Nova ’78. 2025. UK/Portugal. Directed by Aaron Brookner, Rodrigo Areias. North American premiere. 78 min.
In 1978, Beat poet William S. Burroughs made his return to the United States after two decades in Latin America, North Africa, and Europe. This occasioned the now-legendary Nova Convention, a multimedia celebration of Burroughs that gathered Laurie Anderson, Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith, Philip Glass, and countless other luminaires on the stage of the Entermedia Theater in New York City’s East Village. Nova ’78, based on newly rediscovered footage filmed by Downtown documentarian Howard Brookner, is an exhilarating journey into the heart of 1970s counterculture. Brookner (with young Tom DiCillo and Jim Jarmusch on additional photography and sound) captured performances, from Frank Zappa reading from Naked Lunch to a panel discussion including Timothy Leary, as well as equally evocative off-stage moments. Co-directors Rodrigo Areias and Aaron Brookner (who stewards his uncle’s archive through the Howard Brookner Legacy Project) have elegantly shaped vast amounts of footage into an immersive capsule of the period. Between No Wave acts, signs of the times are palpable, from the Iranian Revolution, to the dread of nuclear annihilation, to the anti-queer Proposition 6 ballot measure. Animated by Burroughs’s prescient interests in media, communication, and control, Nova ’78 highlights a generation of artists facing down an uncertain future with boundless creative freedom.
Events
- Thu, Feb 26, 7:00 p.m.Followed by a conversation with Aaron BrooknerMoMA, Floor T2/T1, Theater 1The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1
- Sun, Mar 1, 1:30 p.m.MoMA, Floor T2/T1, Theater 1The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1
Find out more here: https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/11230#occurrences
