I Remember: A Film About Joe Brainard (2012)

• 73%
• 2012
• Documentary
• Matt Wolf

Joe Brainard (1941-1994) was an artist and writer whose evocations of memory and desire found their greatest expression in his memoir-poem 'I Remember.' Composed of a sequence of brief recollections, the poem's standardized format admits an incredible variety of images and feelings: 'I remember Greyhound buses at night...I remember candy cigarettes like chalk...I remember leaning up against walls in queer bars...' 'I Remember: A Film About Joe Brainard' is an archival montage that combines audio recordings of Brainard reading from the poem, as well as an interview with his lifelong friend and collaborator, the poet Ron Padgett. The result is an inventive biography of Joe Brainard, and an elliptical dialog about friendship, nostalgia, and the strange wonders of memory.