KILLER, QUEER, OUTLAW, JUNKY, TOWNIE

William S. Burroughs killed his wife in Mexico, was intimate with heroin and madness, melted the publishing world’s face off, prevailed over censorship, and influenced both counter- and pop culture. Then he settled in Lawrence, that bucolic, elysian college town, to live out his days in what, for him, amounted to quiet repose and frequent discharges of his firearms on his property. Yony Leyser’s 2009 documentary, William S. Burroughs: A Man Within, explodes the myths, and explores the later years and private, introspective side of the larger-than-life figure through archival footage and home movies, and interviews with Lawrence residents and such well-known acolytes as John Waters, Patti Smith, Laurie Anderson and Iggy Pop. The film screens at 8 p.m. at Liberty Hall (644 Massachusetts in Lawrence, 785-749-1972) in a one-night-only event featuring a Q&A with Leyser and James Grauerholz, the executor of Burroughs’ estate. Admission costs $8. For more information, see libertyhall.net and burroughsthemovie.com.

Sun., May 9, 8 p.m., 2010