EXCLUSIVE: Ebs Burnough and Michael Imperioli Discuss Exciting New Jack Kerouac Documentary

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5 days ago

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'The road' is a long-travelled concept.
The protagonist – and often, antagonist – in many movies, including Little Miss Sunshine, Nomadland, and most recently Will & Harper, is that stretch of asphalt taking us from one destination to the next, which has been home to ruminations, dreams, and fears for generations.
While it has belonged to many for centuries, perhaps the father of road tales is the often-referred-to "king of the beats", Jack Kerouac. He revolutionized what the highway could mean to people when he released his novel 'On the Road' in 1957, capturing the hearts of outcasts who, until then, had often felt misunderstood.
Of those hearts, you'll find Academy Award-nominated actors like Josh Brolin and Matt Dillon, who appear in Kerouac's Road: The Beat of a Nation, a reflective documentary that made quiet waves through the Tribeca Film Festival following its premiere in June.
Throughout, Brolin reminisces about still owning the copy he received at 19 years old, despite trepidation to re-read it in case the magic that changed his life no longer lingers between the pages.
In one intimate moment, he shares that "all the things [he] was thinking [became] real," through Kerouac's novel.
Josh Brolin in Kerouac's Road: The Beat of a Nation.
Josh Brolin in Kerouac's Road: The Beat of a Nation.
Courtesy of KEROAUC'S ROAD: THE BEAT OF A NATION
Kerouac's unique patter, captured in his candid documentation, made people feel seen, but one person who couldn't quite penetrate the text in youth was Ebs Burnough.
"I remember the first time I read it. I was probably 16," Burnough shares with me ahead of the film's Tribeca premiere.
But there is a clear shift now. He is energized and excited, ready for people to see how he and his team of creatives have brought Kerouac's great tale into the 21st Century.
"It was kind of required reading, at the time," he says, "and I didn't connect with the book."
Burnough deliberates his initial disconnect coming from his sexuality, and not yet being out, but perhaps the core of the conversation comes from his reflection on race.
"As a Black American, when I read it, it didn't feel like something I had access to," he says. Despite this initial disconnect, Burnough boldly thrusts himself into the director's chair and sets out on the road to dissect the words Kerouac wrote all those years ago.
Who the road belongs to, and who has access to it, is a conversation that runs through Kerouac's Road: The Beat of a Nation, a film that is both romantic and pragmatic about who can afford to be romantic about it.
"Reading the book almost 30 years later, older, more competent in myself, I felt one of the reasons I had to make the film was that I wanted to reclaim the road for all of those people who might not have had the same access that Jack had," says Burnough.
He does this by not only capturing the tales of people closest to Kerouac, like Natalie Merchant and Joyce Johnson, and celebrities moved by the writer's text in adolescence, but also through three stories of real-life road-goers all travelling the landscape of the United States for different reasons.
Amir Staten in Kerouac's Road: The Beat of a Nation.
Amir Staten in Kerouac's Road: The Beat of a Nation.
Courtesy of KEROAUC'S ROAD: THE BEAT OF A NATION
We meet Amir, who is becoming. He is on his way out of the home and onto college. Next are Tenaj and Tino, a couple who could not be more opposite, who find a calm amidst their chaos on long and winding journeys. Then, we have Diana, who embarks on a meaningful mission to connect with her estranged father after many decades.
Through these three stories, Burnough reclaims the road for the people who, in the time of Kerouac, might not have had the same privilege.
The carefully curated cast was woven together by two-time Emmy-winner Carmen Cuba, casting director behind Stranger Things, Just Mercy, The Florida Project, who came onto the project to source these stories.
"Her team were out on blogs looking for anybody that seemed like they might be on the road," Burnough says.
"We watched hundreds of videos of people, and we saw some really interesting stories. We did one-on-one Zooms, and it was important for me to start narrowing down how those stories would connect to the book and to Jack. It just started to evolve that [Amir, Tenaj and Tino, and Diana] were a beginning, middle, and an end."
All at different phases of life, their stories showcase the intergenerational connection to Kerouac's ideology.
Diana Langley in Kerouac's Road: The Beat of a Nation.
Diana Langley in Kerouac's Road: The Beat of a Nation.
Courtesy of KEROAUC'S ROAD: THE BEAT OF A NATION
The voice of Emmy-winning Michael Imperioli narrates their voyages. When we sit down to discuss the documentary, he remembers the first person who shared a copy of 'On the Road' with him, saying, "I just devoured it. It was unlike anything I had read, and immediately I started reading lots of his other books, and just really connected."
He cites Kerouac's "compassion for people, humanity and openness to the human condition" as the reason behind his lifelong love affair, which has ultimately led him to agree to narrate the words of Kerouac in this documentary.
When his manager offered him a look at the film, which was already complete before Imperioli signed on, his interest piqued.
"The book was written in the '50s, and very much rooted in that time," Imperioli says. "To see people today, in this very isolated world where people spend more time communicating through devices and public forums like social media, connecting through a very different form of engaging in society, was very moving to me. I thought. 'Wow, to be able to reflect the spirit of that book in today's very different world was quite an achievement.'"
This dialogue about the evolution of the road and what it means now is a theme in Burnough's film. At one point, Matt Dillon boldly states that Kerouac's America doesn't exist anymore, and Burnough wrestles with whether or not that might be a good thing.
Naturally, the world has evolved through time, but also through circumstance.
Reflecting on how the pandemic has redefined what home and community might mean to people, Burnough says, "I think Tenaj says it so beautifully when she says, 'Home is where you park it.'"
"We're all in search of that, not just in a physical way, but in an emotional and intellectual way. We're all searching for where we feel safe. Where do we feel comfortable? Where within ourselves and with our people do we find that peace? That 'home'."
Matt Dillon in Kerouac's Road: The Beat of a Nation.
Matt Dillon in Kerouac's Road: The Beat of a Nation.
Courtesy of KEROAUC'S ROAD: THE BEAT OF A NATION
"I think Jack Kerouac was always in search of that," Burnough continues. "He moved so many times. He bought his mother so many different homes, and as soon as he got somewhere, it never lived up to what he wanted it to be. So he'd move again, but I think he was always in search of home, and I think for him, oddly, the one place where home was, was actually with his mother."
Through this, Burnough introduces a universality to the book he once found inaccessible.
"The funny thing for me when I first started this was I loved the concept of the intricacy of our road system in America," he says. "No matter whether you're black or white, or gay or straight, or red, or green, or Democrat or Republican, we're bumping into one another on the road, and it's one of the things that gives us our humanity."
Imperioli echoes Burnough's sentiment, "I always saw the road as the ultimate metaphor for life. The journey you're on as a human being, the openness to experience and appreciating other people for who they are."
"Regardless of differences in age or ethnicity or color or nationality," he continues, "there's a certain respect that [Kerouac] had for fellow human beings."
Kerouac's Road: The Beat of a Nation is now off down its own road as it meets a wider audience from August 1, when it hits theaters.
I ask Imperioli what his wish for the film is, and he says, "I hope people read [Kerouac's] books and get inspired and tell their own stories."
As Kerouac did through his short but impactful career, perhaps Kerouac's Road: The Beat of a Nation will breed a new generation who, as he wrote are "the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..."
Kerouac's Road: The Beat of a Nation Release Date
Kerouac's Road: The Beat of a Nation hits theaters August 1, 2025.