Hey folks, Harry here and I've been waiting for Guffman to report in on how the Chicago Underground Film Festival was progressing and well... I'm happy to hear it is going well. It always warms my heart to see film festivals doing well. I saw AMERIKAN PASSPORT back in March of this year, and reading this reminded me that it was approximately 10000 times better than that terrible film concerning travel... BROKEDOWN PALACE that has just come out. But... sigh... most of you folks out there won't be given a chance to see AMERIKAN PASSPORT cause... well some dweebs think it's not a real marketable film. Sigh... Whatever.
Harry,
Here's a short review of the Chicago Underground Film Festival's opening night and a personal take on the documentary "Amerikan Passport."
Guffman here reporting from the Sixth Chicago Underground Film Festival. The week-long event, held at the Village Theater, 1548 N. Clark Ave., got off to a rousing start Friday night with three packed screenings of the wonderful documentary "Amerikan Passport," based on the world travels of Reed Paget.
The sell-out crowds confirmed the growing popularity of the festival, which received more than 1,000 submissions from around the world this year. Area critics and organizers are claiming it is the world's largest underground film event.
Over the next six days (Saturday to Thursday), the festival will honor blaxploitation founder Melvin Van Peebles, who will be in attendance to screen his new movie, "Classified X," and show more than 100 works ranging from shorts to feature-length pictures. For information, visit the festival's Web site at www.cuff.org
Friday's opening marked the Chicago premiere of Paget's Amerikan Passport, which won best picture at this year's Slamdance Festival.
Harry and company have reviewed this film on the site, so I won't get into the plot. But I do have an alternative take on this beautiful and haunting film.
It's easy to classify Paget's efforts as a political documentary. After all, the movie is based in some of the most contentious political arenas in the world (China, South Africa, former Soviet Union, etc.)
But I found a different story. What I saw was a 23-year-old fresh out of college searching for, well, searching for anything. What I saw was myself.
During a question-and-answer following Friday night's screening, Paget said, among other reasons, he was pushed into the project because he was trying to escape "personal problems." Another reason was because he was inspired by similar projects conducted by other filmmakers.
So he packed a camera, a few clothes and explored the world. Yeah, it took Paget 10 years and thousands of dollars in debt to complete a documentary that many distributers won't touch. But at least he acted, and in acting, he accomplished something extraordinary.
I have a lot issues I'd like to run away from, and I'm riddled with ideas and dreams. But I've always been afraid of failure or rejection.
Amerikan Passport challenges people like me, and I think there are lots of us out there, to get off our asses and do something with our passing lives.
The movie isn't a lesson in comparitive politics, it's about a 23-year-old finding the courage to escape his life and discover the world. Now if somebody could convice the distributors that this was a fantastic hero's quest ...
For what it's worth, -g
