Poetry in Motion Movie Review
Poetry in Motion Review
"Poetry in Motion" Overview
Rating: NR
1982
Cast and Crew
Director : Ron MannProducer :
Screenwiter :
Starring : Helen Adam,Miguel Algarin,Amiri Baraka,Ted Berrigan,Charles Bukowski,William S. Burroughs,John Cage,Jim Carroll,Jayne Cortez,Robert Creeley,Christopher Dewdney,Allen Ginsberg,John Giorno,Michael McClure,Ted Milton,Michael Ondaatje,Ed Sanders,Gary Snyder,Tom Waits,Anne Waldman
Contemporary poetry... either you love it or you hate it.
I thought I loved it, but after seeing Poetry in Motion, a documentary
interviewing some 20 modern poets (not a small number of whom are
singer/songwriters like Tom Waits) and featuring performance footage of them as
well.
Unfortunately for every Bukowski there's an Anne Waldman, who screeches her
poetry with such a degree of nuisance that my wife begged me to turn off the
DVD.
Good thing for Ron Mann's movie we don't get many other options to see
Burroughs, Carroll, and Ginsberg delivering their own material. (And some of
it is simple narrative, by the way.) Interesting for about 15 minutes (and not
in a row), this is the ultimate short film that just happens to run really,
really long. Unless, that is, you're really into group screaming, chanting,
and mindless banging on the piano.
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Review by Christopher Null 
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