Date/Time
Date(s) - 11/14/2014 - 11/20/2014
8:30 PM - 10:00 PM
Location
Gene Siskel Film Center
Category(ies)
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“Rarely is a documentary so well attuned to its subject…demonstrates an unusual degree of liveliness and curiosity.” — Janet Maslin, The New York Times
1983, Howard Brookner, USA, 86 min.
Will William S. Burroughs, who died in 1997 and whose centennial is celebrated this year, ever NOT be cool? An icon for the Beats, the Beatles (yes, he’s on the Sgt. Pepper cover), ‘60s counterculture, queer culture, punk, splatter-punk, cyberpunk, Grunge, indie-pop (e.g., the xx), and points beyond, the innovative author and mordantly charismatic personality could write like Joyce and crack wise like W.C. Fields. Howard Brookner’s 1983 labor-of-love Burroughs: The Movie, made with WSB’s close and enthusiastic participation, has long been unavailable outside of old VHS copies. Then Aaron Brookner discovered the only surviving print in his long-deceased uncle’s archives and launched a Kickstarter campaign to digitally restore it. Now we can savor this definitive film portrait, with the master himself leading us through the scenes of his youth, performing readings and skits, and showing off his memorabilia and weapons collection, while acquaintances and admirers (Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith, Terry Southern, et al.) comment candidly on both the highs and lows of his astonishing life and work. New DCP digital restoration. (MR)