Jim Carroll

Writing

Jim Carroll

Born 1949-08-01 · Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

James Dennis "Jim" Carroll was an author, poet, autobiographer, actor and punk musician. He was the author of “The Basketball Diaries,” a cult-classic memoir of his drug-fueled misadventures as a teenager in the 1960s. Then he became a celebrated downtown poet; and then in 1980, the star of his own hit rock band. With the help of the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards, Carroll signed a record deal and in 1980 the band released its first album, "Catholic Boy. He appeared in two feature films and a couple of documentaries.

Acting credits

The Basketball Diaries poster
7.4

A high school basketball player’s life turns upside down after free-falling into the harrowing world of drug addiction.

The Basketball Diaries

1995

Tuff Turf poster
6.0

The new guy in a Los Angeles high school, Morgan, does some singing and fights hotshot Nick over disco dancer Frankie.

Tuff Turf

1985

Listen to the City poster
10.0

Hupar wakes up from a 20-year coma. Disoriented, he soon meets Arete, a young poet and Sophis, a TV newswoman. Together, the three team up to expose corporate crime in a crumbling city scape of the very near future.

Listen to the City

1984

Obscene: A Portrait of Barney Rosset and Grove Press poster
5.0

A look at the life and work of American publisher Barney Rosset, who struggled to bring controversial works like "Tropic of Cancer" and "Naked Lunch" to publication.

Obscene: A Portrait of Barney Rosset and Grove Press

2008

Poetry in Motion poster
8.0

More than 20 contemporary North American poets recite, sing, and perform their work. Early in the film, Charles Bukowski talks about the energy of poets and of a poem. These poets are the children of Walt Whitman and of Charles Olson, incantatory and oratorical, radical, sometimes incorporating contemporary political imagery. Black Mountain poets, the Beats, minimalists like John Cage, the wordless Four Horsemen, Tom Waits, and others capture aspects of poets as troubadours.

Poetry in Motion

1982

Gang of Souls: A Generation of Beat Poets poster
5.0

Maria Beatty's documentary exploring the insights and influences of the American Beat Poets. The film conveys their consciousness and sensibility through interviews with William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Diane Di Prima, among others. Also weaves in additional commentary from contemporary musicians, poets and writers such as Marianne Faithfull, Richard Hell, Lydia Lunch and Henry Rollins. Also expands upon how the poets reached new levels of creativity and inspired social change.

Gang of Souls: A Generation of Beat Poets

1989

Lou Reed - Coney Island Baby Live in Jersey poster
6.5

Lou Reed was wise to chronicle a concert by his early-'80s band, featuring lead guitarist Robert Quine and bassist Fernando Saunders. Reed had used them on his trilogy of strong albums -- The Blue Mask, Legendary Hearts, and New Sensations -- released between 1982 and 1984. This 52-minute video, shot at the Capitol Theater in Passaic, NJ, in 1984, is a straightforward, no-frills live show. Reed, in black T-shirt and black leather pants, stands on-stage before a cityscape background and makes his way through a set that features both a selection of Velvet Underground songs, and his sole hit single, "Walk on the Wild Side," plus highlights from his three recent albums, notably such songs as "I Love You Suzanne." As such, the video makes a good Lou Reed career sampler.

Lou Reed - Coney Island Baby Live in Jersey

1992

Behind the camera