PAUL BOWLES IN MOROCCO
"Paul Bowles opened the world of Hip. He let in the murder, the drugs, the incest, the death of the Square...the call of the orgy, the end of civilization." -Norman Mailer

1970, 59 min. Produced, directed, and photographed by Gary Conklin

“The documentary captured some of the ominous tone so brilliantly manipulated by the author. Going into the streets and out into the desert, the camera recorded crowded bazaars and snake charmers, religious ecstatics, and ten year old street hustlers, camel caravans and magnificent oasis. Bowles is also a student of the area’s music and the soundtrack provided a first rate accompaniment of dazzling rhythms."

And in the midst of this exotic scene strolled Mr. Bowles, urbane, sophisticated, knowledgeable – complete with flowing robes, cigarette holder and, at one point, sunglasses. Whether recalling the native who insisted on turning himself into a goat or discussing the “process of reintegration” that an individual soul experiences in the vastness of the desert, the author might have just stepped from the pages of one of his stories.”
– John J. O’Connor, New York Times

“In Paul Bowles in Morocco there is a clear and unequivocal hero – Paul Bowles…This is a man who has something to say, and Gary Conklin, the director, has made it happen.”
-Melvin Bragg, London Times



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"There's no such thing as a tour. It s all an idea, not a reality, but travel is real because you may get bogged down in a place for years, or for the rest of your life, you never know. But you’ve got to be ready to do that, if you’re traveling really. In other words...you're not on your way anywhere, and you don't have any home to go to when you finish, so you keep going. Well, that is not touring, that’s traveling.

Any travel nowadays is a safari, unless you’re a tourist, and use planes, and reserve hotel rooms in advance, and know just where you’re going to be a month from now.

-What do you think of that?

Well, I think it's better to stay home."
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