A Sad Flower in the Sand<\/i> is the first major film documentary about a largely unsung writer of the 20th century: John Fante, the renegade author whose highly autobiographical novels illustrate his deep-rooted love of Los Angeles and his struggles working through poverty and prejudice.<\/p>\n
Born in Denver in 1909, Fante grew up in a working class Italian-American family that was plagued by prejudice and poverty. At 21, he struck out for Los Angeles and wrote the autobiographical novels The Road to Los Angeles<\/i>, Dreams from Bunker Hill,<\/i> and his most acclaimed work, Ask the Dust<\/i>, capturing the rhythms of Los Angeles life in prose that later inspired such writers as Charles Bukowski, who famously referred to Fante as \u201cmy God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like Bukowski, Fante shouldered bitter resentments, spending his non-writing hours drinking, gambling, and toiling miserably as a Hollywood screenwriter. A Sad Flower in the Sand<\/i> explores Fante\u2019s art and life through interviews with those who knew him best: writer\/director Robert Towne (Chinatown<\/i>), publisher John Martin, his biographer Stephen Cooper, his wife Joyce, and his sons, Jim and Dan.<\/p>\n
The result is a hypnotic tour through Fante\u2019s life, work and his beloved Los Angeles \u2014 with old and new footage of the streets, hotels, and gin joints that were his home and inspiration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Sad Flower in the Sand<\/i> captures writer John Fante\u2019s deep-rooted love of the city of Los Angeles in a film about a dream and a city of dreamers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"topic":[1216,1249],"class_list":["post-189","films","type-films","status-publish","hentry","topic-arts-and-culture","topic-literature"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n