When the global pandemic forced his ninety-six-year-old father into isolation, filmmaker Ari Gold became concerned that loneliness would kill his father's spirits. As a prolific novelist who began writing in his twenties, Herbert Gold's incredible oeuvre included twenty-four novels, five collections of stories and essays, and eight nonfiction books. So, Ari mailed his father a poem, asking for one in return. Later, Ari's twin brother, Ethan, also got into the game. Thus was launched a lifesaving literary correspondence, and a testament to the bonds of family. The resulting poems are playful, honest, funny, and moving. Secrets are invoked alongside personal – and often painful – history. Ari and Ethan’s mother, Herbert Gold’s second wife, died in a helicopter crash alongside the famous rock promoter and impresario Phil Graham in 1991. Her ghost roams through the poems and the wonderful archival photos included in full color throughout. In Father Verses Sons, a lushly illustrated “correspondence in poems,” ranges across the life, family, and death of a remarkable father. The father and his sons write tenderly of their hunger for connection, about the woman that all three men have lost (a mother, a wife), and about the passion that all three seek. Ultimately, these poems tell a singular story of men bumbling their way towards love.
Authors
Ari Gold is a film director, poet, musician, & founder/president of Grack Films. His movies have screened at Sundance, Telluride, Karlovy-Vary, & hundreds of other festivals, & he has won over fifty prizes, including best film at SXSW (twice), the Student Oscar, and Best Director at the American Cinematheque / ARPA. Ari is currently in post-production on his third & fourth feature films. Helicopter expands on his student-Oscar-winning short film about his mother’s death, & features legendary director Alejandro Jodorowsky. Brother Verses Brother, a musical odyssey from the streets of San Francisco, is a companion to Ari’s first book of poetry (Father Verses Sons, Rare Bird Lit, 2024). Previously, he directed a romantic drama called The Song of Sway Lake which played 52 international film festivals, winning Best Feature at over a dozen of these. It features Rory Culkin, Robert Sheehan (Umbrella Academy), & Mary Beth Peil. His first feature film, air-drum cult comedy Adventures of Power, was called "One of the funniest films in recent years" by NY Magazine, and features Jane Lynch, Michael McKean, Nick Kroll, and Adrian Grenier. Ari has a dozen other film & TV projects in various stages of development, and also hosts a podcast about drumming called HotSticks, featuring some of the biggest rock stars on the planet. Ari’s most unusual distinctions include a High Times Magazine "Stoner of the Year" award (for his performance as a drug dealer in the rave film Groove), and a Guinness World Record for commanding the largest air-drum ensemble on earth.
