Skip to footer

'Ferlinghetti' explores the remarkable life of the poet-painter-activist

( Unrated ) ( Monitor Movie Guide )

Lawrence Ferlinghetti is the subject of a documentary that encompasses, among other topics, the history of the Beats and his City Lights Bookstore.

|
Henny Ray Abrams/AP
Lawrence Ferlinghetti is the founder of San Francisco's legendary City Lights Bookstore.
  • By Peter Rainer Film critic

The poet-painter-activist Lawrence Ferlinghetti is the subject of a wide-ranging knockabout jamboree of a documentary about his life, appropriately titled “Ferlinghetti.” Director Christopher Felver has brought to rousing life through the use of archival clips and interviews the “Mayor of North Beach,” the founder of San Francisco’s legendary City Lights bookstore and publishing house, and the author of the iconic, mega-bestselling 1958 poetry collection “A Coney Island of the Mind.”

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 “Howl” he famously and successfully defended against charges of obscenity). Ferlinghetti’s 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 – the store and the imprint – could well be the closest thing to a literary shrine that we possess. Grade: B+ (Unrated.)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to 'Ferlinghetti' explores the remarkable life of the poet-painter-activist
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2013/0208/Ferlinghetti-explores-the-remarkable-life-of-the-poet-painter-activist
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe