Patti Smith: Dream of Life (2008) December 9, 2008

When people ask her "How does it feel to be a rock icon?" Patti Smith says she "always thinks of Mount Rushmore." Steven Sebring's directorial debut takes a lyrical, stream-of-consciousness approach that is exactly right in his affecting portrait of the "rock 'n' roll Joan of Arc" (Stephen Holden, The NY Times) who can bring a crowd of devotees to their feet chanting "Glor-i-a!" as effectively as she can share her pain over the early death of her husband, Fred (Sonic) Smith and her brother, and the loss of her close friend Robert Mapplethorpe and of other artists she admires (Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, William S. Burroughs).