'Ferlinghetti' explores the remarkable life of the poet-painter-activist
The poet-painter-activist Lawrence Ferlinghetti is the subject of a wide-ranging knockabout jamboree of a documentary about his life, appropriately titled 鈥淔erlinghetti.鈥� Director Christopher Felver has brought to rousing life through the use of archival clips and interviews the 鈥淢ayor of North Beach,鈥� the founder of San Francisco鈥檚 legendary City Lights bookstore and publishing house, and the author of the iconic, mega-bestselling 1958 poetry collection 鈥淎 Coney Island of the Mind.鈥�
Still going strong in his 90s, Ferlinghetti has lived a life that encompasses, along with so much else, the history of the Beats and the lives of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg (whose poem 鈥淗owl鈥� he famously and successfully defended against charges of obscenity). Ferlinghetti鈥檚 home-brewed brand of anarchism is weirdly as American as apple pie. Even if you regard him now as a superannuated hippie, his contribution to the culture of American letters is undeniable, and City Lights 鈥� the store and the imprint 鈥� could well be the closest thing to a literary shrine that we possess. Grade: B+ (Unrated.)
