Clark Ashton Smith: The Emperor of Dreams (Documentary)

BluRay or DVD, Directed by Darin Coelho Spring, Cover art by Skinner

$20.00

Clark Ashton Smith was a poet, fantasist, sculptor, and painter. While mostly remembered today for his pioneering work in 1930s pulp magazines alongside H. P. Lovecraft, he is considered by many to be the last great Romantic poet and a unique visual artist with a large range of work in the outsider vein.

This lyrical feature-length documentary explores Smith's work and life as a solitary artist living in Auburn, a small rural town in Northern California. It features interviews with leading scholars in the field such as S. T. Joshi, Scott Connors, and Ron Hilger, as well as legendary writer of speculative fiction, Harlan Ellison. Donald Sidney-Fryer, groundbreaking Smith scholar, is featured as a sort of tour guide to Smith's Auburn.

The film received its world premiere in October 2018 to enraptured audiences at the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, Oregon, and its NYC premiere as part of the prestigious Cinemonde Screening Series. Now available for home viewing: physical media only from Hippocampus Press, and steaming via Amazon and Vimeo.