If you loved American Revolutionary, you just might like another activist biopic, Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton, which also starts Friday, April 4.

James Broughton by Harry Redl

Years before the Beats arrived in San Francisco, the city exploded with artistic expressions – painting, theatre, film, poetry. At its center was the groundbreaking filmmaker and poet James Broughton. Big Joy explores Broughton’s passionate embrace of a life of pansexual transcendence and a fiercely independent mantra: “follow your own weird.” His remarkable story spans the post-war San Francisco Renaissance, his influence on the Beat generation, escape to Europe during the McCarthy years, a lifetime of acclaim for his joyous experimental films and poetry celebrating the human body, finding his soulmate at age 61, and finally, his ascendancy as a revered bard of sexual liberation. His work simultaneously looked back — for instance, to the work of Georges Mélies, Luis Bunuel, Jean Cocteau and Maya Deren — and forward, to today’s cross-platform media.

Big Joy is a celebratory mosaic of Broughton’s deeply intertwined creative and personal lives, vividly depicted through his involvement with a wide array of artists, activists and spiritual guides, including Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Anna Halprin, Armistead Maupin, Jack Foley, Neeli Cherkovski, Alex Gildzen, Keith Hennessy, Joel Singer, and Pauline Kael.

Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton
NR – 83 min – Tickets $7
Fri, April 4: 9:00 p.m.
Sat, April 5: 5:00 p.m.
Sun, April 6: 5:00 p.m.
Thurs, April 10: 9:00 p.m.

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