film read like a who’s who of late 20th-century American countercultural poetry: Helen Adam, Miguel Algarin, Amiri Baraka, Ted Berrigan, Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, John Cage, Jim Carroll, Jayne Cortez, Robert Creeley, Christopher Dewdney, Diane Di Prima, Kenward Elmslie, Four Horsemen, Allen Gingsberg, John Giorno, Michael McClure, Ted Milton, Michael Ondaatje, Ed Sanders, Ntozake Shange, Gary Snyder, Tom Waits and Anne Waldman.’ — collaged

Excerpt

Excerpt

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Matthew Furey Red Poet (2009)
‘The film was accepted into 8 film festivals including the Rome Independent Film Festival in Italy & the Bradford International Film Festival (hosted by the British National Media Museum). Film Maker Matthew Furey’s Red Poet paints a soulful picture of San Francisco’s own Jack Hirschman and brings to the silver screen the singular life of this troubadour for modern times. A modest Bronx childhood first gives way to a shooting star career in academia. Controversial teaching stints at Dartmouth and UCLA make him anathema to the academy; he is fired for his opposition to the Vietnam War. Soon Hirschman finds himself penniless and homeless on the streets of San Francisco. Through it all, Hirschman perseveres, continues to write his poems and publish over 100 books of poetry. Red Poet recounts a tale of a life lived on its own terms: against all odds, a unique poetic talent finds personal redemption through his art and his poetry.’ — MF



the film

 

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Sara Sackner Concrete! (2006)
‘Concrete! is documentary about the Sackner-Archive, in Miami, the largest private collection of concrete and visual poetry. Over sixty-thousand objects from around the world speak volumes about a compulsive and joyful life of collecting art, poetry, and artist books. Founded in 1979, this “archive of archives” initially focused on concrete and visual poetry—including rare manuscripts and published works by international luminaries such as Augusto and Haroldo de Campos, Oyvind Fahlström and Eugen Gomringer. The collection subsequently grew to encompass a broad array of historic and contemporary works that synthesize word and image. Rooted in the early to mid-20th-century European avant-garde, the collection provides a unique lens through which to examine the foundational movements of modernism, including Italian Futurism, Russian Constructivism, Bauhaus, De Stijl, Dada and Lettrisme, among others. The Sackners’ contemporary holdings are also expansive, with special strengths in artists’ books and “assemblings” (limited-edition groupings of materials by numerous contributors), as well as various subgenres such as typewriter art, performance poetry and micrography (abstract or representational designs comprised of minuscule lettering).’ — Ubuweb

Trailer

 

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CrimeTV William Bradford: The Death Row Poet (2003)
‘William Richard “Bill” Bradford (1948–2008) was an American murderer who was incarcerated in San Quentin State Prison for the 1984 murders of his 15-year-old neighbor Tracey Campbell and barmaid Shari Miller. In July 2006, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department released a compilation of photos found in Bradford’s apartment in the 1980s, depicting 54 different women in modelling poses. As Bradford had used the promise of a modelling career to lure his victims, and taken pictures of Miller before murdering her, police believe that Bradford was in fact a serial killer and that the photos depict Bradford’s other victims in the moments before their deaths. Bradford died at the Vacaville prison medical facility on March 10, 2008, of cancer. In 1998, Bradford dropped all of his appeals, claiming that life in San Quentin had become unbearable. Having had no legal representation for the past 10 years, Bradford hired a lawyer to help speed the process of his execution, and began writing poems about life in San Quentin. His poetry attracted attention from the press, who dubbed him “Death Row Poet”. Five days before his scheduled execution, Bradford said that he had changed his mind, professing his innocence and declaring that he wanted the execution process to be halted.’ — collaged

The film can be viewed here

 

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Gustave Reininger Corso: The Last Beat (2009)
‘Although hailed by Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg as an exceptionally gifted mind and poet, Gregory Corso is, by comparison, the unsung Beat, never achieving the same renown as the movement’s three most celebrated icons. But he probably was the most colorful of the bunch, and Gustave Reininger’s 10-years-in-the-making documentary, Corso: The Last Beat, finally brings him to the big screen. The film’s somewhat uneven style — at once an artistic documentary, home movie and sometimes overly conventional for such an unconventional subject — might hamper its chances for traditional television platforms. But Corso should be seen, not simply because Reininger’s respect and love for his subject obviously run deep, but because the film is a moving portrait of an artist of unwavering loyalty to his artistry.’ — Hollywood Reporter

Trailer

 

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Bradley Gillespie Frick (2014)
‘Roughly a year ago, I had the opportunity to meet one of my idols, Steve Roggenbuck. Steve is an alt-lit poet that is actively embracing new techniques of spreading his awe-inspiring words across the globe. Gaining popularity through use of his quick, comedic videos via YouTube, Steve disorients you to a point where you’re not sure how to take his art, but regardless, leaves you with a deep feeling in your stomach to better yourself. My deepest apologies for taking so long on getting the video out. Thank you Steve for taking the time out to make this video, which turned out to be one of my favorite I’ve shot in my entire career as a director. Boost!’ — BG

the film

 

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Richard O. Moore USA: POETRY, FRANK O’HARA (1966)
‘USA: Poetry was produced and directed by Richard O. Moore for National Education Television. The twelve part documentary series which was produced in 1965-66, showcased many poets including, Anne Sexton, John Wieners, Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, John Ashbery, William Everson, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Creeley, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gary Snyder, Kenneth Koch, Ed Sanders, Michael McClure, Philip Whalen, Richard Wilbur, Denise Levertov, and Louis Zukofsky. The program featuring Frank O’Hara was filmed on March 5, 1966 and originally aired on September 1, 1966.’ — poetry foundation.org

the film

 

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Barbara Hammer Welcome To This House (2015)
‘Welcome To This House (2015), a feature documentary film on the homes and loves of poet Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), about life in the shadows, and the anxiety of art making without full self-disclosure. Hammer filmed in Bishop’s ‘best loved homes’ in the U.S., Canada, and Brazil believing that buildings and landscapes bear cultural memories. Interviews with poets, friends, and scholars provide “missing documents” of numerous female lovers. Bishop’s intimate poetry is beautifully performed by Kathleen Chalfant and with the creative music composition by Joan La Barbara brings Bishop into our lives with new facts and unexpected details.’ — bh

Excerpt

 

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Robert Mugge Black Wax (1983)
‘The films of Robert Mugge engage crucially not only with the sounds but also the philosophies of the artists whose work they explore, and it is difficult to imagine two more philosophically engaged artists than the incendiary poet/songwriter/vocalist Gil Scott-Heron (1949-2011) and the exploratory keyboardist, composer and bandleader Sun Ra (1914-1993). In two classic documentaries, newly remastered for Blu-ray and DVD by MVD Visual, Mugge mounts the stages on which these ineffable creators plied their deeply felt trades. In 1982’s Black Wax, Mugge captures a Washington, D.C., performance featuring Scott-Heron and his Midnight Band (under the guidance of bassist and “Secretary of Entertainment” Robert Gordon), interspersed with casually graceful scenes of the vocalist guiding the viewer on a “tour” of the nation’s capital. Scott-Heron puts caustic verbal thumbscrews to iconic figures of the American past and, in poetic verse, excoriates the poverty thriving in the inner cities while “Whitey’s on the moon.” Scott-Heron is leftist in his views, but he declares himself merely a member of the “Common Sense Party,” his cultural role that of a “bluesologist.”’ — Jazz Times

the film

 

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Matt Wolf I Remember: A Film About Joe Brainard (2012)
‘This inventive biography of Joe Brainard gives an immediate and visceral sense of his humour, self-deprecating personality, and gentle demeanour. Brainard’s drawings, collages, assemblages and paintings, as well as his short essays and verbal-visual collaborations, were celebrated during his lifetime before he stopped making art in the mid-1980s. The film is an elliptical dialogue about friendship, nostalgia and the strange wonders of memory.’ — IFFR

Trailer

The film can be viewed here

 

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Mark Pellington The United States of Poetry (1995)
‘Originally aired in 1996 as a five part series on PBS, “The United States of Poetry” is an excellent presentation of twentieth century poetry. This two-part series includes a wide variety of poets, such as Czeslaw Milosz, Rita Dove, and Allen Ginsberg, alongside actors and musicians such as Johnny Depp (reading Jack Kerouac) and Lou Reed. Former President Jimmy Carter also makes an appearance, reading his own work. The series has been praised for its inventive and artistic camera work and its refusal to be boring: “USOP tosses aside the textbook approach to poetry and drags it, kicking and screaming… into this wired world… it’s poetry as you’ve never experienced it” (TV Guide).’ — poets.org

Excerpt

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Ryan White Come See Me in the Good Light (2025)
‘In an intimate and joyful story of love in the face of loss, celebrated poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley find strength—and unexpected hilarity—in what might be their final year together.’ — Letterboxd

Trailer

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p.s. Hey. Today a kind and investigative reader of this blog named Brian Willis has curated a lustrous program of short documentary films about poets both known and unknown. It’s a beaut of an array, so please give it your attention as you see fit, and, if you’re so inclined, give some kind of shout out in thanks to Brian, who may be a member of the blog’s silent majority audience but who will surely be looking in to see how his program came off. Thanks so much, Brian! ** Adem Berbic, Apologies for the blog’s starvation. Okay, the Stigs, I think I get it. Guessing the book hasn’t made it into English, but I trust you, obviously. Naïveté can assuredly be a virtue. Maybe the biggest. Interesting pet theory there that I of course will never be able to confirm. Hong Kong-like, interesting. When I was in Hong Kong, I simply could not get a bead on it, or I should not a very positive bead. Merzbow proved to be worth the truncation? The last time I saw him live it was a duo thing with Keiji Haino who characteristically hogged the stage reducing Merbow to doing essentially background drone washes. Very disappointing. The azure parts are all over the place in quality and levels of interest. ** jay, Oh, good, a fellow fan! Haha, see, I feel like filtering Proust through Guattari is more than sufficient, but, yes, I would think that, wouldn’t I? My memory of the ‘Equus’ movie is that it didn’t quite manage to be either a movie nor a document of the play. And, yeah, the ‘dreamy’ horse intercut footage spurts were pretty yawn. As I recall, mind you. Thank you, my pal! May your day unlock the next level. ** _Black_Acrylic, It’s no more difficult than, oh, Autechre, if you catch my drift. ‘Milk & Serial’: I’ll be googling that shortly. Thanks, B. ** Bill, It might still be playing in SF when you get home. It seems to be quite the hit. When I found that opening essay, said photo was the illustration, and I did take it be an author photo, but I have been prone to wishful thinking, goodness knows. I just saw an announcement of a gig you’re doing in SF in later June with Bob Ostertag and someone else. Sweet. Barge concert, nice, how was it? I think the only barge concert I’ve ever seen was Einsturzende Neurbauten in Amsterdam in the early 80s when they were still mind-blowing. In that case, the barge wasn’t docked. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Missed opportunity indeed! I hadn’t realised the mood/doom thing either until I pretended I was God for that moment. I should do that more often clearly. I think the answer to love’s question is that people who only or mostly watch multi-million dollar blockbuster movies are very easily amazed when they get a little quirky. Love pretending he’s a poet and being filmed by some random person on YouTube, G. ** Carsten, That does sound busy. But the guest apartment sounds pretty goddamned sweet. Score. Excellent about the Ariel Resnikoff blurb. People are good. Temperatures in Paris are so dessert-like they’re practically edible at the moment. Won’t last, but yum. No, I’m still waiting for Zac’s hopefully final notes on the script, and then we’ll start the dreaded producer hunt. Hopefully next week. Thanks for asking. ** CS, Hi, CS. Well, I’m very glad you leapt into the commenting arena because it’s very nice to meet you. ‘RT’ will start streaming and come out on BluRay in mid-summer, so there’s that, at least. Thanks for wanting to see it. I want you to. I like that you found ‘Assisted Living’ fun. Me too. Surreptitious high five. Thanks, it’s cool to talk with you. Don’t hesitate to reopen the door and step in whenever that option feels like an opportunity. Do say more about you and yours, if you want. I’m interested. ** HaRpEr //, It’s an excellent read, and not just because it has a stellar title. Thanks for the link! Everyone, HaRpEr // found two short essays by Guattari called ‘I Have Even Met Happy Trannies’ and ‘Woman Becoming’ and you can read them for free if you like. Poke this. I did not know that about Deleuze’s fingernails, wow, huh. Of course I will now do a google image search. How can John Waters be so relentlessly wise. It’s an inexplicable fact. ** Uday, Hi. I’ll listen to more PC Music and see if I see a connection there too. Cool. Semiotext(e) was such an instructor back when theory was the bulk of its metier. I found so much valuable stuff only thanks to it. What’s your grandfather like? ** Okay. You already know the drill re: what Brian has constructed for you today so have the loveliest time you can here, and I’ll see you tomorrow.