There is no sharper weapon than the written word. In other news, the Space Age is upon us.

 In 1978, Beat Generation writer William S. Burroughs, known for experimental classics such as Naked Lunch, returned to America after having lived across Latin America, Africa and Europe for two decades. To celebrate, he organized the Nova Convention, a gathering combining the most influential literary minds of the Beat and hippie generations (many of whom found their way into Eugene at some point during the peak of their careers): Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, Phillip Glass, John Giorno, Frank Zappa and more. 

Nova took place in between Nov. 30 and Dec. 2 1978, with poetry readings, music, film screenings, avant garde performances and panel discussions about the distant future. 

Filmmaker Howard Brookner brought multiple film crews to thoroughly document the convention’s every chapter. For almost 45 years, most of that footage was purported to be lost, and the remains of the convention existed mostly in soundbytes and writing. 

In 2022, 44 lost rolls of 16mm film were found in a drawer in Burrough’s house. Brookner’s nephew, Aaron Brookner, along with Rodrigo Areias, retrieved the film and restored it in full. Together, they directed and edited the footage into Nova ’78 which was released in 2025. The film has screened at over 50 film festivals around the world and was an exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art earlier this year. It has four screenings at Art House Dec. 18 through 21.

The Beat Generation arose in the mid-to-late 1950s. They were a group of young men who moved to Greenwich Village, authoring novels that tore down standard narrative structure and embraced liberation. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, Ginsburg’s Howl and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road are all considered to be the leading pieces that inspired hundreds of young people to flock to New York and dive into art during this time. 

Being able to see so many culturally significant literary figures in a room together, talking about and honoring one another’s work in this film is truly a gift — especially since, for decades, this convention has only been a concept or a memory.

This never-before-seen footage is truly stunning. The film walks through as many stages of the convention as possible. It opens with a close-up shot of Burroughs, which holds tightly to his face. A man, presumably Brookner, asks him how he feels about the convention. The focus then switches to a group of the organizers in the same room just before the convention’s doors open. They’re talking about having to use composer Phillip Glass’s $26,000 sound system for the duration of the event.

From there, Nova begins. There are poetry readings and performances from the likes of artists Anne Waldman, Laurie Anderson and Giornio, whose Dial-a-Poem program served as a catalyst for the event.

But the true reason this event was created is explained by Burroughs himself: “This is the Space Age and we are here to go,” he addresses the audience. “As we leave the aqua lung of time, we step into an epic comparable to when the mariners of early America began to explore the unknown world.” Travel, he says, is necessary.

One of the most famous facts about Nova is that Keith Richards was scheduled to perform, which sold many tickets to young people who otherwise would not have attended. What is probably not as well known, is that, when he canceled, Patti Smith insisted on breaking the news to the audience — and announced it by pulling $12 out of her pocket and offered everyone a partial “refund.”

In Richard’s place, Zappa reads a passage from Naked Lunch about a man teaching his anus to speak.

This film is not for the impatient, and it is extremely avant garde. All of the performances are experimental and embrace the Space Age theme. A man does an interpretive dance to silence, while another man in a dog mask walks around behind him. With footage so triumphantly unraveled, it spends time to let each moment preciously linger. This film is a time capsule that offers an exclusive lens into the last surviving days of a counterculture. With no talking heads, or intercut explanations, the footage does all of the storytelling. Though the film showcases a different era, many of its ideas ring just as loudly today. Particularly, in order to understand other worlds, we must first understand our own planet’s condition.

Nova ’78 screens 7:30 pm Wednesday, Nov. 18, 4 pm Thurs., Nov. 19, 9 pm Friday, Nov. 20, 2:15 pm and Saturday, Nov. 21 at Art House, 492 East 13th Avenue. Tickets are $10 and available at EugeneArtHouse.com.