Amos Poe
Encyclopedia
Amos Poe is a New York City
director and screenwriter, described by The New York Times as a "pioneering indie filmmaker."
filmmakers and his film The Blank Generation
(1976)—co-directed with Ivan Kral
— is one of the earliest punk films. The film featured performances by Richard Hell
, Talking Heads
, Television
, Patti Smith
and Wayne County
.
He is also associated with the birth of No Wave Cinema
due to films such as The Foreigner (1978), featuring Debbie Harry
and Anya Phillips, and Subway Riders (1981), starring Susan Tyrrell, Robbie Coltrane and Cookie Mueller. During this time he was also the director of the Public-access television
cable TV show TV Party
hosted by Glenn O'Brien and Chris Stein
.
He is part of the Remodernist film
movement, which he described as the next development of Postmodernist
and the transformation of existing cultural features, but "using the technology and the sensibility of contemporary rather than nostalgia". "My idea of my work’s importance is to see how it moves the culture to where I’d like to see it," Poe said in a 1981 interview.
In 2008, he wrote the screenplay for the 2008 Amy Redford
film The Guitar.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
director and screenwriter, described by The New York Times as a "pioneering indie filmmaker."
Career
Amos Poe is one of the first punkPunk visual art
Punk visual art is artwork which often graces punk rock album covers, flyers for punk shows, and punk zines. It is characterised by deliberate violation, such as the use of letters cut out from newspapers and magazines, a device previously associated with kidnap and ransom notes, so the sender's...
filmmakers and his film The Blank Generation
The Blank Generation
The Blank Generation is the earliest published D-I-Y "home movies" of New York punk's birth filmed by Amos Poe and Ivan Kral, legendary 1970s guitarist with Iggy Pop, Blondie and Patti Smith.- Synopsis :...
(1976)—co-directed with Ivan Kral
Ivan Kral
Ivan Kral is a Grammy Award-winning Czechoslovakian-born American composer, filmmaker and singer. He works across many genres including rock, jazz, soul, country and film scores...
— is one of the earliest punk films. The film featured performances by Richard Hell
Richard Hell
Richard Hell is a singer, songwriter, bass guitarist, and writer.Richard Hell was an innovator of punk music and fashion. He was one of the first to spike his hair and wear torn, cut and drawn-on shirts, often held together with safety pins...
, Talking Heads
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
, Television
Television (band)
Television was an American rock band, formed in New York City in 1973. They are best known for the album Marquee Moon and widely regarded as one of the founders of "punk" and New Wave music. Television was part of the early 1970s New York underground rock scene, along with bands like the Patti...
, Patti Smith
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
and Wayne County
Jayne County
Jayne County , formerly known as Wayne County, is an American male-to-female transsexual performer, musician and actress whose career has spanned several decades. County would go on to be known as rock's first transsexual singer...
.
He is also associated with the birth of No Wave Cinema
No Wave Cinema
No Wave Cinema was a Colab sponsored boom in underground filmmaking on the Lower East Side neighborhood of New York City. Its name, much like its cousin No Wave music, was a stripped down style of guerrilla/punk filmmaking that emphasized mood and texture above everything else.This brief movement,...
due to films such as The Foreigner (1978), featuring Debbie Harry
Debbie Harry
Deborah Ann "Debbie" Harry is an American singer-songwriter and actress, best known for being the lead singer of the punk rock and new wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she performed and recorded as part of The Jazz Passengers...
and Anya Phillips, and Subway Riders (1981), starring Susan Tyrrell, Robbie Coltrane and Cookie Mueller. During this time he was also the director of the Public-access television
Public-access television
Public-access television is a form of non-commercial mass media where ordinary people can create content television programming which is cablecast through cable TV specialty channels...
cable TV show TV Party
TV Party
TV Party was a Public-access television cable TV show in New York City that ran from 1978 to 1982. Glenn O'Brien was the host. Chris Stein, co-founder of the pop band Blondie, was the co-host and Walter "Doc" Steding was the leader of the TV Party orchestra. Amos Poe was the director...
hosted by Glenn O'Brien and Chris Stein
Chris Stein
Christopher "Chris" Stein is co-founder and guitarist in the New Wave band, Blondie. He is also a producer and performer for the classic soundtrack of the hip hop film Wild Style....
.
He is part of the Remodernist film
Remodernist Film
Remodernist film developed in the United States and the United Kingdom in the early 21st century with ideas related to those of the international art movement Stuckism and its manifesto, Remodernism...
movement, which he described as the next development of Postmodernist
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
and the transformation of existing cultural features, but "using the technology and the sensibility of contemporary rather than nostalgia". "My idea of my work’s importance is to see how it moves the culture to where I’d like to see it," Poe said in a 1981 interview.
In 2008, he wrote the screenplay for the 2008 Amy Redford
Amy Redford
Amy Hart Redford is an American actress, director and producer. She is the daughter of Academy Award-winning film director and actor Robert Redford and his former wife Lola Van Wagenen. She is the sister of writer/producer James Redford.-Early life:Redford was born in 1970, the daughter of Lola...
film The Guitar.
Partial filmography
- Night Lunch (1975)
- The Blank GenerationThe Blank GenerationThe Blank Generation is the earliest published D-I-Y "home movies" of New York punk's birth filmed by Amos Poe and Ivan Kral, legendary 1970s guitarist with Iggy Pop, Blondie and Patti Smith.- Synopsis :...
(1976) - Unmade Beds (1976)
- The Foreigner (1978)
- Glenn O'Brien's "TV PARTY" (1978-81)
- Subway Riders (1981)
- Alphabet CityAlphabet City (film)Alphabet City is a 1984 crime drama film directed by Amos Poe. The story follows a young gangster of Italian descent named Johnny, who has been given control over his own neighborhood by the Mob. Then unknown actors Vincent Spano , Jami Gertz, and Michael Winslow give compelling performances in...
(1985) - Rocket Gibraltar (1998) (screenplay)
- Triple Bogey On A Par 5 Hole (1990)
- Joey Breaker (1992) (producer)
- Dead Weekend (1994)
- Frogs for SnakesFrogs for Snakes-Plot:Out of work actress Eva , pays her way by working as a waitress at a diner in Manhattan's Lower East Side owned by Quint . She maks extra cash by making collections for her ex-husband, loan shark Al...
(1998) - 29 Palms (2001) (murchian engineering)
- Steve Earle: Just An American Boy (2003)
- When You Find Me (2004)
- John The Cop (2004)
- Her Illness (2004)
- The GuitarThe GuitarThe Guitar is a 2008 drama film about a woman who decides to pursue her dreams after being diagnosed with a terminal illness. The film was directed by Amy Redford, and stars Saffron Burrows, Isaach De Bankolé, Paz de la Huerta, and Richard Short.-Overview:...
(2007) (screenplay, producer) - Empire II (2007)
- La Commedia di Amos Poe (2011)