October 13, 2011, 7:30 PM
Oddball Film+Video
275 Capp St.
info@oddballfilm.com or 415-558-8112
A cinematic look at The Paris Review founder H.L. “Doc” Humes
Brilliant and precocious, “Doc” Humes went to MIT at age 16 and after World War II founded The Paris Review, a magazine he envisioned as “by writers, for writers, with an emphasis on the act of writing itself.” He wrote two acclaimed and ambitious political novels about war and what it does to people, but after the second book, he never wrote again. After becoming paranoid and mentally ill in the 1960s, he reappeared on campus as the original Hippie Philosopher King, preaching the virtues of cannabis and massage and warning of a worldwide anxiety-tension epidemic.
Doc is an unorthodox portrait of the life and times of this almost forgotten yet fascinating literary and counter-culture figure. A stellar cast of Doc’s family and friends—including writers George Plimpton, Norman Mailer, Peter Matthiessen, William Styron, and Paul Auster; avant-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas; and the Pied Piper of LSD, Timothy Leary—recall a man who defied all categories and expectations. This stylistically original take on a literary “beautiful mind” is a political and personal tale made over many years by Immy Humes, an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker and Doc’s daughter. This screening will be the film’s San Francisco premiere. Q&A to follow with director Immy Humes. Preceded by bonus archival clips from the Oddball vaults.
