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Burroughs

Intro by Nile Southern

Burroughs

By respectfully minding the gap between Naked Lunch author William S. Burroughs's experimental fiction and his real-life passions and traumas, biographical documentary Burroughs -- shot in 1983 with its subject's participation -- paints the artist as an elusive persona.

Director Howard Brookner defines Burroughs's fiction by its autobiographical elements and elliptical prose style, and establishes Burroughs's slippery character through his interview subjects' impressionistic, off-the-cuff commentary. Fragmentary asides, like the scene where journalist Lucien Carr regales poet Allen Ginsberg with his impression of Burroughs as a womanizing college student — " 'There's a thunder in my chest,' he'd say, and all the women fell to the floor" — are given as much weight as sequences where Burroughs tentatively explains the philosophy behind his Dada-esque "cut-up" style.

Likewise, the major players and events in Burroughs's life are not introduced or situated within a linear biographical narrative. In one scene, Burroughs matter-of-factly explains that he developed an interest in opium because he'd heard it gave users "strange dreams." Soon after that, Burroughs and Ginsberg hazily speculate on the circumstances that led Burroughs to accidentally shoot his wife Joan Vollmer in a game of William Tell. Ginsberg speculates that it was an assisted suicide, while Burroughs grumbles unintelligibly about a "malevolent spirit" that haunted him.

Burroughs's free-associative style allows viewers to enjoy tantalizing interview footage — like the scenes where Burroughs rambles about Wittgenstein's conception of human existence as a "pre-recording" — without necessarily understanding what he's saying. Come for the bawdy anecdotes, stay for the defiantly soundbite-proof rambling.

— Simon Abrams, Village Voice

Burroughs

Tue March 31, 2015, 7:30 only, Muenzinger Auditorium

USA, 2010, English, Color, 78min, DP, NR

recommend

Tickets

10 films for $60 with punch card
$9 general admission. $7 w/UCB student ID, $7 for senior citizens
$1 discount to anyone with a bike helmet
Free on your birthday! CU Cinema Studies students get in free.

Parking

Pay lot 360 (now only $1/hour!), across from the buffalo statue and next to the Duane Physics tower, is closest to Muenzinger. Free parking can be found after 5pm at the meters along Colorado Ave east of Folsom stadium and along University Ave west of Macky.

RTD Bus

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Established 1941 by James Sandoe.

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(Originally called The Experimental Cinema Group)
Established 1955 by Carla Selby, Gladney Oakley, Bruce Conner and Stan Brakhage.

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(AKA The Rocky Mountain Film Center)
First offered degrees in filmmaking and critical studies in 1989 under the guidance of Virgil Grillo.

Celebrating Stan

Created by Suranjan Ganguly in 2003.

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Established 2017 by Chair Ernesto Acevedo-Muñoz.

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