The legendary City Lights bookstore founder Lawrence Ferlinghetti recently passed away on February 22 at age 101. In this definitive documentary, director Christopher Felver crafts a personal portrait that reveals Ferlinghetti's role as a pioneer in fighting censorship and as a brave supporter of many writers in the Beat movement itself. A pioneer of literary freedom he fought for the publication of many controversial books including William S. Burroughs’ “Naked Lunch,” D.H. Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” and Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl.” 

Since its inception in 1953, Ferlinghetti's City Lights Bookstore quickly became an iconic literary institution that embodied social change and literary freedom. Continuing to thrive for over five decades, it is a cornerstone of America's modern literary and cultural history. One-on-one interviews with Ferlinghetti, made over the course of a decade, touch upon a rich mélange of characters and events that began to unfold in postwar America. Also featuring Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Anne Waldman, Dennis Hopper, Billy Collins, Sylvia Whitman, Dave Eggers, Michael McClure, Lorenzo Ferlinghetti, Amiri Baraka, David Amram.