Watch Howl

Fans of Allen Ginsberg's powerful poem "Howl" come from many generations. One does not have to have been alive during the Beat Movement in order to love this classic work of poetry as young director James Franco proves to his audience. Though Franco is a young man, clearly not a part of the Beat Generation, he does the poem justice through his visual interpretation of Ginsberg's timeless words. This film is partially animated, taking viewers on a psychedelic journey through the mind of Allen Ginsberg as animated by Eric Drooker. The other scenes are presented in a nonlinear fashion, including reenactments of events from the life of Ginsberg, such as the obscenity trial that followed Howl's literary debut and various poetry readings. The juxtaposition of the harshly real and the wildly imaginary serves as an excellent medium which allows viewers to take a journey into not only the mind of one of 20th century America's most well-known poets, but also into the mind of one of 21st century America's emerging artists.