And When I Die, I Won't Stay Dead

 

 

foto

Billy Woodberry

USA / Portugal 2015

89 min – HD – Englisch

Deutsche Premiere

B: Billy Woodberry – K: Pierre Desir S: Amir Manesh, Luis Nunes
T: Nuno Henrique – P: Billy
Woodberry, Rui Alexandre Santos
V: Rosa Filmes

         


 

 

With detailed, personal anecdotes, rare archive material and poems that appeal to the imagination, Woodberry creates a complex portrait of Kaufman, a Beat Poet like Ginsberg, but also a black street poet. His is the story of a developing American counterculture: of jazz, folk and institutionalised racism.

The legacy of Kaufman’s poetry provides the dominant note in the film I ultimately made. But given my strong commitment to struggles for political justice, my film also weaves his artistic triumph as a triumph of radical politics surviving and inspiring against all odds. It is only justice to the facts of Bob Kaufman’s life and times that this film must attempt to recall and chronicle the countless odds he faced to find his voice and project his vision. – Billy Woodberry

saturday 8 oct 8.30 p.m. werkstattkino

Billy Woodberry  Born in Dallas, Texas, Billy Woodberry is an independent filmmaker who has taught at the School of Film/Video and the School of Art at the California Institute of the Arts since 1989. His feature film Bless Their Little Hearts (1984) is an essential work of Los Angeles cinema, informed by Woodberry’s familiarity with Italian neo-realism and the work of filmmakers in Cuba, Brazil, India and Africa. His work has screened at the Camera Austria Symposium, Harvard Film Archive, Human Rights Watch Film Festival and Museum of Modern Art.

Films The Pocketbook 1980 – Bless Their Little Hearts 1984 – Spirits of Rebellion 2011 – And When I Die, I Won’t Stay Dead 2015