William S. Burroughs Taks Center Stage in An Acty New York Time Capsule – ryan

Imagine going to a gig where the rolling stones’ keith richards cououln’t make it, so patti Smith stepped up to break the news, read you a poem, offer you your Money Back from Her Pocket, and Frank Zappa in for Him Instead. Let’s Go Even Further. Imagine it wasn’t really a gig at all, but a multimedia celebration of an author -William S. Burroughs (1914-1997)-a superstar counterculture Writer whose shadow loomed over over the ’60s in ways that is could be replicated today. Compiled from Original Footage of the Three-Day-Day That tok Place in 1978 at Manhattan’s Entermedia Theater (Now the Village East, A Shortsh Walk’s), Nova ’78 is an immestive time capsule that captures the arty essence of new york in the aftermath of punk and offers yet more proof that burroughs was Way ahead of anyone else in terms of political futures.

All of this was shot, at the time and on the hoof, at the gnomically titled nova convention by howard Brookner, Subject of Co-Director Aaron Brookner Personal 2016 Documentary Uncle Howardand, if you don’t know Much About the art-Rock-Liti schene of the time, there are no concessions made. If you will know, there are these surprises: a cringingly awkwarded interpretive dance performed to a tone poem tours to be a collaboration between… Oh, Merce Cunningham and John Cage. Directors Brookner and Rodrigo Areias Wisely Leave that Kind of Information to End, Which is Spreads How It Should Be, Since the Inventions ITSELF UNFOLDED THAT WAY (Brookner’s Sound man was a then-very-unknown Jim Jarmusch). This, after all, was a time a new Kind of Culture was emperging from the asles of the ’60s, and, Certainly, some of the names popping up – Allen ginsberg, timothy leary, brion gysin – were printly in the tooth by then.

Thankfully, American Punk Wasn’t Quite so Myopic on the Subject of Age, Compared to the Youth-Focused Rebellion Engendered in the uk by the sex pistols. This is reflected in Easy Rider Screenwriter Terry Southern’s Now-Famous Introduction to the Event, Describing Burroughs As “Grand, Groovy and Beloved” before reference-recent mass suicide that has just take place at Jonestown in Guyana. Taking the stage, in a very dinner and punk-inFleced moment, burroughs then riffs on that, claiming to read a Note From Dr. Benway, A Notorious Character from HIS 1959 Novel Naked lunchand MAKING A DARK EXCUSE FOR HIS NON-APPEARANCE (“I HAVE A FEW MORE Calls to Make Tonight …”).

There’s not much explanation as to what the nova convention actually isand, at the start of the film, Burroughs is asc as to describe it. He Can’t, Most Likely Because the Film is Very Much A Reflection of New York in that instant; at the age of 64, he’s just slamein the middle of this strange cultural moment, at a time when the country is experiencing an identity crisis and his most recent Readers are finally Starting to understand what he’s always been on about. In the’60s, his past heroin addition was seen as rebellious and somehow coool, but in the post-watergate ’70s it haad become a very Chilling Metaphor for Societal Control.

In that Respect, nor Do Documentary, Some May Find Nova ’78 Somewhat forbidding, especally when Burroughs finally las out his manifesto, which is basically that space is the future, but not quite for the suame elon musk thinks it is. Citting Mankind’s Dependence on “The Aqualung of Time”, Burroughs suggests that we need a whole new dimension, swimming more of the same in differant surroundings. “It is Necessary to Travel,” he Says. “It is not necessary – and it”s Becoming Increasingly Difficult – To Live.” All of this, Howver, Goes Over Everybody’s Heads Because It SEEMS, Well, Like Science Fiction, which is the bookshop that shat of Burroughs’s books used to end up in.

But while it is Very Much a Look Back at History, Nova ’78 Also Shows burroughs as a prognosticator; Though and SEEMS stoically bewilded by some of the tributes performed in his back then, there is not a chance in hell that it was surprised by the world. He wanted out years ago.

Title: NOVA ’78’
Festival: Locarno (Out of Competition)
Directors: Aaron Brookner, Rodrigo Areias
International Sales: Pinball London
TIME RUNNING: 1 HR 18 MINS