OUTRIDER is a feature documentary.

Directed & produced & digital film/photos by Alystyre Julian

Edited & co-directed & photographs by Lauren at Jailhouse Tapes 

A film about poet revolutionary, poet revelationary, poet evolutionary: 
Anne Waldman--- the "fast speaking woman" who rides ahead.  

Harry Smith Studio, Boulder, Colorado, 2013

Poetry and texts by Anne Waldman; Giorgio Agambem's Nudities; Hakim Bey (Temporary Autonomous Zone); His Holiness, The Dalai Lama

"Ghost Dance" is a song by Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye 
recorded with permission by Anne Waldman, Thurston Moore, and Ambrose Bye.

Assistant Editor & score: Gabriel Gall      
Additional footage: Mariana Luna, Kai Lu, Alexis Savino

Musicians: Fast Speaking Music, Ambrose Bye, Brahja Waldman Quartet, Devin Waldman, Thurston Moore, Daniel Carter, Ha-Yang Kim, Maximilian Davies, Toni Oswald, Steven Taylor

A Poet in the Outrider Lineage 

"The Outrider holds a premise of imaginative consciousness. The Outrider rides the edge--parallel to the mainstream, is the shadow to the mainstream, is the consciousness or soul of the mainstream whether it recognizes its existence or not. It cannot be co-opted, it cannot be bought. Outrider rides through the chaos, maintaining a stance of 'negative capability,' but also does not give up that projective drive, or its original identity that demands that it intervene on the culture. This is not about being an Outsider. The Outrider might be an outlaw, but not an outsider. Rather, the outrider is a kind of shaman, the true spiritual 'insider.' The shaman travels to zones of light and shadow. The shaman travels to edges of madness and death and comes back to tell the stories."   -- from Anne Waldman's essay "Premises of Consciousness: Notes on 'Howl'"

                   

This is an Outrider's story driven by the riveting gestures, vocals, and texts of a poet performer and her artist collaborators. 

“Outrider” poet, performer, cultural activist Anne Waldman collaborates with a myriad of artists to give epic voice to what it means to be a contemporary poet in our time. "Outrider" is an entertaining and enlightening journey featuring a rockstar of a poet and "counter-cultural giant" (Publisher's Weekly). It tracks Waldman's poet-evolutionary efforts for the sake of poetry and the planet, her work with artists and musicians, and the communities she has generated. 

In international and local performances, Q & A’s, rehearsals, workshops, lectures, interviews, and narration, Waldman connects the high spirit of the OUTRIDER poetic tradition to her sociopolitical ethos, experimenting lucidly. She captivates audiences as she chants/sings/speaks, intersecting music and visual art. “Outrider” explores a myriad of generative situations in poetics workshops, theater, performance, and behind-the-scenes verité in Waldman’s mosaic world. 

Anne Waldman and Ambrose Bye, Housing Works, 2013

This is a story of red-hot poetic urgency. This is about a heroine who journeyed with and beyond the Beats, to become our own contemporary poetic leader. Waldman strikes lightning through the darkness of our time with her language, ideas, and energetic presence. She creates from within the counter-culture, as an “Outrider”, a lineage she coined to include the work of the Beats through the Black Mountain School, the Language Poets, and New American Poetry. She is a scholar of poetic history and lineage. Whatever Waldman manifests, it vibrates: a book of poetry, a play, an opera, a workshop on another continent, a reading, or a conversation. 

Waldman’s poetry and performance is direct activism, a poet who gives awakened artistic perspective in temporary imaginative zones. . She lives her art as an educator, scholar, and visionary. She sings and embodies her writing. Her work is shamanic, transforming and reshaping our consciousness. 

This is the story of a poet's vow, and a bodhisattva warrior's vow. Waldman as the driving force in the poetry current.  

Anne Waldman with Daniel Carter and Thurston Moore, 2013

Creating a Cinematic document for the Archives of "Poet Time"

This documentary has been in production for six years. Alystyre Julian has filmed countless readings, performances, poet-gatherings, celebrations, and moments at home with Anne Waldman. It has been a wild journey, still unraveling. 

Having already laid the groundwork for the film, with copious documentation of events, performances, workshops, and verité, and created the relationships that will imbibe this film with a deeper view, we will turn to the page with Waldman to write narration for this film, in collaboration.  We invite you to join the journey. With the footage we have amassed, our audience can now get a clear sense and understanding of the person behind the work and the layers of her own life feeding the work. They can now get to know her character, her humor, her commitment to her work. Waldman's path is wild, devoted, and has yielded so many gems along the way, because of her vow, her focus, and her fearlessness. 

Waldman's revolution to “keep the world safe for poetry” in her work wades through obstacles of patriarchy and devastations of war and political ignorance (IOVIS), environmental deathtraps and the extinction of species (Manatee Humanite). Her latest Gossamurmur risks Waldman's poet/director identity, as "The Deciders" murder poetry, and as the mission to archive artistic production is also at risk with fragile weathers. It is an endangered world, a fragile economy, and Waldman has ridden far to take the true pulse on it. We want to share how an artist with such a mission can transmit this pulse and thereby affect the larger themes in our society. 

We want to take the lid off of what poetry is! We want to exhibit how it can be performed and valued in the culture in ways unseen before. Waldman’s work is collaborative with whoever is listening, and we aim to create a cinema of this “listening”. Her many different junctures of her life and work can inspire an intergenerational audience. Waldman is the star, always captivating and a spokesperson for the ethos of this world, on and off the stage.

Waldman collaborates often and widely with extraordinary musicians, composers, artists, poets from artistic communities she has generated, including her son, composer Ambrose Bye; her husband filmmaker Ed Bowes; musicians Thurston Moore, Ha-Yang Kim, Daniel Carter, and Steven Taylor; librettist David T. Little; visual artists Pat Steir and Kiki Smith; choreographer Douglas Dunn and company; and many other poets such as Julie Patton, Bob Holman, Nicole Peyrafitte, Akilah Oliver, Allen Ginsberg, Ted Berrigan, and so many others. Almost every performance is an improvisation on her current work with other artists exploring with her. 

Anne Waldman with Daniel Carter and Thurston Moore
after performance at Poetry Project. St. Marks Church, NYC. 2013.

Anne Waldman & Allen Ginsberg. Ginsberg referred to Anne as his "spiritual wife." Together they co-founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in 1974. 

“When Allen Ginsberg passed from us, it was Anne Waldman who dutifully gathered up his many burdens, continuing his work as a poet, activist and teacher. In following his example she has bloomed as an example herself. How fortunate we are to have her among us and may we all reach out and take a small amount of her burden upon ourselves."                                                                                                                                                    -Patti Smith 

Waldman has inspired generations of poets, and has been a groundbreaking example of positive energy and focus her entire career. With this film…her story, we are all contemporaries with Waldman, and we can reach out and take a small amount of her burden upon ourselves.  

“I want [my poetry] to be the experience... a sustained experience, a voyage, a magnificent dream, something that would take you in myriad directions simultaneously, and you could draw on all of these other voices and you could pay homage to ancestors and other languages--a poem that would include everything and yet dwell in the interstices of imagination and action.”                                                                                                                                                                                                            -Anne Waldman

Anne Waldman at Rodeo Bar Lou Reed Tribute, 2013

The Plan for "Outrider" in 2014

January - July: The last six months of Production

July - December: Post-production 

Hopefully all is possible with your help. Read On: 

                 

 

We need your kind help to support this upcoming six months of production, and six months of post-production; pay team members for their services, upgrade equipment, and cover costs of upcoming shoots this Spring and in Boulder in June 2014.

We want to screen this film theatrically, in festivals, and online in 2015.

We want to celebrate Waldman's work, and her extensive collaborations with other exceptional artists, musicians, and poets as they live, create, and perform. From events in New York, Morocco, Colorado, and California, we witnessed firsthand how Waldman writes, takes the stage, takes care and charge of her poet communities. We want to go much deeper into the interconnections that guide this story now that we have a great deal of event footage, by shooting scheduled interviews with Waldman, and recording her personal narration. We want to shoot formal interviews with people in the communities she helps to generate, and continue to be present at formal and informal events to capture performance and verité. We also want to gather and pay for additional archival footage to weave in. We want to pay for original music to make this film a fully aesthetically engaged experience. 

This documentary has been in the works for almost 6 years via do-it-yourself guerilla approach, finding and borrowing equipment, hitting on people to volunteer their time and effort, in-kind donations, and bartering and exchanging services. This Herculean effort needs to be raised to an even higher level to match the level of talent and effort that Waldman continues to put into this project along with her outgoing commitments. 

                  Directed & produced & digital film/photos by Alystyre Julian

                        Trailer Edit & Photographs by Lauren at Jailhouse Tapes

                 

                         Alystyre & Lauren at work on Macdougal Street, NYC. 2013. 

Who's the filmmaker?

Alystyre Julian is a multi-genre writer/educator, and OUTRIDER filmmaker. 

Alystyre at cinematheque de tanger

My relationship with Waldman began when I was a young poet and student in her workshops, at the Jack Kerouac School, and an active participant in the poetry world.  

jump to 2009: Anne Waldman reads at the Bowery Poetry Club with poet Ann Lauterbach. That particular evening, struck by their unique currents of poetic electricity, lucidity, gestures, and presence (which I had witnessed many times prior), I decided to make a poet documentary.

As the filmmaker of this project for six years, I have tracked the exciting intersection of contemporary poetry, music, cultural and social activism as spearheaded, generated, performed, and channeled by poet, performer, activist, and magnetic character, Anne Waldman, and her artistic collaborators.  I have followed Waldman’s events and live performances, in New York, Morocco, Colorado, and California. Inspired by Waldman's schedule of venues, I have documented every possible event, performance or gathering, workshop, or rehearsal, whether Dixon Place, the dressing room of The Living Theater, Poet's House, a rehearsal or sound check, the summer writing program at Naropa, or outreach workshops in Morocco (sponsored by the Tamaas Foundation). The time in Morocco led to a deeper trust in our relationship with many cross-currents.  

Anne Waldman and Ha-Yang Kim rehearsing, Tanger, 2012

I was challenged by producing, directing, shooting, and assisting myself with only borrowed equipment and no budget, until I started working with others (who worked for free) in this last year. I have gathered a small team, including the editor of this trailer, photographer, and now co-director, Lauren.  

Outrider e-blasters

I am originally from from Chapel Hill, NC, where I first published poetry and photography, gave readings, made performance art, and was a poetry editor for two journals, while I received a B.A. in drama, poetry, and speech communication from UNC-CH. My first jobs in New York were at Grand Street magazine and at Gotham Book Mart. I was mentored in one way or another by the greatest women poets in our time including Waldman, Alice Notley, Leslie Scalapino, Ann Lauterbach, Lyn Hejinian, Bernadette Mayer, Norma Cole, and others. Though the lens is focused on and through Waldman's work and life, it is webbed to these poets as well. I have published my work in Chain, Insurance, Talisman, Downtown Brooklyn, Pharos (Paris), and other journals. The Poetry Project Newsletter published my review of Anne Waldman's Gossamurmur this winter. I have an MFA (Writing) from Bard College, where I was also able to immerse in film/video/ photography. I taught writing at LIU, ESC, and Montclair State University, and I taught screenwriting to video arts students at NYU, as well as mentored high school students in the NYU Future Filmmakers Workshop. I have written and adapted feature screenplays, and worked on a number of features; shorts; trailers (BentonLearning); web series; and documentaries ("Breastmilk").  

Alystyre at Mud Labyrinth by Elin Hansdottir, Marrekech, 2012

Why this campaign is important

This campaign is to support the final production stretch in the making of OUTRIDER, and to commence post-production.  

I have struggled to make this film a reality by borrowing equipment and supplies, exhausting resources, in-kind favors, camera borrowing, and delayed credit working with editors on spec.  I have built a team that has been willing to suspend their financial compensation due to a belief in this project. It is truly exciting that the film has grown to this point, and we want to support that expansion. I cannot go back to working solo. A select team is essential. I need your support to raise production value for our last several months of shooting, to keep the select team, cover our production expenses, and to hire other professionals to carry this film to the next level. I want this film to have a long life.  

This is THE crucial year of support, and a successful campaign will afford our team the final push to bring the film fully and professionally to fruition.  

The magnitude of what contributors can help us achieve:

With your support, you become a core collaborator to a documentary about an artist and her collaborators; with Waldman and others, you help bring light, imagination, vision, symbiosis, awareness, and magnificent turns of language to the screen. I want this film to have a lasting impact as representative of American culture’s “poethics” and to give permanence to Waldman's extensive labors in the service of poetry. With this film, we can co-create a world where vibrant poetry and music collide in a cinematic platform. A capsule of the best of American poetry in our time through the wide spread arms of Waldman, and her collaborators. 

What We Need & What You Get

This June, Waldman celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Jack Kerouac School, which she co-founded with Allen Ginsberg. I would like to ask for your support to fund the rest of production through June 2014, and post production following.  

First, we must raise our production value, and pay people who are helping us currently.  

I want to secure professional image and sound equipment going forward, so we can organize scheduled events and formal interviews with our select crew. There is list of people we want to interview in New York City and Boulder. There are more events with Anne Waldman leading up to and including the 40th anniversary at the Jack Kerouac School, where I would like to hire my select crew to shoot with me for the month, and where we will screen a rough cut, as well as end production, other than a few follow up events or interviews. I have built a foundation of footage and the relationships for this project to go forward. All we need is your support to see it through.  

I have assembled a skilled, industrious, and visionary small team that I want to fund: photographer, editor, and co-director Lauren Greenberg, sound mixer Gabriel Gall, artist and filmmaker Mariana Luna, filmmaker Kai Lu, photographer Lenny Antonio. Professional editor Melody London (“Burning Down the House: The Story of CBGB”; “Down By Law”; “Mystery Train”; “Stranger in Paradise”; “Angela”; “New York, I Love You”) is on board for final post-production editing. I am confident that this team will carry the project to the next level. I want to hire current or other shooters for events and interviews, so I can focus on directing and producing. I would like help to organize several terrabytes of footage taken over the last six years. I want to work with a part-time producer and/or accountant/lawyer to organize budget and contracts, and I would like help handling social media and distribution. 

I would like to research Waldman’s archives in Michigan, and travel with her to document the release of her new book in France (April). We need to upkeep supplies for the production office/editing factories (our living spaces), we need computer ram, and hard drives. Working with a professional editor in post will cost a huge chunk of our proposed budget. We need the maximum possible funding to raise our production and post-production values to match the magnificence of the artists in this documentary.  

The total speculative budget of the production, including what I have already wrangled of my own resources to date, what people have donated or sponsored in-kind, plus what we need going forward for this last year to fund the production and post production and support my team is incalculable. We are asking for $17,000 in this indiegogo campaign. Our expenses far outweigh what we are asking for. We would do well to work with a much larger amount for a select team to shoot in many upcoming locations, and in Boulder for a month, to professionally edit, mix sound, and color correct in post, and to distribute the film in a way that elevates its potential as a lasting document. Then why $17,000? We want to actually reach our goal AND to surpass it! (Indiegogo will take only 4% if we reach our goal and 9% if we don't).  

This funding campaign will help fund:

• Extensive editing of footage for this indiegogo launch.
  
• Equipment upgrade. We need a professional audio package, at least one high quality camera that we can rely on, a better tripod, hard drives, an editing system that endures through the end of the project.  
  
• Jan.-May 2014 Documentation of rehearsals and performance of Douglas Dunn's AUBADE.  Waldman wrote the text for with Choreographer Douglas Dunn's company, with musician Steven Taylor, and others; performed at Montclair University Jan. 24-Feb.1. Conduct interviews with the artistic directors who followed Waldman’s tenure at St. Mark’s Poetry Project as well as other collaborators, friends, and family. Coverage of Spring events and performances in New York and away, a visit to Waldman archives in Michigan, an April book release trip with Anne to France. Pre-production for Boulder shoot.  
  
• June 2014: Boulder, Colorado: FINAL SHOOT (monthlong). Expenses (lodging, transport, food), supplies, equipment, and crew. This marks the 40th anniversary of the Jack Kerouac School. We will screen a rough cut in June at Naropa summer writing program, and bring a select crew to cover the events that span the anniversary month, ending production.    
  
• POST PRODUCTION 2014-2015 professional rates: editor, assistant, sound mix, producer, post supervisor, distributor. We will quickly move into final post-production, for rough film delivery date of January 1, 2015. 

Other costs we have:

• Recent backend production costs to recover minimally: Supplies, equipment and crew that documented the St. Mark's Poetry Project Marathon 40th Anniversary Reading 2014. Minimum recovery for two person team shoot in Big Sur, CA 2013, and in Boulder 2012-2013.    
  
• Honorariums for Artists featured in documentary  
  
• Keep the team fed and focused: compensation for our labor, transportation, supplies, and resources as we work.
  

Our unique perks!

We have great rewards for your contributions!

We have for you: selected poems; lots of signed books; recently recorded audio files of Anne Waldman reading a poem for you; an exclusive audio recording of the filmmaker reading a dream regarding Anne Waldman; a specially designed web poster and t-shirt; a rare Waldman mimeograph(sold out); copies of the freshly printed AUBADE to go with Dunn company performances happening as this campaign is up (sold out); signed books and originally composed CD recordings of our artists such as Fast Speaking Music, exclusive photographs, a photo book, invitations to special events, dial-a-poem recreation; a glass of wine with Waldman and director, a week at the JKS School Summer Writing Program, and more. 

Where the funds go if we don’t reach our entire goal.

We will address most pressing expenses first, to upgrade production value via equipment, and to make upcoming shoots possible with our small select team.  

We chose Indiegogo because if we don't reach our goal, all our hard work will still benefit, however we lose a higher percentage of our take. Any funding donated by you will make an big impact on the project that will further support and meet the films mounting costs, will elevate our production and post to the next level the project deserves to manifest, and enable us to get more into social engagement and sharing of the project along the way.  

I believe this level of funding upon reaching our goal, and especially surpassing it, will help attract other grants, investors, and foundations.  

                                  

The Impact

Waldman raises awareness, channels light in the darkness, and gives goosebumps of pleasure in performance, recognition, and reckoning. Your contribution is important to me, to my collaborators on this project, to the artists, and to the culture at large. Please help us bring this unique-in-all-the-world artist to the light of the screen by giving us the cinematic space to share her wild mind multiverse.

Collectively, we’ll be able to create a documentary film that will endure. All hard drives and materials related to this documentary will go to the Hatcher library archives in Michigan. 

Anne Waldman and David Ruffel at Casablanca Abbatoir, 2012

Subject Matters

Waldman has always been generously supportive and inclusive with her time for this project. Without her countless artistic and personal contributions, her introductions, her sharing of community and family; without the generous and unselfconscious time of the other artists in the film, as well as all the students, plus the tireless work of team members volunteering their time for free, I would have nothing.  

I want to give this film the best possible support and conditions as we continue to grow our story and our audience.

THANK YOU!

Big Sur, September 2013 (Post-soundcheck at the Henry Miller Library)

Other ways you can help!

We want to offer our most sincere thank you to anyone and everyone who helps move our project along. We are grateful for any support, kind donations, or spreading-the-word help you can offer. Thank you for believing in our vision as much as we do! 

If you just can’t contribute, (and I've been there!), it doesn’t mean you can’t help! Please help us get the word out and make some noise about our campaign.

Use the Indiegogo share tools!

Spread the news about our campaign through word of mouth: tell them to look us up on http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/o-u-t-r-i-d-e-r/x/5938117 

Watch our video and visit our web links!

Gossamurmur, by Anne Waldman