John Ashbery

A submarine crew, a feared pack of forest bandits, a famous surgeon, and a battalion of child soldiers all get more than they bargained for as they wend their way toward progressive ideas on life and love.

In the summer of 1952, poets John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara and James Schuyler collaborated with filmmakers Harrison Starr and John Latouche on a short film in tribute to their mutual friend, the painter Jane Freilicher.

A silent screen-type comedy starring Edwin Denby as Hemlock Stinge, the unlovable billionaire.

"The poet Daisy Aldan (who brought Gerard Malanga into the world of experimental filmmaking) directed a beautifully evocative and impressionistic documentary, Once Upon an El, in 8mm color with a 7 1/2 ips tape soundtrack. The 15-minute film's cast included John Ashberry, James Broughton, Chester Kallman, Frank O'Hara, Olga Petroff, Kermit Sheets, and other luminaries of the Avant-Garde, the soundtrack was composed by Storm de Hirsch. Once Upon An El documented the activities of a group of writers and composers...[demonstrating] against the demolition of New York's Third Avenue elevated railway (FMC 1967, 7-8) , which was demolished anyway" - Wheeler Winston Dixon

Legendary poet John Ashbery scripted this absurdist step-by-step guide to bathing, excerpted from Guy Maddin's feature THE FORBIDDEN ROOM and restored to its original form as a stand-alone film.