Recommended: Video Librarian

A film by Jean-Jacques Lebel and Xavier Villetard

This documentary tells the story of the incredible and enduring friendship between Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs, and how they gave birth to the literary movement of the Beat Generation. It begins in New York, at the end of the Second World War, travels through San Francisco, Mexico City, Tangier, Paris and ends fifteen years later with the publication of Howl (Ginsberg), of On the Road (Kerouac) and Naked Lunch (Burroughs). Each book reveals their manifesto and, combined, help lay a foundation and provide the inspiration for the anti-conformist youth movement.

With a dozen other writers, the infernal trio blasted society, laid the seeds of angst and influenced literature and culture for generations to come.