Beat Angel - film about “the spirit of Jack Kerouac” – available on DVD October 21

The film, Beat Angel, about “the spirit of Jack Kerouac,” will be released on DVD, October 21. The date also marks 37 years since Beat Generation author, poet Jack Kerouac passed away. A DVD release-screening event, with a performance by Vincent Balestri, who plays “Jack” in the film, will take place on Sunday, October 22 at The Beat Museum (at 540 Broadway) in San Francisco.

On the 30th anniversary of his own death, the angelic spirit of Jack Kerouac (Balestri) returns to earth in the abandoned body of a street bum. “Jack” drops in at a poetry slam held in honor of his “death day,” and backed by a jazz trio, explains the meaning of “bop spontaneous prose” and “speaking the truth.” He begins to transform the lives of three people: Gerard Tripp (Frank Tabbita), a secretive writer who locks his manuscripts away; Mary (Amy Humphrey), a shy young writer; and Carol (Lisa Niemi), a former painter turned bartender.

Beat Angel was inspired by Balestri’s heralded one-man play, Kerouac: The Essence of Jack that began in the early ‘80s and ran off and on for 17 years. Kerouac’s first wife, Edie Parker-Kerouac, encouraged Balestri to portray Jack on stage, coaching the actor in Jack’s voice and mannerisms, and sharing old letters and home tape recordings. The play evolved as Balestri met a number of Jack’s old friends. In 1993 Frank Tabbita brought Balestri to Seattle where he performed the show in several long runs. Interested in translating the “essence” of the piece to film, Tabbita teamed with filmmaker/writer Randy Allred, writer/producer Bruce Boyle, and Balestri to create Beat Angel.

Scenes shot at Desolation Peak (where Kerouac served as a fire lookout, and wrote about in his books, Dharma Bums and Desolation Angels), a jazz music score and recreations of moments in Kerouac’s life, give the film a haunting yet inspiring quality.
Composer/musician David Amram noted: “Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Larry Rivers and I all made Pull My Daisy in 1959 in part to show our kids and grandkids someday that we were for real and able to enjoy life and one another…Beat Angel like, Pull My Daisy will find its own audience and enter into the tiny repertoire of films made about our spirit and our Era that will last.”

Beat Angel was a popular festival selection across the U.S., garnering two award nominations at The Method Fest in Los Angeles, and winning the Wine Country Film Festival’s Special Prize of the Fest.

DVD features: 19 minute video of Kerouac: The Essence of Jack; Writers Commentary with Balestri, Boyle, Tabbita and Allred; deleted scenes; in English with French, Spanish, Italian and English subtitles. Film running time 99 minutes, color NTSC, all Regions. Available October 21 through BeatAngel.com, FilmBaby.com, Amazon.com, Kerouac.com and other selected outlets.