Lone Star International Film Festival 2008

Jack Kerouac was called the voice of his generation – synonymous with the Beat movement - with his groundbreaking novel, On The Road, in 1957. By 1960 fame had devoured him leaving him wrung out and tortured by self-doubt, addiction and depression. One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur cinematically revisits the semi-autobiographical events of his follow-up novel, Big Sur, as he spirals down at Beat haunts from San Francisco to New York and struggles to resurface at Ferlinghetti’s cabin in Big Sur. Events are told through Kerouac’s prose, narrated by John Ventimiglia (of HBO’s The Sopranos), and first-hand accounts by Kerouac’s thinly veiled contemporaries who people the book such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Carolyn Cassady, Joyce Johnson and Michael McClure. The readings, interpretations and reflections of writers, poets, actors and musicians influenced by Kerouac include Sam Shepard, Tom Waits, Robert Hunter, Patti Smith, Aram Saroyan, Donal Logue and S.E. Hinton. With original music composed and performed by recording artist, Jay Farrar of Son Volt, and additional performance by Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie.