Filmmakers Kevin Carey and Mark Hillringhouse have again turned the camera on the life of a poet, as they did with their 2012 documentary about New Jersey’s Maria Mazziotti GIllan (All That Lies Between Us). With “Unburying Malcom Miller” they have focused on a Salem, Massachusetts poet whose work was influential enough that Gerald Stern said “all students should read it,” and whose life was strange enough that he went from being homeless and institutionalized to leaving bundles of hundred dollar bills in his kitchen drawer when he died in 2014. He also left behind a substantial canon of poetry which explored his personal relationships and his cynical view of the world around him. The film showcases his poems and his friendships with such poets as Leonard Cohen and a former Salem State faculty member and writer, Rod Kessler, who befriended Miller at the end of his life and took it upon himself to get to know him better beyond his death. Kessler’s interviews with those who knew Miller, along with readings by local poets of his work, reveal just how complicated and memorable a poet and a man can be to a community.
A question and answer with the filmmakers will follow as well as a live performance of the original “Malcolm’s Song,” written by R.G. Evans for the film.
