
Amos Poe
Directing
Biography
Amos Poe, born Amos Jay Porges, was a quintessential New York independent filmmaker, a key figure in the emergence of the No Wave cinema movement that evolved from the punk music scene and flourished from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s on New York's Lower East Side.
Known For

A talk show presented by Michel Drucker
Les Rendez-vous du dimanche

A narcissistic runaway engages in a number of parasitic relationships amongst members of New York's waning punk scene.
Smithereens

A man's family comes for his 77th birthday and while he loves all of his children and their children, he and his children don't exactly connect. However, he connects with his grandchildren. And he tells them what he wants for his birthday and they do what they can to give it to him.
Rocket Gibraltar

The film is a day in the life of a young artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat, who needs to raise money to reclaim the apartment from which he has been evicted. He wanders the downtown streets carrying a painting he hopes to sell, encountering friends, whose lives (and performances) we peek into.
Downtown '81

The life of a woman is transformed after she is diagnosed with a terminal disease, fired from her job and abandoned by her boyfriend. Given two months to live, she throws caution to the wind to pursue her dreams.
The Guitar

In the years before Ronald Reagan took office, Manhattan was in ruins. But true art has never come from comfort, and it was precisely those dire circumstances that inspired artists like Jim Jarmusch, Lizzy Borden, and Amos Poe to produce some of their best works. Taking their cues from punk rock and new wave music, these young maverick filmmakers confronted viewers with a stark reality that stood in powerful contrast to the escapist product being churned out by Hollywood.
Blank City
A documentary about the influential independent film production company The Shooting Gallery.
Misfire: The Rise and Fall of the Shooting Gallery

In the midst of an evacuation effort, True World Forces agent Weed must secure an alien spacecraft suspected to have crashed somewhere in the city. But after Weed meets the ship's beautiful, shape-shifting pilot, he finds himself falling for her. As the two grow close, Weed struggles to determine where his true loyalties lie.
Dead Weekend

TV Party was a public-access television cable TV show in New York City that ran from 1978 to 1982. Glenn O'Brien was the host. Chris Stein, the co-founder of the pop band Blondie, was the co-host and Walter "Doc" Steding was the leader of the TV Party orchestra. Amos Poe was the director. Guests included Mick Jones, David Byrne, Debbie Harry, James Chance and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Brink Films has re-released some of the best of the 80 plus episodes on DVD, as well as a documentary about the TV show.
TV Party

A group of unemployed theater actors survive by working as illegal money collectors. The loan shark they are working for owns an Off-Broadway theater. As he decided to play "American Buffalo" there, a bloody battle for the favorite roles begin.
Frogs for Snakes

This is Poe and Král's first effort, shot on small-gauge stock, before their more well-known endeavor The Blank Generation (1976) came to be. A "DIY" portrait of the New York music scene, the film is a patchwork of footage of numerous rock acts performing live, at venues like Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, the dive bars of Greenwich Village and, of course, CBGB.
Night Lunch

Joey is a player, a hot-shot movie agent in New York. If a deal can be made, he'll make it. If a rising talent can be snapped up, he'll be the first in line. And when it comes to luring Hollywood in a bidding war for a script nobody's read, Joey is your man. Joey's definitely cruising in the fast lane. Bu there's one thing Joey has never taken the time to do... live. Joey's programmed life is turned topsy-turvy by a series of unexpected events which culminates in a serendipitous romance with a throughly remarkable young Jamaican woman.
Joey Breaker

A New York City drug dealer decides to get out of the business, but has to flee from mobsters.
Alphabet City

From 1978 to 1982, Glenn O'Brien hosted a New York city public access cable TV show called TV Party. Co-hosted by Chris Stein, from Blondie, and directed by filmmaker Amos Poe, the hour long show took television where it had never gone before: to the edge of civility and "sub-realism" as Glenn would put it. Walter Steding and his TV Party "Orchestra" provided a musical accompaniment to the madness at hand, and many artists and musicians, from The Clash, Nile Rodgers, Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Bryne and Arto Lindsey were regular guests. It was the cocktail party that could be a political party. With 80 hours of disintegrating 3/4 inch videotape as a starting point, we tracked down the trend setting participants still living today and found out what they remember of the period and how the show influenced their lives. This, combined with clips from the orginal show, became the documentary "TV Party.
TV Party
the connections and energy flow between the various artists populating the 1980s sub-cultures of New York and Berlin. Features Jim Jarmusch, Lydia Lunch, Blixa Bargeld, Alex Hacke, Gudrun Gut, Nick Cave, and others. An important film. Bravo, Mr. Dreher.
No Wave - Underground '80: Berlin - New York

A psychotic saxophone player lures victims to deserted spots with his music and then guns them down.
Subway Riders

A new translation of Dante's Divine Comedy channeling the tools of Edward Muybridge and a meditation on the perception of motion in a motion picture.
La commedia di Amos Poe

A French special op suffers an existential crisis as he wanders New York City in search of a mission and the requisite connections.
The Foreigner

Two friends vie for the attention of a stranger who passes out at their doorstep.
Hunter

The cream of the New York new wave/punk crop, filmed live at CBGB when the scene was just beginning. Includes performances by Patti Smith, Blondie, Television, the Ramones, Talking Heads, the Heartbreakers, the Shirts, Wayne County, the Marbles, the Dolls, Miamis, Harry Toledo, and the Tuff Darts (w/Robert Gordon).