Screenings & Press

Excited to announce that Kyle Harvey’s documentary film, It’s Nice To Be With You Always, will premiere at the Omaha Film Festival!

Screening: 
Sunday March 8, 2020 at 12:15pm  
Aksarben Cinema #6 
2110 S 67th Street 
Omaha, NE 68106

It’s Nice To Be With You Always blends together Cinéma-vérité style footage and conversations to create an intimate portrait of the poet Neeli Cherkovski. Imagine being dropped into the middle of a poem.

Neeli Cherkovski is the author of many books of poetry, including Elegy For My Beat Generation (2018), From the Canyon Outward (2009), and The Crow and I (2015). He was the coeditor of Anthology of L.A. Poets (with Charles Bukowski). Cherkovski also wrote biographies of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Charles Bukowski, as well as the critical memoir Whitman’s Wild Children (1988). An archive of his papers is held at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. He has lived in San Francisco since 1974.


Photo courtesy of Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.

‘Meet Me at The River’ Dance, film, music and poetry performances focus on the river (Grand Junction Daily Sentinel)

Billed as “a confluence of dance, film, live music and community celebrating the beauty and sustainability of our rivers,” “River of Angels” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Aug. 1–3, in the Mesa Experimental Theatre (Black Box) in the Moss Performing Arts Center, 1231 N. 12th St., at Colorado Mesa University.

Tickets cost $15 for adults, $10 for students and can be purchased at riverofangels.brownpapertickets.com or at the door.

Seating is limited to about 150 for each performance.

Proceeds from “River of Angels” will go to Forever Our River Foundation, foreverourrivers.org.


The poet as way finder: ‘Portolano’ (The Telluride Watch)

The film, which premiered at the Lithic Gallery and Bookstore in Fruita last October, features interviews with Mueller’s contemporaries, fellow post-Beat poets who knew him in North Beach, like 74-year-old Neeli Cherkovski and 85-year-old Jack Hirschman, as well as more-recent friends from the San Juans, scribes such as Art Goodtimes, a cofounder of the Talking Gourds poetry group, Wendy Videlock, of Grand Junction, and Danny Rosen. “Amor Fati” was published by Lithic Press, which is based in Fruita. Rosen, Lithic’s owner, has credited his admiration for Mueller’s outsized talent and literary output with the desire to found a printing press (Lithic has since gone on to pubish numerous Western Slope writers).

Tonight’s documentary takes its title from the atlas/navigation manual used by sailors in medieval times, with charts and maps of ports and rocky coasts. A portolan was a wayfinder. “There are boxes upon boxes of his bar napkins, note cards and poems reflecting this deeply profound, navigational wisdom, from which Lithic Press will be publishing for years, adding to the Jack Mueller portolan,” Harvey wrote shortly after the poet’s passing. (Read more…)


WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3RD (GRAND JUNCTION, CO)
Portolano: A Film About Jack Mueller
Mesa County Library (Central) 6:30pm

Portolano: A Film About Jack Mueller
Directed by Kyle Harvey

Wednesday, April 3rd at 6:30pm / Free

Mesa County Central Library (Mesa/Monument Room)
443 N 6th Street
Grand Junction, CO 81501

ABOUT PORTOLANO — Portolano weaves together interviews with literary icons such as Neeli Cherkovski and Jack Hirschman, archival photographs, audio recordings and ephemera of the legendary North Beach, San Francisco scene of the 70’s and 80’s to create a vibrant, poetic portrait of Jack Mueller.

Mueller was a poet, educator, organizer, ocean sailor, mountain climber, and cultural leader in the arts. In the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, Mueller gained a reputation among the post-Beat poets in the Bay Area literary scene with his readings and cultural performances. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, renowned poet and co-founder of the landmark City Lights bookstore in San Francisco, said, “Jack Mueller is the biggest-hearted poet I have ever known.”



THURSDAY, APRIL 11TH (RIDGWAY, CO)
Portolano: A Film About Jack Mueller
Sherbino Theater 7pm

Portolano: A Film About Jack Mueller
Directed by Kyle Harvey

Thursday, April 11th. Doors at 6:00, Film at 7:00

Sherbino Theater
604 Clinton Street
Ridgway, CO 81432

$10 for adults, $5 for students 18 and under. Buy Advance Tickets HERE

ABOUT PORTOLANO — Portolano weaves together interviews with literary icons such as Neeli Cherkovski and Jack Hirschman, archival photographs, audio recordings and ephemera of the legendary North Beach, San Francisco scene of the 70’s and 80’s to create a vibrant, poetic portrait of Jack Mueller.

Mueller was a poet, educator, organizer, ocean sailor, mountain climber, and cultural leader in the arts. In the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, Mueller gained a reputation among the post-Beat poets in the Bay Area literary scene with his readings and cultural performances. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, renowned poet and co-founder of the landmark City Lights bookstore in San Francisco, said, “Jack Mueller is the biggest-hearted poet I have ever known.”