Eileen

This video is an unabashed fan letter to poet Eileen Myles. As in Laurie, my desire was to romanticize the poet, but not through her writing so much as through her reputation as the natural born child of the New York School and the Beats. I shot the movie as I imagined Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie shooting Pull My Daisy, a film that left an impression on me chiefly of the struggle between form and formlessness, plan and improvisation, sketch and story. I visualized Myles’ life to be something like this, and featured herself as herself in the East Village walkup she shared with Rosie the pit bull terrier, reading, drinking coffee, checking her messages, and making plans for excursions into the lower avenues. She is reading from her semi-autobiographical novel Cool For You, which was published later that year.

-- Cecilia Dougherty

This title is only available on The Writers Series.