We Are the Dinosaur

"We Are the Dinosaur" is a street-rant lament for the state of the planet delivered to an unsuspecting public seemingly content to yawn and go about its business while the Poet bumrushes the Courthouse, whispers in the ear of the Anonymous Businessman, suggests a cannibal diet at the site of the Nation’s first capital, takes flight at the Oculus near the World Trade Center, and swims against the implacable tide of humanity in Times Square. With a wrench-raucous score by Marc Ribot, energized-intrusion cinematography by director H. Paul Moon, and an over-the-top-and-then-some performance by poet Bob Holman, this poem promises to either explode the dead-soul reactions of the populace to climate crisis or become a deconstructive language bomb that blasts open the Gates to Kingdom Come.

  • H. Paul Moon
    Director
    Equus Caballus (Zebra Poetry Film Festival 2016 Official Selection); Mining the Mother Lode (Zebra Poetry Film Festival 2018 Official Selection)
  • Bob Holman
    Writer
    The United States of Poetry (PBS, 1996); On the Road with Bob Holman (Link TV, 2010); Language Matters with Bob Holman (PBS, 2015)
  • Bob Holman
    Key Cast
    The United States of Poetry (PBS 1996); On the Road with Bob Holman (Link TV 2010); Language Matters with Bob Holman (PBS 2015)
  • Kyabell Glass
    Associate Director
    Panorama (2023)
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    Poetry
  • Runtime:
    2 minutes 49 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 1, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    76 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - H. Paul Moon

H. Paul Moon (zenviolence.com) is a filmmaker, professor and attorney based in New York City and Washington, D.C. whose work concentrates on the performing arts. Major works include "Sitka: A Piano Documentary" about the craftsmanship of Steinway pianos, and "Quartet for the End of Time" about Olivier Messiaen’s transcendent WWII composition. Moon's first feature, an acclaimed and award-winning documentary about the life and music of American composer Samuel Barber, premiered on PBS, and he is currently finishing another documentary feature about Western poetry. His ongoing bicentennial multimedia works on poet Walt Whitman are featured at his whitmanonfilm.com. Moon's latest film is an operatic adaptation of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," awarded "Critic's Choice" by Opera News as a "thoroughly enjoyable film version, insightfully conceived and directed" with "first-rate and remarkably illustrative storytelling."

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Director Statement

Founder of the Bowery Poetry Club and the spoken word label Mouth Almighty/Mercury, Bob Holman is a poet best known for his defining role in the spoken word, slam, digital and film/video worlds. His films include the Poetry Spots series for WNYC-TV (six years, 3 Emmys), a 5-part series The United States of Poetry on PBS and Language Matters, a documentary on poetry and endangered languages, also on PBS. He has read his work on MTV’s Spoken Word Unplugged and HBO Def Poetry Jam and has published a dozen books, most recently Bob Holman’s India Journals that documents the making of Ginsberg’s Karma, a film about the Beats in India and the birth of the hippie movement. He has three children and five grandchildren and lives above the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City.