Benjamin Weissman

Every year, a family home is turned into a haunted house. The purpose is not only to be as terrifying as possible, but also to create a spectacular attraction to draw the neighbors in. The situation grows increasingly complicated, broken and distressed as the family’s problems intercede in their plans and as their real lives become the film’s true and overriding scary haunt.

An improvisatory 40-minute foray into a fervent, formative period in the lives of poets such as Dennis Cooper, Benjamin Weissman, Amy Gerstler, and Bob Flanagan, who took part in Cooper’s famed Wednesday Night Poetry readings. Drawing on archival footage from those gatherings, including interviews and readings, Fear of Poetry presents a snapshot of Venice in the 1980s: a chorus of punks, poets, artists, and performers co-existing in a place where, according to Flanagan, “love is still possible.”