if i scratch, if i write – the levy film

produced & directed by KON PET MOON with Allen Ginsberg, Russell Salamon, Joan Turnbo, Russell Atkins, Martin Simon, Grace Butcher, Kent Taylor, John Scott, John Rose, Tony Walsh, Jake Leed, Dagmar Walter, Steve Ferguson, Ralph Delaney, Robert Carothers, Cleo Malone, Frank Osinski and Gerald Gold. 16-9 Anamorphic Widescreen 104 minutes.

This dvd is the end of a 20 years process

in the final completion of this film about d.a. levy. (Daryll Allen Levy) The film changed several times its original concept of just mixing readings of levy’s poetry with images of his artwork and publications. It wasn’t meant to be a documentary, but then it had to become a documentary as I started meeting people who knew levy and what he was about. The film was 75 minutes long in 1985 for the premiere screening at MOMA/NY. It was reedited to a 55 minute “broadcast-length cut” in 1987 when PBS became interested but then backed out. After the PBS reedit, I moved on to other things but always had feelings of ‘incompleteness’ and regret on not having restored the film, especially after learning about and empathizing with levy and his life. I felt and still feel very close to levy; it’s like where Gary Snyder wrote, “I feel brother to levy…in the Buddha-fields.” Then around 2003 Mark Kuhar and Larry Smith got hold of me to show levy film stuff at the 2005 levyfest in Cleveland, and I realized that this was the time to restore, expand, make a dvd, and complete the film. — Kon Petrochuk (aka: Kon Pet Moon) Please visit Kon Petrochuk’s web page by clicking here…

This dvd is part of the d.a.levy & the mimeograph revolution book, edited by Larry Smith and Ingrid Swanberg. Chronology of his life and work, Biographical essays, Photographs, Interviews, Profiles, Statements, Letters, Art Work, Collage, Poems and Critical appreciations of his writing and art levy’s “Cleveland Prints” Eight pages in full color. ISBN -1-933964-07-3 | 276 pages.

Contributors: Ed Sanders, T.L. Kryss, rjs, Karl Young, Allen Frost, Joel Lipman, Kent Taylor, Mark Kuhar, Ingrid Swanberg, Larry Smith, Russell Salamon, John Jacob, Doug Manson, Michael Basinski, Jim Lang, and others. Bottom Dog Press.