The Cure for Insomnia (1987)

Directed by

John Henry Timmis IV

Genre

documentary film

Country

United States

Runtime

87h

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A single reading of a very long poem fills nearly 87 hours of film. Clips from heavy metal and adult videos appear rarely. The movie was shown continuously once and all copies are now lost.

experimentalmonotonousendlessbizarrestaticabsurdhypnoticminimalist

What happens

The Cure for Insomnia is a 1987 experimental film directed by John Henry Timmis IV, which was, according to Guinness World Records, the longest running film. At 5,220 minutes long (87 hours, or 3 days and 15 hours) in length, the film has no plot, instead consisting of artist L. D. Groban reading his 4,080-page poem A Cure for Insomnia over the course of three and a half days, spliced with occasional clips from heavy metal and pornographic videos. It was first played in its entirety at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Illinois), from January 31 to February 3, 1987, in one continuous showing. It has not been released on DVD or other home video formats and all known copies are considered to be lost, with only 85 seconds of the film being available. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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