New to On Demand & DVD

In October 1955, poet Allen Ginsberg intoned his poem Howl at a gathering at Six Gallery in San Francisco. He seemed, some listeners reported, rather drunk, but his reading mesmerized his audience. Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti was in the audience, and later published the poem as part of his Pocket Poets series, which brought out first editions of serious literature and sold them at the City Lights bookstore. In 1957, undercover police purchased the copy of the hallucinatory ode to the beat generation, and promptly arrested Ferlinghetti and the bookstore manager on the grounds of obscenity. The store manager’s charges were […]

By Elaine Bergstrom The film Me and Orson Welles, as well as the book on which it is based, looks at the controversial 1937 production of Julius Caesar at the famed Mercury Theatre in New York City. Caesar was the first stage play at the Mercury and secured Orson Welles’ reputation as a director. It also took place less than three months after the dilapidated theater was purchased. As a result, along with rehearsals, the company had to work on restoring the theater.

By Elaine Bergstrom Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning have been spending a lot of time together in the last few years, appearing together in two Twilight Saga films, and they are scheduled to appear in a third. The two also play punk rock stars Joan Jett and Cherie Currie, of the ’70s all-girl band The Runaways, in the film of the same name. Stewart cut off her long hair and dyed it black for the role, which necessitated wearing a wig for some of her scenes as Bella in Eclipse. She also spent time on the set with Jett, who […]