The Arts Naked & Up Close | ArtiFact 61: Erik Hill, Alex Sheremet

Author and filmmaker Alex Sheremet sits down with Erik Hill of Erik Hill Reviews @erikhillreviews to discuss all things art: the relationship between filmmaking and poetry, how the Harlem Renaissance and rap music changed Alex's life, the perils of Steven Pinker, and fresh insights into Alex Sheremet's and Joel Parrish's new film, "From There to There: Bruce Ario, the Minneapolis Poet".

This discussion can also be watched on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1QPNsQlZRk

This interview first appeared on Erik Hill's channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBE0DeormUQ

Donate to "From There to There: Bruce Ario, the Minneapolis Poet": https://www.gofundme.com/f/new-film-the-minneapolis-poet-bruce-ario

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Read Alex Sheremet’s (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com

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Timestamps:

1:35 -- Alex Sheremet's background; from the USSR to Brooklyn, NY; Eldridge Cleaver's Soul on Ice; the Harlem Renaissance & artistic hierarchies; how Alex's book of film criticism, "Woody Allen: Reel to Real", helped shape his own filmmaking

5:53 -- what makes a poem great; Countee Cullen's "Heritage"; Alex's atheism doesn't interfere with appreciating theological poetry; art should omit ideology in questions of craft; the artist's manipulation tactics

10:46 -- art's trajectory over time; one needs to do sufficient reading to recognize quality or flaws; why Alex abandoned Vladimir Nabokov

14:45 -- the role of politics in Alex Sheremet's artistic life; how rap music shaped Alex's artistic views; hip-hop & the stakes of masculinity; the destruction of attention span; being a 20th century man in the 21st century; many elements of human culture can disappear, but books totally shape human civilization

21:45 -- discussing Steven Pinker's "Better Angels of our Nature" & "Enlightenment Now"; human violence over time; bad neighborhoods vs. hunter-gatherer societies; those who believe in progress are incentivized to ignore stagnation

26:30 -- our film on Bruce Ario; Erik Hill reviews the film's first 8 minutes; Erik's experience with classical music set against visuals; how Alex Sheremet and Joel Parrish use visuals to "explain" Bruce Ario's poetry; why most poetry documentaries fail; using footage in arresting ways; choosing a film title

35:05 -- Bruce Ario's novel, "Cityboy"; Alex: it is a great, short novel but a difficult read; why Bruce Ario allowed his book to get destroyed; "Cityboy" captures mental illness very well; an example of great, unconventional writing in "Cityboy"

40:45 -- defining Bruce Ario's disabilities and mental ills; memoir vs. veiled autobiography vs. a "mere" novel; the "morality" of Bruce Ario's novel; art requires order, discipline, and consistency from the artist; Bruce Ario's interactions with homeless people; Robert Grudin: Time and the Art of Living

47:56 -- Bruce Ario's "innocence"; all cityboys must learn that all cities are the same

51:00 -- poetry recommendations for beginners; poetry is like learning a new language; how Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky changed Alex's life; Alex learned to read books by summarizing every paragraph on index cards

Tags: #filmmaking #politics #books #poetry #cinema