The Poets
"Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought.”—Audre Lorde
Poetry can be a groundswell for bold ideas. This curated collection will expose you to work ranging from Marlon Rigg’s “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (No Regret),” which illuminates the difficult journey of living with AIDS through music, poetry, and self-disclosure, to Heddy Honigmann’s “O Amor Natural” on the erotic poetry of the late Carlos Drummond de Andrade, a household name in Brazil, and Terence Davies’s “A Quiet Passion” starring Cynthia Nixon in a triumphant performance as Emily Dickinson.
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I am Secretly an Important Man
Directed by Peter Sillen • Documentary • With Jesse Bernstein • 2012 • 89 minutes
'I Am Secretly an Important Man' is a portrait of writer and poet Steven J. Bernstein (aka Jesse Bernstein), one of Seattle's most celebrated and troubled voices. His angry, surprisingly fresh and lyrical writings ...
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Ruth Stone's Vast Library of the Female Mind
Directed by Nora Jacobson • Documentary • 2022 • 77 minutes
After tragedy strikes, acclaimed poet Ruth Stone retreated to the margins of the literary world, working tirelessly to provide for her children, and transforming her intense grief into poetry, using simple, startling language.
Using a ...
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Night Mail
Directed by Harry Watt & Basil Charles Wright • Documentary • 1936 • 23 minutes
A cornerstone of British documentary, Harry Watt and Basil Wright's NIGHT MAIL, with music by Benjamin Britten and verse by W.H. Auden, stands as a beacon for John Grierson's original purpose for documentary - to mak...
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Penelope
Directed by Brad Lichtenstein • Documentary • 2013 • 53 minutes
What happens when a nursing home decides to throw out the bingo boards and take on the Odyssey instead? Amazing things — that’s what.
Penelope follows the story of residents of a midwestern care facility, some with severe dementia,...
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Draw Me Saint-Exupery
Directed by Andrès Jarach • Documentary • 2017 • 52 minutes
On the 31st of July 1944, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry disappeared over the Mediterranean Sea. With this mystery, a myth was born.
Who was the man whose book The Little Prince was translated into more than 250 languages and dialects? Draw ...
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Murder in the Cathedral
Directed by George Hoellering • Drama • With Leo McKern, T.S. Eliot • 1952 • 114 minutes
George Hoellering’s powerful adaptation of T.S. Eliot's classic verse drama is a stark and highly atypical example of British historical cinema. Little-seen despite winning a top prize at the Venice Film Fes...
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Nelson Algren: The End is Nothing, The Road is All
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 ...
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Marguerite as She Was
Directed by Dominique Auvray • Documentary • With Marguerite Duras, Jeanne Balibar • 2003 • 61 minutes
Marguerite Duras (1914-1996) - best-known as the author of The Lover and for the screenplay for Hiroshima, Mon Amour (the classic 1960 New Wave film directed by Alain Resnais) - was one of the ...
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Queer Genius
Directed by Chet Pancake • Documentary • 2019 • 115 minutes
Queer Genius explores the remarkable lives and work of five queer female artists: Barbara Hammer, Eileen Myles, Black Quantum Futurism, Moor Mother, and Dynasty Handbag / Jibz Cameron. Deep, affectionate and intimate portraits resonate ...
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El Poeta
Directed by Katie Galloway, Kelly Duane de la Vega • Documentary • 2016 • 55 minutes
EL POETA tells the story of renowned Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, who ignited mass protests and an ongoing movement for peace after the brutal murder of his 24-year-old son Juan Francisco—collateral damage in a ...
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Blue Black Permanent
Directed by Margaret Tait • Drama • With Celia Imrie, Jack Shepherd, Gerda Stevenson, James Fleet • 1992 • 84 minutes
Margaret Tait's tale of three generations of women in a Scottish family swirls out through a series of interlinking stories and recollections, taking place in Edinburgh and the O...
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In Motion: Amiri Baraka
Directed by St. Clair Bourne • Documentary • 1983 • 60 minutes
IN MOTION: AMIRI BARAKA profiles the outspoken representative - formerly LeRoi Jones - of the Black consciousness movement who has been a major figure on the American literary and political landscape for three decades. Set in Newark,...
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Algren
Directed by Michael Caplan • Documentary • 2021 • 85 minutes
The new feature documentary ALGREN is a journey through the gritty world, brilliant mind, and noble heart of Nelson Algren. Exploding onto the national scene in 1950 after winning the first-ever National Book Award for The Man with the...
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Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien
Directed by Marlon Riggs • Documentary • 1992 • 38 minutes
Through music, poetry and quiet, at times, chilling self-disclosure, five positive black gay men speak of their individual confrontation with AIDS, illuminating the difficult journey black men throughout America have made in coping with ...
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O Amor Natural
Directed by Heddy Honigmann • Documentary • 2007 • 76 minutes
O AMOR NATURAL is a documentary film about the erotic poetry of one of the greatest Latin American poets of the 20th century, the Brazilian Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987).
The erotic poems of Carlos Drummond de Andrade, a hou...
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The Poets
Directed by Chivas DeVinck • Documentary • 2018 • 99 minutes
Syl Cheney-Coker (author of The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize) and Niyi Osundare (recipient of the Nigerian National Merit Award, Nigeria’s highest recognition for distinguished academic an...
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A Quiet Passion
Directed by Terence Davies • Drama • With Cynthia Nixon, Jennifer Ehle • 2017 • 126 minutes
Cynthia Nixon delivers a triumphant performance as Emily Dickinson as she personifies the wit, intellectual independence and pathos of the poet whose genius only came to be recognized after her death. Acc...
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Roque Dalton
Directed by Tina Leisch • Documentary • 2013 • 85 minutes
It was once illegal to read books by Roque Dalton, one of El Salvador's most celebrated poets, in his own country. A descendant of legendary outlaws the Dalton Gang, he devoted his life to the cause of socialist revolution in Latin Americ...
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Yiddish
Directed by Nurith Aviv • Documentary • 2020 • 61 minutes
In Nurith Aviv’s unexpected, original documentary, seven young interviewees share their love for Yiddish avant-garde poetry written between the World Wars. An expressive hybrid “jargon” with roots in Hebrew, German and Slavic languages, Y...
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Zone of Silence
Directed by Karel Ducasse • Documentary • 2007 • 40 minutes
Zone of Silence brings together the voices of five Cuban creators - poet Pedro Juan Guttierez, film director Fernando Perez, musician Frank Delgado, film critic and professor Gustavo Arco, and poet and playwright Anton Arrufat - in a wi...