Cowboy Poets

Um Dia Eu Fui Zeus

On the edge of Compton, California- a place notorious for gang violence-a hidden band of inner-city cowboys has persevered since the 1800's. Fire on the Hill is the story of the Black Cowboys of Compton and South Central LA, and their fight to preserve their culture by resurrecting an inner city horse stable that was mysteriously burnt to the ground.

Hasan Hourani, a Palestinian poet and illustrator, died aged 29 in Jaffa while trying to rescue his nephew from the sea. Shortly after, the filmmaker Mais Darwazah discovers his drawings and poems and feels drawn to Hourani's world— a universe outside space and time; a place of wonder, discovery, and freedom. Motivated by this kinship, Darwazah embarks on a journey to her homeland, Palestine: a place she has never known.

In 1244, Jelaluddin Rumi, a Sufi scholar in Konya, Turkey, met an itinerant dervish, Shams of Tabriz. A powerful friendship ensued. When Shams died, the grieving Rumi gripped a pole in his garden, and turning round it, began reciting imagistic poetry about inner life and love of God. After Rumi's death, his son founded the Mevlevi Sufi order, the whirling dervishes. Lovers of Rumi's poems comment on their power and meaning, including religious historian Huston Smith, writer Simone Fattal, poet Robery Bly, and Coleman Barks, who reworks literal translations of Rumi into poetic English. Musicians accompany Barks and Bly as they recite their versions of several of Rumi's ecstatic poems.

Les équilibristes, a film by Nico Papatakis with Michel Piccoli, inspired by Jean Genet, was broadcast in two parts on October 11 and 18, 1991, on the Sept. It was on this occasion that Philippe Grandrieux directed this short film for the Seven antenna, consisting of an interview with Nico Papatakis and the reading of excerpts from Jean Genet's text, “The Tightrope walker”, read by the actress Ann-Gisel Glass.

Erwin Romulo, the late Alexis Tioseco’s best friend, recalls the events after the critic and his girlfriend Nika Bohinc’s untimely death in their home in Quezon City. Diaz makes use of one long take to allow Romulo an uninterrupted narration of the events. The pain of recalling is palpable.

Vivat Hollý

The story of Muhammad Iqbal, a turn of the century poet/philosopher from South Asia. Through Iqbal's work we open a dialog between the East and West, refute the notion of a class of civilizations and discover our shared humanity.

About Swedish artist, painter, sculptor and set designer Sven "X-et" Erixson, presented with Lars Johan Werle's music and accompanied by readings from various literature and poetry.

When Robert Lax was approached in the early 1980s about doing a video documentary on him, he had only one condition—that it be focused on his creative work and not a biography of his personal life. “Let’s keep it simple and about the work, with maybe some comments on it. No baby pictures PLEASE!” This documentary is an attempt at an introduction to the important works of poet Robert Lax.

Based on the idea that drugs have influenced some of our greatest minds (Poe, Baudelaire etc.), this film documents just how influential drug experiences have been on the minds of great writers, poets and thinkers.

This film is dedicated to Mas-Félipe Delavouët, the poet discovered by Lawrence Durrell, who wrote 14,000 verses in Provençal over a period of thirty years, and who died on November 18, 1990. "The sky, history and Mediterranean and Provençal myths are the inexhaustable wellspring of this man rooted down there, near Salon-de-Provence" (J.-D. Pollet). "Mas-Félipe Delavouët wrote five books in Provençal, 14,000 verses. A sort of "Odyssey". Of myths. What is stunning in him is that he always talks of disappearances. Cities, works, men, writings, television, etc., everything has to disappear. In order to be reborn. No pain. A sort of hand-to-hand of man and nature. During the filming, I would simply throw out some words... For example, one time I said "creation" and he said: "creation doesn't exist..., creation is before me..., I can only read creation"; this sentence describes Delavouët perfectly (J.-D. Pollet, 1989 and 1993).

Poetic stroll in the work of Jean Genet.

Poetry, literature, painting and old film clips converge in this lyrical, unusually designed film essay about Le Moulin, the Taiwanese poets’ collective which protested in the 1930s against the cultural superiority of the Japanese occupier and the domination of realism in poetry.

A feature length documentary film about four iconic characters who define the American West. Gary McMahan is a renowned cowboy singer and poet and champion yodeler. Brice Chapman is one of the world's most talented trick ropers and horse trainers. Yvonne Hollenbeck is a fourth generation rancher and award-winning poet and quilter. Jeff Nourse is a rancher, singer-songwriter and iron sculptor.

Isla Negra: Neruda y el mar

A child of the Beat Generation, Gérald Leblanc conjoined urban-ness and American-ness, wandering and belonging, far beyond the boundaries of taboo. In so doing, he helped propel Acadia into the modern era.

An exploration on Paz's poetry by Paz himself, his childhood, his ideas about love and the nature of art

Luna grande

RODEO ROAD explores the unique cowboy culture of Australia's remote north west in the pursuit of the rodeo dream - eight seconds of bull riding glory. Each year cowboys from across the Kimberley load up their saddles, chaps and wranglers and go rough-riding. Some are born and bred in the saddle, while others are young ringers from over east who come to muster through the dry season. Come rodeo time they are chasing the dream, gripped by the rodeo fever of the wild north west.