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.
Acting
Burroughs' deadpan delivery could freeze lava.
Direction
Beatty captures the Beats at their most unguarded and oracular.
Director
Maria Beatty
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Director Maria Beatty was a downtown NYC filmmaker who later became known for experimental queer cinema — this was her rare mainstream-adjacent project.
The inclusion of punk figures like Richard Hell and Lydia Lunch was controversial among Beat purists, but accurately reflected how the Beats had already been absorbed into punk's DNA by 1989.
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