Born in New Orleans in 1925 to a German Jewish father and a Black Catholic mother, Bob Kaufman was considered “the American Rimbaud” and contributed a singular voice to the poetic imaginings of world literature. And When I Die, I Won’t Stay Dead is an archival journey into Kaufman’s life and work amidst the changes and struggles of the United States during his active years among the Beat writers in San Francisco’s North Beach, opening a time capsule via collage of black-and-white footage and still photographs, underscored by jazz and city soundscapes.

Billy Woodberry is associated with the LA Rebellion, a group of Black filmmakers that included Julie Dash, Charles Burnett, Haile Germina who studied at UCLA Film School in the late 1960s–1980s and created a cinema alternative to Hollywood. Best known for his award-winning feature Bless Their Little Hearts (1984) he currently teaches at the School of Film/Video at California Institute of the Arts as well as being an installation artist, narrator, and director. His work has screened at the Camera Austria Symposium, Harvard Film Archive, Human Rights Watch Film Festival and Museum of Modern Art.

“The legacy of Kaufman’s poetry provides the dominant note in the film I ultimately made. But given my strong commitment to struggles for political justice, my film also weaves his artistic triumph as a triumph of radical politics surviving and inspiring against all odds. It is only justice to the facts of Bob Kaufman’s life and times that this film must attempt to recall and chronicle the countless odds he faced to find his voice and project his vision.” – Billy Woodberry