“Philomene Long's The Beats: An Existential Comedy is a gem of a movie that captures the magic of the Beat generation and their continuing legacy. The film moves back and forth between the present and the '50s, providing filmed encounters with poets Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Hirschman, Aya, and Frank Rios, film maker Shirley Clarke, and Andy Warhol superstar Viva.... Long puts the '50s in historical perspective, revealing how the Beats counterbalanced the McCarthy era when America was in a state of fear and paranoia.... Using an emotional tone which is exactly right and a lovely style of filmic poetry, Long immmortalizes the Beats with heart and soul. The Beats: An Existential Comedy was conceived as a posthumous tribute to poet Stuart Z. Perkoff with a jazz score by Si Perkoff. The film...is produced by Jack Kugelman.” --Linda Gross, L.A. Times