Description
Made up of intimate, revelatory footage of the singular author and poet filmed over the course of five years, Howard Brookner’s 1983 documentary about William S. Burroughs was for decades mainly the stuff of legend; that changed when Aaron Brookner, the late director’s nephew, discovered a print of it in 2011 and spearheaded a restoration. Now viewers can enjoy the invigorating candidness of Burroughs: The Movie, a one-of-a-kind nonfiction portrait that was brought to life with the help of a remarkable crew of friends, including Jim Jarmusch and Tom DiCillo, and that features on-screen appearances by fellow artists of Burroughs’s including Allen Ginsberg, Herbert Huncke, Patti Smith, and Terry Southern.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- New, high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New audio commentary by filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, who was a sound recordist on the film
- Audio interview with director Howard Brookner from 1985, conducted by William S. Burroughs biographer Ted Morgan
- New interview with Brookner’s nephew, filmmaker Aaron Brookner, who oversaw the film’s restoration
- Rare outtakes
- Footage from the 2014 New York Film Festival premiere of the film’s restoration, featuring a Q&A with Jarmusch, Aaron Brookner, filmmaker Tom DiCillo, and Burroughs’s friend and fellow writer James Grauerholz
- Thirty-minute experimental edit of the film from 1981 by inventor and photographer Robert E. Fulton III
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Lucy Sante and collage artwork by artist Alison Mosshart
Cover photograph by Kate Simon
Criterion Collection:
Since 1984, the Criterion Collection has been dedicated to publishing important classic and contemporary films from around the world in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements. No matter the medium—from laserdisc to DVD and Blu-ray to streaming—Criterion has maintained its pioneering commitment to presenting each film as its maker would want it seen, in state-of-the-art restorations with special features designed to encourage repeated watching and deepen the viewer’s appreciation of the art of film.
