Patti Smith: Dream of Life

Pictured: Patti Smith performing during the P.O.V. “Patti Smith: Dream of Life” session during the PBS portion of the TCA Press Tour at the Langham Huntington Hotel & Spa in Pasadena, California, on August 2, 2009.

Credit Jake Landis/PB

Legendary rocker, Patti Smith, shares memories and insights into her remarkable career spanning nearly four decades.

Shot over 11 years by acclaimed fashion photographer Steven Sebring, Patti Smith: Dream of Life, airing Saturday, March 17 at 10 p.m. on WXXI World (DT21.2/cable 524), is a remarkable plunge into the life, art, memories and philosophical reflections of the legendary rocker, poet and artist. Sometimes dubbed the “godmother of punk” — a designation justified by clips of her early rage-fueled performances — Smith was much more than that when she broke through with her 1975 debut album, Horses. A poet and visual artist as well as a rocker, she befriended and collaborated with some of the brightest lights of the American counterculture, an often testosterone-driven scene to which she brought a swagger and fierceness all her own. 
 
In Patti Smith: Dream of Life, the artist’s memories of these times, and of a period of domestic happiness and the tragedies that brought her back to the stage, attain an intense, hypnotic lyricism, much like that of her own songs.