Nelson Algren: The End is Nothing, The Road is All
Biography
•
1h 25m
Directed by Mark Blottner, Ilko Davidov & Denis Mueller • Documentary • 2015 • 85 minutes
This in-depth portrait of notorious American author Nelson Algren uses interviews, rare archival footage, and the gritty voice of Algren himself to capture the elusive and unique literary figure whose fame was cemented with the success of The Man with the Golden Arm and A Walk on the Wild Side.
Algren rose to prominence when he won the National Book Award in 1949 for The Man With The Golden Arm, which was later adapted into an Oscar-nominated film starring Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak. His book A Walk on The Wild Side inspired Lou Reed's hit. Despite his mainstream success and pop-culture bona fides, Algren's career was irreparably damaged by FBI and CIA surveillance during the Red Scare.
Kurt Vonnegut, Studs Terkel, Paul Buhle and others provide literary, social, and historic perspectives on a six-decade long career that produced five novels, two collections of short stories, countless articles and a public affair with Simone de Beauvoir. While his best work was produced over 50 years ago, Algren's prescient focus on disenchantment with consumer culture was prophetic, and remains relevant today.
"Compelling, exciting, enlightening." —Chicago Tribune
Up Next in Biography
-
The Woodmans
Directed by C. Scott Willis • Documentary • With Betty Woodman, Francesca Woodman, Charles Woodman George Woodman • 2010 • 83 minutes
The Woodmans are a family of well-known artists bonded in their belief of art-making as the highest form of expression. But for their daughter Francesca — one of ...
-
John Berger or The Art of Looking
Directed by Cordelia Dvorák • Documentary • 2016 • 55 minutes
Art, politics and motorcycles: on the occasion of his 90th birthday, JOHN BERGER OR THE ART OF LOOKING is an intimate portrait of the writer and art-critic whose groundbreaking insights on seeing have shaped us for already five decade...
-
American Socialist: Eugene Debs
Directed by Yale Strom • Documentary • With Eugene Victor Debs, Amy Madigan, Richard Wolff, Dr. Frances Fox Piven, Dr. Nick Salvatore • 2018 • 97 minutes
Bernie Sanders inspired a generation – but who inspired him? Yale Strom's new documentary traces the history of American populism by exploring...
