Jim Carroll’s Films

Catholic Boy
By The Runnels Brothers
Work in Progress: 2022 –
Other pertinent details?

Catholic Boy is a feature length documentary about the poet, prose writer and musician Jim Carroll. The film captures his life and career, from meteoric rise as a teen poet and basketball star in New York City, his battle with addiction, to his end of life struggles as he was attempting to finish his first novel. His prolific and tumultuous life is presented in a career that spanned five decades.

Official website?

Ken Dewey: This Is a Test
Released: 2016
Director: Sally Williams
Studio: Salient Films
Genre: Documentary
Format: ?
Rating: Not Rated
Run Time: ?

This amazing film is about the guy who . . . did many wonderful things, but among them – and quite pertinent to Jim Carroll scholars and fans – he got the Dial-a-Poem project past the censors. It turns out Jim Carroll’s contributions were especially controversial and were largely responsible for the suppression effort. I am so grateful to director Sally Williams for sharing with me a very rare DVD copy (only 500 made).

Official website

The Third Mind
Released: 2006
Director: William Tyler Smith
Studio: Oglio Records
Genre: Documentary
Format: DVD
Rating: Not Rated
Run Time: 56 minutes

From Amazon.com: William Burroughs said that when two minds collaborate, a third mind is created. This is the third mind between the psychedelic and beat sensibilities of Manzarek and McClure. . . . With appearances by Alan Ginsberg, Jim Carroll, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Diane di Prima, Ed Sanders, Lee Ranaldo,and Ann Waldman, “The Third Mind” DVD is a compelling primer on the impact of music on the Beat Generation.

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The Basketball Diaries
Released: 1995
Director: Scott Kalvert
Studio: Island Pictures
Genre: Drama
Format: VHS, DVD, Laserdisc
Rating: R (Restricted)
Run Time: 102 Minutes

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as “Jim” in this controversial, very loose adaptation of Carroll’s semi-autobiography. Also features Mark Wahlberg as “Mickey,” James Madio as Pedro,” Bruno Kirby as “Swifty,” Lorraine Bracco as Jim’s mother, Ernie Hudson as Reggie,” and Patrick McGaw as “Neutron.” Carroll makes a cameo appearance as “Frankie Pinewater.”

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See also:
The Basketball Diaries Film in Context
Behind The Basketball Diaries

The Source
Released: 1999
Director: Chuck Workman
Studio: Calliope Films
Genre: Documentary
Format: DVD
Rating: Not Rated
Run Time: 88 minutes

This documentary of the Beat Generation, focusing on Ginsberg, Kerouac, and Burroughs, features a brief clip of Carroll reading “Times Square’s Cage” from Forced Entries.

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Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart
Released: 1998
Director: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Studio: Winstar
Genre:Documentary
Format: DVD
Rating: Not Rated
Run Time: 73 minutes

This outstanding PBS documentary explores the life, work, and influence of Lou Reed, with interviews from David Bowie, Patti Smith, John Cale, Thurston Moore, and many others. Jim Carroll features prominently among the interviewees — he even gets the last laugh.

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Curtis’s Charm
Released: 1995
Director: John L’Ecuyer
Studio: East Side Films
Genre: Drama
Format: VHS
Rating: Not Rated
Run Time: 74 minutes

A brilliant adaptation of Carroll’s story by Canadian director John L’Ecuyer, starring Callum Keith Rennie as “Jim” and Maurice Dean Wint as “Curtis.”

Carroll’s story, “Curtis’s Charm,” appears in Fear of Dreaming. The film’s soundtrack album features a full-length reading of the story by Carroll.

See Also:
More information about Curtis’s Charm
Fear of Dreaming
Curtis’s Charm Soundtrack

Poetry in Motion II
Released: 1995
Director: Ron Mann
Studio: Sphinx Productions
Genre: Documentary
Format: CD-ROM
Rating: Not Rated

This sequel to Poetry in Motion is actually a CD-ROM (rather than a “video” or DVD). It offers performances by 24 artists. Those not included in the original film are Tom Clark, Spalding Gray, Bob Holman, Peter Orlovsky, and Alice Notley, among others. Carroll reads “Work, Not Play” and talks about following his idol Frank O’Hara through the streets of Manhattan.

Links:
Sphinx Productions website

Tuff Turf
Released: 1985
Director: Fritz Kiersch
Studio: New World Video / Starz / Anchor Bay
Genre: Drama
Format: DVD, VHS
Rating: R (Restricted)
Run Time: 111 minutes

A typical 1980s high-school adventure-love story, the film stars James Spader, Kim Richards, and Paul Mones. Carroll appears briefly, as himself, in a dance club scene in which he performs (lip-syncing and playing air guitar–upside-down) “Voices” and “It’s Too Late.” He has one speaking part between songs. “People Who Died” serves as background music during a car scene. 

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Listen to the City – make a page for this
Released: 1984
Director: Ron Mann
Studio: Sphinx Productions
Genre: Drama
Format: VHS
Rating: Not Rated

In this “political fable” dealing with unemployment in Canada, Carroll appears in almost every scene as a hospital inmate wandering the streets of Toronto while hooked up to an IV.

I have a little more to add to this eventually . . .

Links:
Sphinx Productions website

Poetry in Motion
Released: 1982
Director: Ron Mann
Studio: Sphinx Productions / Home Vision
Genre: Documentary
Format: DVD, VHS
Rating: Not Rated
Run Time: 91 minutes

A brilliant documentary featuring performances and commentary by Charles Bukowski, Amiri Baraka, Anne Waldman, Ted Berrigan, Tom Waits, William S. Burroughs, Michael McClure, John Giorno, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Creeley, and others. Carroll reads “Just Visiting,” from The Book of Nods. The performances are also available on the album XLife Is a Killer.

Links:
Get this film on Amazon
Sphinx Productions website

Gang of Souls
Released: 1989
Director: Maria Beatty
Studio: Bleu Production
Genre:Documentary
Format: DVD, VHS
Rating: Not Rated
Run Time: 60 minutes

This documentary provides insight into how and why these poets have chosen to be poets and how they write their poetry. Contains interviews with William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Marianne Faithfull, Jim Carroll, John Giorno, Gregory Corso, Diane Diprima, Ed Sanders, Anne Waldman, Henry Rollins, Richard Hell and Lydia Lunch.

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Jim Carroll at San Francisco State University
American Poetry Archives, 1974
Recorded live at San
Francisco State University
10 October 1974

This 30-minute video features a 24-year-old, long-haired Jim Carroll reading his earliest work. It’s a treasure. According to the catalogue, the reading includes “The Calypso of Eucalypti,” “A man is struggling…,” “Sun heightens itself across my face…,” “Coal sweep…,” “For John Wieners,” “Poem for Man,” “Some Fears,” “Andy’s Daughters,” “Home,” “Working,” “Kitten – Self Pity,” “Poem for Edmund Joseph Berrigan,” “A Piano Solo at Carnegie Hall,” “Living at the Movies,” “Crossed Wires,” “Leaving New York City,” “To a Poetess,” “California Poem,” “Midnight,” “Prell,” “Back Home,” “Love Story,” “It doesn’t matter…,” “Chelsea May,” “Savage Bubbles,” “Paregoric Babies,” “Highway Report,” and “An Apple at Dawn.”

More Information:
THE POETRY CENTER & AMERICAN POETRY ARCHIVES
San Francisco State Univ.
1600 Holloway Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94132
Ph: 415-338-2227
FAX: 415-338-0966

See also:
1978 Rimbaud Lectures