Poe’s wife, Claudia Summers, and daughter, Emily Poe, confirmed his death on social media. He had been diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer in 2022 and underwent intensive chemotherapy before recently entering home hospice care.
“Amos took his last breath today at 3:33 p.m., surrounded by loved ones,” Summers wrote on Instagram. Emily Poe shared on Facebook, “We said goodbye today to Amos Poe and the world will never be the same.”
A GoFundMe campaign was launched to help cover Poe’s medical costs, drawing support from filmmakers and artists who were influenced by his work.
Poe was a central figure in New York’s No Wave cinema movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s, a loose collective of artists who rejected traditional filmmaking rules in favor of low-budget, experimental storytelling. The movement went on to shape generations of independent filmmakers.
He was deeply embedded in the city’s downtown cultural scene, especially around the Bowery, where punk music, art, and film collided. His best-known work, The Blank Generation, became a defining document of that era. Films such as The Foreigner and Subway Riders further cemented his reputation.
Speaking to Reuters in 2011, Poe described the spirit behind No Wave cinema. “You didn’t necessarily have to have the professionalism or the understanding of making films,” he said. “You had to have the inspiration and the will to put yourself completely into it.”
After losing control of The Blank Generation following a dispute with guitarist Ivan Kral—a story later detailed by The New York Times—Poe shifted his focus to directing his own narrative features. His first was Unmade Beds, a do-it-yourself project starring friends and collaborators including Debbie Harry. He followed it with The Foreigner and Subway Riders.
Alongside filmmakers like Jim Jarmusch, Abel Ferrara, and Vivienne Dick, Poe became one of the defining voices of No Wave cinema.
In 2024, while dealing with his illness, Poe shared a candid update from Greece, writing that his “stomach and intestines are a colossal mess,” but that stepping away to the Mediterranean felt like the right way to cope. “What I needed was to get back to work,” he wrote, adding that constant pain was “tiring as hell.”
Following news of his death, tributes poured in. Jarmusch called Poe a key influence on his career, while Emmy-winning actor Michael Imperioli, who worked with Poe on Joey Breaker, shared his condolences. Janus Films honored him with a black-and-white portrait on social media, captioned: “Farewell Amos, Prince of New York.”
For many, Amos Poe will be remembered not just for his films, but for helping give a voice to a gritty, creative New York that refused to play by the rules—and changed independent cinema forever.
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