The Source
Synopsis
Traces the Beats from Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac's meeting in 1944 at Columbia University to the deaths of Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs in 1997. Three actors provide dramatic interpretations of the work of these three writers, and the film chronicles their friendships, their arrival into American consciousness, their travels, frequent parodies, Kerouac's death, and Ginsberg's politicization. Their movement connects with bebop, John Cage's music, abstract expressionism, and living theater. In recent interviews, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Kesey, Ferlinghetti, Mailer, Jerry Garcia, Tom Hayden, Gary Snyder, Ed Sanders, and others measure the Beats' meaning and impact.
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 16
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Chuck WorkmanShot by Andrew DintenfassScored by David AmramDesigned by Marc Greville Masson
Box Office
1999 · Box office
Grossed $361K worldwide
Worldwide gross
$361K
Also known as
- Die Beat Generation – Wie alles anfingde
- The Beats - L'urlo ribelleit
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Cast & Crew
16 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Directors
1Writers
1Producers
1Other crew
8Parents Guide
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