Lawrence Ferlinghetti is among the major literary figures of the second half of the 20th Century. He is a poet, painter and the co-founder of the City Lights Bookstore and publishing house, which published early literary works of the Beat Generation, including Jack Kerouac, Kenneth Rexroth and Allen Ginsberg. Author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, and film narration, he is best known for A Coney Island of the Mind, a collection of poems that has been translated into nine languages, with sales over 1,000,000 copies. Often concerned with politics and social issues, Ferlinghetti’s poetry countered the literary elite’s definition of art and the artist’s role in the world. Ferlinghetti’s paintings have been shown at various galleries around the world, from the Butler Museum of American Art to the Palace of Exhibitions in Rome.
We filmed Lawrence’s interviews at American Zoetrope studios in San Francisco and at his cabin in Bixby Canyon. The cabin was the nexus of Jack Kerouac’s Big Sur experience and, thanks to Lawrence’s graciousness, it became ‘home’ to the production of One Fast Move…as well.
