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First Run Features Announces Theatrical Premiere of
Opening at New York's Cinema Village on March 30, 2012
 1957. The Latin Quarter, Paris. A cheap no-name hotel at 9 rue Git le Coeur became a haven for a new breed of artists fleeing the conformity and censorship of America. The hotel soon turned into an epicenter of Beat writing that produced some of the most important works of the Beat generation. It came to be known as the Beat Hotel. Opening March 30 in New York City, to be followed by a rollout to other cities across the country, Alan Govenar's feature documentary THE BEAT HOTEL explores this amazing place and time.
Fleeing the obscenity trials surrounding the publication of his seminal poem Howl, Allen Ginsberg, along with Peter Orlovskyand Gregory Corso, happened upon the hotel on rue Git le Coeur and were soon joined by William Burroughs, Ian Somerville, and Brion Gysin. Run by the indefatigable Madame Rachou, the Beat Hotel was a hotbed of creativity and permissiveness, where Burroughs and Gysin developed the cut-up writing method; Burroughs finished his controversial book Naked Lunch; Ginsberg began his poem Kaddish; Somerville and Gysin invented the Dream Machine; Corso wrote some of his greatest poems; and Harold Norse, in his own cut-up experiments, wrote a novella, aptly called The Beat Hotel.
British photographer Harold Chapman's iconic photos and Scottish artist Elliot Rudie's animated drawings capturing Ginsberg, Orlovsky, Corso, Burroughs, Gysin, Somerville and Norse just as they were beginning to establish themselves on the international scene bring THE BEAT HOTEL to life on the screen. The memories of Chapman and Rudie interweave with the first-hand accounts of French artist Jean-Jacques Lebel, British book dealer Cyclops Lester, and 95 year old George Whitman. Together with the insights of authors Barry Miles, Oliver Harris, Regina Weinreich, and Eddie Woods, among others, they evoke a time and place where Chapman, mentored by Cartier-Bresson, roamed around Paris photographing nuns, bums, and the idiosyncrasies of street life; Corso took scissors to Marcel Duchamp's tie in a Dadaist statement while Ginsberg kissed his knees; and Burroughs, with the help of Somerville's lighting, learned to disappear before an audience's eyes.
Director Alan Govenar is a writer, folklorist, photographer, and filmmaker. He is president of Documentary Arts and has a Ph.D. in Arts and Humanities from the University of Texas at Dallas. He is the author of 23 books, including Osceola: Memories of a Sharecropper's Daughter, which won first place in the New York Book Festival (Children's Non-Fiction), among other prizes. The off-Broadway premiere of his musical "Blind Lemon Blues," co-created with Akin Babatunde, received rave reviews in The New York Times and Variety. Govenar's film Stoney Knows How, based on his book by the same title about Old School tattoo artist Leonard St. Clair, was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and was selected as an Outstanding Film of the Year by the London Film Festival. Govenar also has produced and directed numerous films in association with NOVA, La Sept/ARTE, and PBS for broadcast and educational distribution, including The Voyage of Doom, Le Naufrage de la Belle, The Devil's Swing, Texas Style, Everything But the Squeak, The Human Volcano, The Hard Ride, Dreams of Conquest, and Little Willie Eason and His Talking Gospel Guitar.
THE BEAT HOTEL
82 minutes, 16:9, digital, stereo, English, Documentary
Producer: Documentary Arts
Director: Alan Govenar
Editor: Alan Hatchett
Cinematography: Didier Dorant & Bob Tullier
Original Music: Daniel M. Cavanagh & Daniel Cicourel Hanley
Location Sound: Alan Govenar & Pierre Aziza
Drawings: Elliot Rudie
Animations: Alan Hatchett & Blas Garcia
New York Press Screening
Wednesday, March 14th at 11 a.m.
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. (b/t University Pl. & 5th Ave.)
RSVP by Friday, March 9th to: kelly.hargraves@firstrunfeatures.com
Screeners also available |
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