Promotional Flyer for “Bukowski on Bukowski” Film

One of Hollywood director Taylor Hackford’s first film projects was as producer of a documentary on Charles Bukowski, simply titled “Bukowski”. Filmed in 1973, the full 46-minute documentary includes interviews and lots of film showing Bukowski interacting with people in his neighborhood and later a trip to San Francisco for a reading for City Lights Books.

This is is a promotional flyer for a television version of the film. It is a smaller version of the poster (we also carry the 11"x14" on thick paper) measuring 11" x 8.5" and is printed on ordinary paper. There is a light fold and some brown stains. The rest of the poster is very white and clean.

On Sunday November 25, 1975, Los Angeles public television station KCET broadcasted a heavily edited 28-minute version of the film’s footage with alternate scenes and a rearranged structure on their show, Artbound.

Here is a review from the November 25, 1973, edition of TV Guide magazine:

"A cinema-verite portrait of Los Angeles poet Charles Bukowski. At age 53, Bukowski is enjoying his first major success (a San Francisco poetry reading nets him 400 dollars). Until 1969, Bukowski worked in the Post Office to support his writing, and the camera captures his reminiscences of those days as he walks around his Los Angeles neighborhood. Blunt language and a sly appreciation of his life form the core of the program, which includes observations by and about the women in his life".

The film would go on to be a local Emmy Award nominee and won the Silver Reel Award at 1973 San Francisco Film Festival. Just a few years later, Taylor directed An Officer and a Gentleman, which brought home a slew of awards. He would also go on to direct Ray in 2004, an acclaimed biopic about Ray Charles.

The line “AMERICA’S BEST POET” – JEAN PAUL SARTRE & JEAN GENET” once again rears its head. Bukowski came to believe this was something LouJon Press publisher Jon Webb may have made up, and had tried to get it removed from various announcements over the years.

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