William S. Burroughs

William S. Burroughs

William Seward Burroughs II (February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular culture and literature. Burroughs wrote eighteen novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays, and five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences; he was initially briefly known by the pen name William Lee. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, made many appearances in films, and created and exhibited thousands of visual artworks, including his celebrated "Shotgun Art". Description above from the Wikipedia article William S. Burroughs, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

  • Title: William S. Burroughs
  • Popularity: 3.71
  • Known For: Writing
  • Birthday: 1914-02-05
  • Place of Birth: St. Louis, Missouri, USA
  • Homepage:
  • Also Known As:
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William S. Burroughs Movies

  • 1966
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    Chappaqua

    Chappaqua

    6.9 1966 HD

    Semi-autobiographical story of Conrad Rooks, who travels to France to undergo a drug-withdrawal cure. Flashbacks to the beginings of psychedelia in...

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  • 2009
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    FLicKeR

    FLicKeR

    6.8 2009 HD

    In 1960, Brion Gysin invented the Dream Machine, a hypnotic light device with the power to induce hallucinations, drugless highs, and revolutionize...

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  • 2010
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    William S. Burroughs: A Man Within

    William S. Burroughs: A Man Within

    6.6 2010 HD

    A riveting and emotional journey into the world of writer William S. Burroughs, a man considered as cold as an iceberg on a winter night.

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  • 2018
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    Take Your Pills

    Take Your Pills

    6.567 2018 HD

    In a hypercompetitive world, drugs like Adderall offer students, athletes, coders and others a way to do more -- faster and better. But at what cost?

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  • 1994
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    Relics: Einstein's Brain

    Relics: Einstein's Brain

    6.7 1994 HD

    Documentary about Kenji Sugimoto, professor in Math and Science history at Kinki university in Japan. He has spent the last 30 years publishing works...

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  • 1989
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    Bloodhounds of Broadway

    Bloodhounds of Broadway

    5.7 1989 HD

    This musical is based on four short stories by Damon Runyon. In one tale, gambler Feet Samuels sells his body to science just as he realizes that...

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  • 1991
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    Wax, or The Discovery of Television Among the Bees

    Wax, or The Discovery of Television Among the Bees

    6.7 1991 HD

    Computer programmer/beekeeper Jacob gets a "television" implanted in his brain by a race of telekinetic bees, which causes him to experience severe...

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  • 1999
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    Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles

    Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles

    1 1999 HD

    One of the most enigmatic artists of the 20th century, writer, composer and wanderer Paul Bowles (1910-1999) is profiled by a filmmaker who has been...

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  • 1984
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    The Final Academy Documents

    The Final Academy Documents

    8 1984 HD

    Documentation of the showcase titled 'The Final Academy', filmed on October 4, 1982 in The Haçienda, Manchester. Video 1 features the movies...

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  • 1984
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    Decoder

    Decoder

    6.2 1984 HD

    F.M. discovers that different sonic frequencies induce different patterns of behaviour in listeners, first in his own studio but later in the local...

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  • 1994
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    September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill

    September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill

    1 1994 HD

    Filmmaker Larry Weinstein stages a wide range of performances in tribute to the compositions of Kurt Weill.

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  • 1989
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    Twister

    Twister

    5.5 1989 HD

    An oddball family on a Kansas farm are trapped in their farmhouse by an impending storm. The patriarch of the clan is a retired soda pop tycoon. He...

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  • 2008
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    Obscene

    Obscene

    5 2008 HD

    A look at the life and work of American publisher Barney Rosset, who struggled to bring controversial works like "Tropic of Cancer" and "Naked Lunch"...

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  • 1963
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    William Buys a Parrot

    William Buys a Parrot

    6.1 1963 HD

    A bizarre silent short film showing author William S. Burroughs negotiating to buy a parrot.

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  • 1993
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    The Junky's Christmas

    The Junky's Christmas

    6.9 1993 HD

    Burroughs takes down a book and reads us the story of Danny the Carwiper, who spends Christmas Day trying to score a fix, but finds the Christmas...

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  • 1986
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    Ornette: Made in America

    Ornette: Made in America

    6.3 1986 HD

    Shirley Clarke's frenetic documentary about multi-talented musician Ornette Coleman.

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  • 1994
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    Glitterbug

    Glitterbug

    6.3 1994 HD

    A collage of Derek Jarman's super 8 footage spanning over 20 years.

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  • 2000
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    Condo Painting

    Condo Painting

    1 2000 HD

    John McNaughton's spotlight on George Condo and his art. The film, which follows the progress of Condo's large-scale oil painting Big Red over the...

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  • 1972
    imgMovies

    Bill and Tony

    Bill and Tony

    5.9 1972 HD

    Experimental film by William S. Burroughs and Antony Balch

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  • 1963
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    Towers Open Fire

    Towers Open Fire

    6.7 1963 HD

    Antony Balch tackles key themes and ideas from the writing of William S. Burroughs in a unique, cinematic style.

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  • 1966
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    The Cut-Ups

    The Cut-Ups

    6.8 1966 HD

    Essentially a dizzying montage of quirky shots of legendary Beat Generation writer William S. Burroughs and noted surrealist artist Brion Gysin, this...

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  • 1982
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    Ghost at No. 9

    Ghost at No. 9

    8 1982 HD

    Experimental artistic film which uses the milieu of experimental art with a background of various kinds of sounds and music. (worldcat.org)...

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  • 1986
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    Home of the Brave

    Home of the Brave

    8.1 1986 HD

    A concert film directed by and featuring the music of Laurie Anderson, filmed at the Park Theater in Union City, New Jersey, during the summer of...

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  • 1999
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    The Source

    The Source

    5.1 1999 HD

    Traces the Beats from Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac's meeting in 1944 at Columbia University to the deaths of Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs in...

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  • 1991
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    William S. Burroughs: Commissioner of Sewers

    William S. Burroughs: Commissioner of Sewers

    6.8 1991 HD

    An hour-long interview with author William S. Burroughs in which he expounds on American culture, art and morals.

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  • 1991
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    Thanksgiving Prayer

    Thanksgiving Prayer

    6.4 1991 HD

    An indictment ballad of all the different political groups in America.

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  • 1998
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    Destroy All Rational Thought

    Destroy All Rational Thought

    6.3 1998 HD

    The great Beat Generation experiments took place in Tangier, the Moroccan city where William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and the Moroccan painter Hamri...

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  • 2013
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    Coda I

    Coda I

    1 2013 HD

    Peter Gidal’s starting point for his 16mm film was a soundtrack that consists of three lines from a 1,000 word story written by Gidal in 1971,...

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  • 2013
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    Coda I + Coda II

    Coda I + Coda II

    1 2013 HD

    Peter Gidal’s starting point for his 16mm film was a soundtrack that consists of three lines from a 1,000 word story written by Gidal in 1971,...

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  • 1992
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    Naked Making Lunch

    Naked Making Lunch

    7.1 1992 HD

    A 1992 documentary about the making of Naked Lunch.

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  • 1981
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    Shamans of the Blind Country

    Shamans of the Blind Country

    7 1981 HD

    A documentary epic on magical healing in the Himalayas.

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  • 1979
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    Fried Shoes Cooked Diamonds

    Fried Shoes Cooked Diamonds

    6.5 1979 HD

    After World War II a group of young writers, outsiders and friends who were disillusioned by the pursuit of the American dream met in New York City....

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  • 2012
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    For No Good Reason

    For No Good Reason

    7 2012 HD

    For No Good Reason a film about Ralph Steadman. Johnny Depp guides the visually stunning journey, smashing narrative conventions, moving seamlessly...

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  • 2006
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    Wanderlust

    Wanderlust

    5 2006 HD

    A look at the mystique of road movies, combining interviews, film clips, music, photography, literature and a narrative storyline featuring Paul Rudd...

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  • 2011
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    Fix: The Ministry Movie

    Fix: The Ministry Movie

    7 2011 HD

    Provides an insider's view of the groundbreaking, outrageous, creative juggernaut that was the band Ministry - during their world tour - as front man...

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  • 1994
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    Ah Pook Is Here.

    Ah Pook Is Here.

    5.9 1994 HD

    A disturbingly organic-looking figure speaks to us of life, politics and death as the symbol of the common man toils away. Written and narrated by...

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  • 2012
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    The Beat Hotel

    The Beat Hotel

    4.5 2012 HD

    The Beat Hotel, a new film by Alan Govenar, goes deep into the legacy of the American Beats in Paris during the heady years between 1957 and 1963,...

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  • 2022
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    Robert Wilson: The Beauty of the Mysterious

    Robert Wilson: The Beauty of the Mysterious

    1 2022 HD

    We look back at more than half a century of mysterious artistic creation while trying to crack a unique artistic code. Why are people moved to tears...

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  • 1976
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    Underground and Emigrants

    Underground and Emigrants

    1 1976 HD

    In this film, outspokenly homosexual filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim has documented his encounters with friends in the New York "underground" arts...

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  • 2006
    imgMovies

    Pantelia

    Pantelia

    1 2006 HD

    An abstract exploration of the number 10.

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  • 1984
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    Burroughs: The Movie

    Burroughs: The Movie

    7.2 1984 HD

    An exploration of Burroughs’ life story, as told by Burroughs himself along with many of his contemporaries, including Allen Ginsberg, Brion...

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  • 1981
    imgMovies

    Chelsea Hotel

    Chelsea Hotel

    8 1981 HD

    This TV documentary shows some of the colourful residents of and people connected with the New York Chelsea Hotel. Some highlights include Andy...

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  • 1983
    imgMovies

    Pirate Tape

    Pirate Tape

    6.9 1983 HD

    Derek Jarman's film portrait of American writer William S. Burroughs was shot in September 1982 during his first visit to England to attend the...

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  • 1981
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    Energy and How to Get It

    Energy and How to Get It

    5.8 1981 HD

    Filmed in Wendover, Nevada, in early 1981, Energy and How to Get It combines documentary and fictional ideas. What began as a documentary film about...

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  • 1976
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    Une semaine dans la vie de camarades

    Une semaine dans la vie de camarades

    1 1976 HD

    A road movie whose journey intersects with and extends the events of the International Counter-Culture Meeting that took place in 1975 in Montreal....

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  • 1968
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    Witchcraft Through the Ages

    Witchcraft Through the Ages

    7.2 1968 HD

    A seventy-six-minute version of Häxan, re-edited and re-released in the United States by Metro Pictures Corporation in 1968. It is narrated by...

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  • 1989
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    Drugstore Cowboy

    Drugstore Cowboy

    7.1 1989 HD

    Portland, Oregon, 1971. Bob Hughes is the charismatic leader of a peculiar quartet, formed by his wife, Dianne, and another couple, Rick and Nadine,...

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  • 1978
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    Thot-Fal'N

    Thot-Fal'N

    5.4 1978 HD

    This film describes a psychological state "kin to moonstruck, its images emblems (not quite symbols) of suspension-of-self within consciousness and...

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  • 2007
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    Words of Advice: William S. Burroughs On the Road

    Words of Advice: William S. Burroughs On the Road

    1 2007 HD

    A portrait of the American Beat Generation writer William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) based on never-before-seen footage from his visit to Denmark in...

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  • 2015
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    William S. Burroughs: The Possessed

    William S. Burroughs: The Possessed

    1 2015 HD

    Thelema Now! host Frater Puck discusses William S. Burroughs, possession, synchronicities and chaos magick

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  • 1969
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    Cain's Film

    Cain's Film

    1 1969 HD

    A film about Alexander Trocchi. Scottish born poet, writer, translator and author of "Young Adam" and "Cain's Book". Part of the film was made at the...

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  • 2009
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    Nova Express

    Nova Express

    2 2009 HD

    An exhaustive examination of cut-ups, the control machine, and the algebra of need figure in this epic found-footage adaptation of Burroughs’s...

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  • 2015
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    Don't Blink - Robert Frank

    Don't Blink - Robert Frank

    7 2015 HD

    The life and work of Robert Frank—as a photographer and a filmmaker—are so intertwined that they're one in the same, and the vast amount...

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  • 2003
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    The Battle for 'I Am Curious-Yellow'

    The Battle for 'I Am Curious-Yellow'

    1 2003 HD

    A documentary about the film, I am Curious-Yellow (1967), and how it made it into the USA and changed film in USA forever by breaking the USA...

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  • 1982
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    Poetry in Motion

    Poetry in Motion

    7 1982 HD

    More than 20 contemporary North American poets recite, sing, and perform their work. Early in the film, Charles Bukowski talks about the energy of...

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  • 1983
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    This Song for Jack

    This Song for Jack

    6 1983 HD

    In 1982, Robert Frank was on hand at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, to film the Jack Kerouac Conference, a 25th-anniversary commemoration...

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  • 1989
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    Heavy Petting

    Heavy Petting

    5.6 1989 HD

    Celebrities and creatives -- including musician David Byrne, performance artist Spalding Gray, comedian Sandra Bernhard, radical activist Abbie...

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  • 1967
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    Poem Posters

    Poem Posters

    1 1967 HD

    ... with real-life portraits of Jayne Mansfield, Frak O'Hara, Ruth Ford, Ned Rorem, Virgil Thomson, Claes Oldenburg, Roy Lichtenstein, William...

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  • 1985
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    It Don't Pay to Be an Honest Citizen

    It Don't Pay to Be an Honest Citizen

    7.5 1985 HD

    An ironic New York City thriller involving a mafioso and a restless, witty lawyer.

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  • 1999
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    The Making of Drugstore Cowboy

    The Making of Drugstore Cowboy

    1 1999 HD

    Portland, 1988. Filmmaker Gus Van Sant shoots Drugstore Cowboy, the project that will bring he and his collaborators a formidable burst of mainstream...

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  • 2015
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    Robert E. Fulton III Edit of Burroughs: The Movie

    Robert E. Fulton III Edit of Burroughs: The Movie

    1 2015 HD

    After two years of filming, director Howard Brookner brought inventor and photographer Robert E. Fulton III a trunkful of William S. Burroughs...

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  • 1989
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    Gang of Souls: A Generation of Beat Poets

    Gang of Souls: A Generation of Beat Poets

    5 1989 HD

    Maria Beatty's documentary exploring the insights and influences of the American Beat Poets. The film conveys their consciousness and sensibility...

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  • 1994
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    Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

    Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

    4.38 1994 HD

    A girl born with enormous thumbs in the repressive era of the 1950s learns to turn her quirks into assets.

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  • 2017
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    Uncle Howard

    Uncle Howard

    6.5 2017 HD

    When Howard Brookner lost his life to AIDS in 1989, the 35-year-old director had completed two feature documentaries and was in post-production on...

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  • 2012
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    The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye

    The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye

    7.1 2012 HD

    An intimate, affecting portrait of the life and work of ground-breaking performance artist and music pioneer Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (Throbbing...

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  • 1998
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    The Book of Life

    The Book of Life

    6.4 1998 HD

    New Year's Eve takes on new meaning when the Devil, Jesus Christ, and Christ's assistant Magdalena discuss and debate the End of the World.

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  • 1968
    imgMovies

    Chicago

    Chicago

    1 1968 HD

    UCLA Student Film, Preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. A striking documentary shot cinema verite style of the 1968 Democratic National...

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  • 2015
    imgMovies

    William S. Burroughs in the Dreamachine

    William S. Burroughs in the Dreamachine

    1 2015 HD

    Jon Aes-Nihil's experimental documentary about iconic Beat author William S. Burroughs' experiences using a stroboscopic device, known as the dream...

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  • 1991
    imgMovies

    Naked Lunch

    Naked Lunch

    7 1991 HD

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  • 1982
    imgMovies

    Taking Tiger Mountain

    Taking Tiger Mountain

    4.2 1982 HD

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  • 1970
    imgMovies

    Ice Cream

    Ice Cream

    6.3 1970 HD

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  • 1990
    imgMovies

    The Black Rider

    The Black Rider

    7.7 1990 HD

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  • 1966
    imgMovies

    The Cut-Ups

    The Cut-Ups

    6.8 1966 HD

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  • 1993
    imgMovies

    The Junky's Christmas

    The Junky's Christmas

    6.9 1993 HD

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  • 1982
    imgMovies

    Ghost at No. 9

    Ghost at No. 9

    8 1982 HD

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  • 1982
    imgMovies

    The Discipline of D.E.

    The Discipline of D.E.

    5.9 1982 HD

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  • 2024
    imgMovies

    Queer

    Queer

    1 2024 HD

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  • 1963
    imgMovies

    Towers Open Fire

    Towers Open Fire

    6.7 1963 HD

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  • 1991
    imgMovies

    Thanksgiving Prayer

    Thanksgiving Prayer

    6.4 1991 HD

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  • 1968
    imgMovies

    Witchcraft Through the Ages

    Witchcraft Through the Ages

    7.2 1968 HD

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  • 2008
    imgMovies

    The Japanese Sandman

    The Japanese Sandman

    5 2008 HD

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  • 2009
    imgMovies

    Ma bande magnétique arrière

    Ma bande magnétique arrière

    1 2009 HD

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  • 2009
    imgMovies

    Nova Express

    Nova Express

    2 2009 HD

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  • 1963
    imgMovies

    William Buys a Parrot

    William Buys a Parrot

    6.1 1963 HD

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  • 1972
    imgMovies

    Bill and Tony

    Bill and Tony

    5.9 1972 HD

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  • 2014
    imgMovies

    William S. Burroughs Birthday Bash

    William S. Burroughs Birthday Bash

    1 2014 HD

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  • 1994
    imgMovies

    Ah Pook Is Here.

    Ah Pook Is Here.

    5.9 1994 HD

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  • 1975
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    Saturday Night Live

    Saturday Night Live

    6.948 1975 HD

    A late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels. The show's comedy sketches, which parody contemporary culture...

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