Film Screening of
Polis Is This: Charles Olson and the Persistence of Place
Meet the film’s director Henry Ferrini and writer Ken Riaf
Thursday, February 28 at 7- 9:30 pm
DeCordova’s Dewey Family Gallery
"Much more than a merely brilliant bio-documentary, Ferrini's film about Charles Olson and Gloucester is an invaluable contribution to our literature. If only we had a film like this for each of our major poets and writers, what a treasure that would be."
Russell Banks, Author— The Sweet Hereafter
“This is a sublime film...by far the best film I’ve ever seen on a figure in American literature. It is simply stunning.”
Jim Harrison, Author— Legends of the Fall
Join Gloucester-based documentary filmmaker Henry Ferrini and writer Ken Riaf as they share their inspiration for and a screening of Polis Is This: Charles Olson and the Persistence of Place. An award-winning documentary about the 6’8” larger-than-life poet and writer who—for many years—called Gloucester, Massachusetts “home,” Polis Is This is poetic in not only in the literal words that are spoken, but also in the visual images that are seen. Seeing and hearing Charles Olson share his poetry in his own booming voice is a rare delight. Both inspired and challenged by his locale, the rhythms of Olson’s words remind us all that changing the universe begins with changing that which is local. As Olson says in Maximus to Gloucester , Letter 27 (withheld) :
An American
is a complex of occasions,
themselves a geometry
of spatial nature.
I have this sense,
that I am one
with my skin
Plus this—plus this:
that forever the geography
which leans in
on me I compel
backwards I compel Gloucester
to yield, to
change.
Polis
is this
The film features John Malkovich with Peter Anastas, Amiri Baraka, Charles Boer, Robert Creeley, Diane Di Prima, Vincent Ferrini, Gerrit Lansing, Ed Sanders, John Sinclair, John Stilgoe, Anne Waldman and Jonathan Williams; music by Willie Alexander, Pete Seeger, and Stephan Wolpe.
Seating is limited. RSVP by February 22 to Joanna Neas or 781/259-3629. YMOD Members, $10; DeCordova Members, $12; Non-Members, $15. Learn more about the film at polisisthis.com and ferriniproductions.com.
