Director:		Jim Jarmusch
Year:		2016
Language:		English
Time:		118 minutes

Paterson is a bus driver and an unpublished poet. Paterson and his wife and muse, Laura, live and work in Paterson, New Jersey. Doctor and poet William Carlos Williams, who is bus driver Paterson's favorite poet and who wrote a long poem titled "Paterson," did not live in Paterson, New Jersey. He lived in Rutherford, New Jersey, ten miles away. Italian Renaissance poet Petrarch used the name Laura as a muse for many of his poems. Since he died in 1374, Petrarch was never able to visit Paterson, New Jersey, nor write about it. This film follows Paterson and Laura during a week of observing, writing, yearning and living.

Rated R for language.

Post-film discussion led by Ed Zahniser. This film is shown as part of a special poetry weekend in conjunction with the Friends of the Shepherdstown Library (FOSL) "Left of the Bank" event on Saturday, October 7 from 7:00-9:30pm. Learn more.

Links

Other background on the film.

About the director Jim Jarmusch.

Background on the poet William Carlos Williams.

A selection of reviews of the film.