Independent Lens

Season 4 Episode 2: Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story

“Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story,” a wry exploration of the industry in which record producers set amateurs' poems to music and record them (for a fee, of course). Included are interviews with producers, performers, observers and people who have submitted their poems for musical adaptation. And there's a sampling of the results (examples include “Non-Violent Tae-kwon-do Trooper” and “I Am a Ginseng Digger”). Most songs are “in one ear and out the other,” says musician Ellery Eskelin (the son of a song-poem “auteur”). But, he adds, “There's the 10 or 20 percent that are from another planet.”

Genre:

Documentary

Seasons:

28

Episodes:

543

Cast:

Stanley Tucci

Quality:

HD

Duration:

60 min

First Air:

1999

Rating:

6.6