AZUL (1988)
Directed by Roland Legiardi-Laura
104 minutes
AZUL is a documentary about the poetic soul of Nicaragua. Twenty-four poems interweave with interviews to create a narrative of Nicaragua's poetry and the historical contexts and individuals who formed it. With poems from the creator of Modernismo, Rubén Darío, to Ernesto Cardenal, Carlos Rigby, and Gioconda Belli, to people reciting spontaneously in the street and soldiers workshopping poems on the frontlines, AZUL reveals a nation alive with the creative spirit and a profound belief in poetry as a crucible for change and expression. Originally filmed during the height of the Contra War, the film has been restored digitally. Preceded by: Richard Levine AFTER BASHŌ 2026, 8 min, DCP Twenty haikus by Bob Holman – written while he was following "A Narrow Path Into the Interior," the walk that Japan's National Poet, Matsuo Bashō, took in 1689 – are the starting point of this animated collaboration by filmmaker Richard Levine, musician Phillip Johnston, and poet Bob Holman. The poems originally appeared in The New Yorker magazine. Followed by a Q&A with co-producer and editor Joanna Kiernan!