Directed by Billy Woodberry • 2015 • United States
Legendary Beat visionary Bob Kaufman considered poetry a key to human survival, an idea made all the more legitimate by the longevity it is granted: the things he saw, heard, tasted, felt, and, most of all, thought were preserved in his work. Embodying the spirit of those efforts, director Billy Woodberry’s first feature since his 1983 LA Rebellion landmark BLESS THEIR LITTLE HEARTS is perhaps the closest we can come to knowing the man and his time. Both dense and nimble in its assemblage of archival footage and photos, interviews with contemporaries, and readings from the likes of Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, AND WHEN I DIE looks back at a familiar era with new eyes, thanks in no small part to the honest assessment provided by many figures of New York’s Beat generation some half-century removed.
Up Next in Season 1
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Mário
Directed by Billy Woodberry • 2024 • France, Portugal
Director Billy Woodberry examines the life and legacy of Mário Pinto de Andrade, a Pan-African thinker, activist, and founder of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) whose work was critical to the African liberation movem...
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The Pocketbook
Directed by Billy Woodberry • 1980 • United States
Starring Ray Cherry, David Jenkins, Ella “Simi” NelsonAdapted from Langston Hughes’s classic short story “Thank You, Ma’am,” Billy Woodberry’s UCLA student film follows a young man reflecting on his life after a robbery gone wrong.
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Marseille après la guerre
Directed by Billy Woodberry • 2005 • United States
Through striking black-and-white photos, director Billy Woodberry creates a poetic portrait of the dockworkers who struggled together in Marseille after World War II and reflects on the political awakening of one of them—future “father of Africa...
