Director: Howard Brookner
Running Time: 90 mins
Certificate: 15
Release Date: July 11th 2016 (UK)
Virtually lost for many years except for bad quality bootleg copies, this ‘definitive’ portrait of writer William S. Burroughs has been properly restored and given a very nice Criterion Collection release. As notable as the film itself is the talent behind the camera – something even more remarkable as it started as a short NYU Film School project.
Jim Jarmusch (Dead Man, Only Lovers Left Alive) recorded the sound, while it was shot by Tom DiCillo (Johnny Suede, Delirious). The director was Howard Brookner, who made Burroughs and another biographical documentary, Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars, and then made his fiction film debut with Bloodhounds of Broadway, before tragically dying of AIDS in 1989. If he hadn’t passed away, it’s likely he’d have gone on to great things. [Read more…]