Alystyre Julian’s first feature, Outrider, is a cine-kinetic portrait of the epic poet, performer, and activist Anne Waldman. Envisioning Waldman equally as poet and social force, the film examines her place in the “Outrider” tradition—a century-crossing lineage of imaginative consciousness guided by ancestors from William Blake to the Beat Generation, the New York School, Black Mountain College; and by poetic kinships with contemporary radical female musicians. Julian moves through Waldman’s past and trajectory: her time in downtown New York and the founding of the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church; co-founding Naropa’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics with Allen Ginsberg; gatherings in Big Sur, Mexico City, and Morocco. The film features Patti Smith, Meredith Monk, Bob Dylan, Laurie Anderson, Thurston Moore, Pat Steir, and others who've crossed through Waldman's artistic vortex. Most of all, it celebrates Waldman's expansive practice as a channel of the ancient, bardic tradition and a living argument for what poetry can still become. 

Alystyre Julian is a poet and filmmaker. In 2026, along with Lost Voyage Collective, Julian was awarded a grant from Foundation of Contemporary Arts to make a multimedia project at Black Mountain College. Her poetry was featured in the 2026 Arts for Art Vision festival video by Jo Wood Brown. Julian co-curated Language and Light: The Films of Ed Bowes at Anthology Film Archives (2024). She was the stills photographer on award-winning feature films Diane, Monsters and Men, and others, and has directed and worked on numerous short films, video and documentary projects. She holds an MFA in Writing from Bard College, and has taught writing at Long Island University, Montclair State University, and screenwriting at New York University. Her poems have been featured in publications such as Poetry Project Newsletter, Chain, Talisman, and Pharos. She lives and works in New York City.