The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg, directed by Jerry Aronson and released in 1994, is a comprehensive, affectionate documentary on the poet's life. It runs eighty-three minutes and includes accounts of Ginsberg's troubled childhood, his fame as a Beat and, later, as a hippie, and as a compassionate, still active, older poet.

John Antonelli's documentary Kerouac was released in 1995. The film begins and ends with Kerouac reading excerpts from On the Road and uses an actor to portray some of the scenes from the Beat writer's life. Actual footage of Kerouac includes TV clips, one showing his appearance on the William F. Buckley Show, in which he insults Ferlinghetti and declares himself a Catholic.

In 1997, writer and director Stephen Kay released The Last Time I Committed Suicide, a visual adaptation of actual letters written by Cassady and sent to Kerouac. The movie chronicles Cassady's life as an...