Directed by Daniel O'Connor, Neil Ortenberg • Documentary • With Barney Rosset, Amiri Baraka, Lawrence Ferlinghetti • 2007 • 97 minutes
OBSCENE is the definitive film biography of Barney Rosset, the influential publisher of Grove Press and the Evergreen Review. He acquired the then fledgling Grove Press in 1951 and soon embarked on a tumultuous career of publishing and political engagement that continues to inspire today's defenders of free expression. Not only was he the first American publisher of acclaimed authors Samuel Beckett, Kenzaburo Oe, Tom Stoppard, Che Guevara, and Malcolm X, but he also battled the government in the highest courts to overrule the obscenity ban on groundbreaking works of fiction such as Lady Chatterley's Lover, Tropic of Cancer and Naked Lunch.
The same unyielding and reckless energy Rosset used to publish and distribute controversial works, also brought him perilously close to destruction. He endured lawsuits, death-threats, grenade attacks, government surveillance, and the occupation of his premises by enraged feminists. Ultimately he altered the course of history. Features music by Bob Dylan, The Doors, Warren Zevon, and Patti Smith.
Up Next in Crime & Punishment
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Stealing Rodin
Directed by Cristóbal Valenzuela Berríos • Documentary • 2017 • 80 minutes
In the style of Exit Through the Gift Shop, Stealing Rodin is a critical and humorous statement about Art and the market around it. The documentary traces the story of Luis Onfray’s artistic and criminal act. In 2005, the...
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Tribal Justice
Directed by Anne Makepeace • Documentary • 2017 • 87 minutes
TRIBAL JUSTICE is a feature documentary about a little known, underreported but effective criminal justice reform movement in America today: the efforts of tribal courts to create alternative justice systems based on their traditions. ...
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Three Monkeys (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan • Drama • With Yavuz Bingöl, Hatice Aslan • 2008 • 106 minutes
Winner of the Best Director prize at Cannes, Three Monkeys is a moving, visually unforgettable triumph from the Turkish master Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, Thear Tree)
An ambitious p...
