Presented in Association with The Poetry Center, San Francisco State University
Fifty-one years after his Golden Gate Bridge disappearance, we present the film work of legendary poet/painter/iconoclast Weldon Kees. During his years in the Bay Area, Kees collaborated with filmmakers, jazz musicians, and scholars such as Gregory Bateson, while also writing plays, screenplays and film reviews (alongside Pauline Kael). Films include: Kees’s haunting portrait of East Bay urban detritus, Hotel Apex; William Heick’s poetic Golden Gate meditation, The Bridge, made with and featuring Kees; James Broughton’s The Adventures of Jimmy, with music by Kees; and examples of Kees’ educational films: the quirky exploration of mundane routines on San Francisco streets, Approaches and Leavetakings (with Jurgen Ruesch) and Hand-Mouth Coordination (with Bateson), a look at the daily routine of a one-year old boy.