Nova Express

Author Jack Sargeant presents the Andre Perkowski epic adaptation of Nova Express. Like the Burroughs’ science fiction cut-up novel on which it is based, the film cuts-up, remixes, incorporates and detours through social satire, science fiction, film noir, and the image archive of the twentieth-century to create a visual response the voices of William Burroughs and others as they read routines from the book. This film is a mammoth work that has screened in various forms across America (some versions lasting three-hours) and this screening is essential for anyone interested in Burroughs, radical cinema, and storming the reality studio.

Introduced and accompanied by a talk from Jack Sargeant exploring the work of Burroughs, beyond literature, drawing on the writings in his latest book, Against Control.

“As the film reaches its climax, Perkowski’s images become less literal and more visionary, intensifying into hallucinatory, stroboscopic collages. Its ​‘Final Words’ (in fact the first words of the book), written half a century ago, are apocalyptic and all too timely: ​‘Listen all you boards syndicates and governments of the earth. And you powers behind what filth deals consummated in what lavatory to take what is not yours. To sell the ground from unborn feet forever … Show your cards all players … These words might be too late.’” – The Boston Globe

Jack Sargeant is the author of numerous books on underground, independent and cult film, and on underground subcultures. As a result of this he appears as an expert commentator in several documentaries on topics such as no wave cinema, the Cinema of Transgression and cult film. He also appears in documentaries on related subjects such as sexuality and subcultures.