Final Film Screenings of the Quarter: March 3rd and 10th

Many thanks to all of you that have come out for our film screenings so far this quarter — I hope they've been both entertaining and enlightening.  We have two final screenings scheduled for the end of the quarter and I hope you'll be able to make it to one or both.  I'll create events for each on Facebook; please RSVP if you plan on attending, and don't forget that you're welcome to bring both food and friends (I'll bring some snacks as I've done for the past few screenings).

First, we'll meet at 5:00 PM on Thursday, March 3rd in our usual room (McMicken 46) to watch Gustave Reininger's marvelous documentary, Corso: the Last Beat (2009), which gives us our most contemporary look at the Beats' legacy, starting in the aftermath of the deaths of both Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs in 1997, leaving Corso alone as the final living member of the Beat Generation's original quartet.  As I've mentioned before, this film is not only a heartrendingly emotional portrait of the poet, but also an incredibly rare treat, as the film is not commercially available and it's only through the generosity of  the director/producer Reininger that we're able to watch it.  Here's the film's trailer to whet your appetite:

Then we'll reconvene at 5:00 PM on the following Thursday, March 10th to watch Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman's 2010 feature film, Howl (starring James Franco, John Hamm, Mary Louise Parker, David Strathairn and Jeff Daniels), which dramatizes both the inspiration and composition of Allen Ginsberg's most famous poem, "Howl," as well as its much-publicized obscenity trial.  After ten weeks of experiencing the Beats factually through their own writings and a variety of documentaries, it will be a strange and interesting experience to get to see their lives and works turned into a work of fiction (albeit very factual fiction).  Likewise, as Joyce Johnson's Minor Characters (our reading for the final week of class) will remind us, when real life becomes history certain people are included while others are left out, and this will be a key idea to bear in mind while watching Howl.  Here's that film's trailer: