Amos Poe

Director

January 1, 1949 (76 years)

† December 25, 2025

Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel

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.

Filmography

N/A

TV Party

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.

3.0

Dead Weekend

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.

4.7

Alphabet City

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

6.5

Night Lunch

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.

7.2

Subway Riders

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

3.7

Frogs for Snakes

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.

4.5

Unmade Beds

Sketched loosely, the narrative of Poe's first feature is as scrappy and paper-thin as its protagonist Rico, a self-styled loner in New York City circa 1976 who longs to inhabit the "New Wave" scene of mid-60s Paris. In Rico's day-to-day life as an unsuccessful photographer, he wearily searches for authentic connection-- even as he spouts the most inauthentic prose imaginable.

6.0

The Blank Generation

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).

6.0

The Foreigner

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

N/A

La commedia di Amos Poe

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.

4.2

Triple Bogey On A Par Five Hole

The Levys, a glamorous couple, used to make their living robbing golfers, until they met their fatal handicap. Years later, scriptwriter Remy Gravelle decides to observe the Levy progeny as they sail endlessly round Manhattan in their luxury yacht.

9.0

Just an American Boy: A Film About Steve Earle

A musical documentary film about the politically minded singer/songwriter Steve Earle.

N/A

Empire II

A tribute to the bustling beauty of Manhattan, inspired by Andy Warhol's 1964 film "Empire".

N/A

Adios

"Shortly after Amos went into home hospice he began filming ‘Adios’, a short film, compiled of 16mm and Super 8 footage, to premiere at his memorial, chronicling all the family and friends who have come to visit. Even Courtney our absolutely wonderful hospice nurse is in it. […] Only twice have we forgotten to film a visitor. Amos designated me the Director of Photography. Since I have to focus and shoot using my bad left eye the joke in our home is that it’s a film by a dying director and a blind DP." – Claudia Summers

N/A

A Walk in the Park

A Walk In The Park is, in the words of its protagonist Brian Fass, “a science fiction film, a psychedelic journey back to the womb...” This documentary-like journey, progresses from non-fiction to fiction, and dizzyingly, dazzlingly back again.

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