Monday, November 21, 2016

A Movie I'm Thankful For: American Movie

by Mike Pomaro
I like to think of myself as an open book. Ask me a question, and I’ll give you an answer. Almost nothing is difficult for me to talk about. Almost.

This is where American Movie, the Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary directed by Chris Smith about Mark Borchardt, a 30-year old man from Wisconsin with not a dollar to his name and a movie in his head that he has to make or he’ll die, becomes important to me. First, let’s briefly discuss the movie. Mark has a script for a personal film he’s been writing and planning for years called Northwestern. While he tries and tries to get that off the ground, he perpetually runs into roadblocks. He takes a deep breath and determines that before he can begin work on Northwestern, he’ll instead try to finish his short horror film Coven. Mark can’t make it alone, so he enlists the help of his mother, his buddy Kenny, and his best friend Mike Schank, whose every line is gold. He convinces his crusty old uncle Bill to give him three thousand dollars to help fund the movie, and finds people throughout the community willing to devote their time to a project that Mark believes in with every fiber of his being. We watch Mark plan, fail, succeed, fail again, stumble, fail, fail, fail, then get back up. He never quits. This drive that he has, along with an unbelievable cast of characters, make American Movie one of my all-time favorite movies and the most quotable documentary I’ve ever seen.
To bring this back to why I’m thankful for American Movie, let me briefly explain what I wrote above. Like I said, I’m comfortable talking about anything in my life. But the one thing that hurts me to discuss is my failure to make a movie. I’m 38 years old and have not made anything I can be proud of outside of film school. The reasons for this vary: many have been out of my control, maybe more have been my own self-built walls.

To be fair, it’s not like anyone is asking me about my filmmaking “career.” That stopped years ago. I, however, ask myself daily about it. It haunts me, but I still haven’t done anything about it. Yet. This leads me to movies like American Movie.

I personally find Mark inspirational and I know Chris Smith does as well. Here’s a man that will drive out to an airport parking lot to work on his script for hours in his heatless car so he can do so in peace. He delivers newspapers and cleans the shit off of bathroom walls of a cemetery to help fund his project. Mark is a man that inspires the people in his life, most of whom find themselves working hard for no money, not because they believe in the movie, but more so because they believe in Mark and want to see him complete his film that he refuses to give up on.
I’m envious of Mark. I’ve always found it easier to not go through the pain of seeing my films fall apart then to actually fight for them. That’s on me, obviously, and I’m working all the time to overcome that. Mark, as much as anyone from Martin Scorsese to John Carpenter, inspires the hell out of me and makes me want to fight to get my movies made. He’s not oblivious to the obstacles in his way – he just finds a way past them. Sometimes that works out, sometimes it doesn’t. Either way, he’s moving forward and the people in his life see that in him and want to help.

I’m not implying that there aren’t people in my life willing to help me; it’s quite the opposite. The fact of the matter is I haven’t given them reason to do so yet. American Movie makes me want to change that. American Movie makes me want to become a filmmaker like I’ve always dreamed of being. Whether I make a film one day or not, I know that the fire inside of me to do so will never completely burn out, and American Movie is the film that stokes that flame when I need it to burn brighter.

9 comments:

  1. This is in my top ten Docs of all time. I love this film too! Good write up, Mike!

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  2. I had an interesting experience watching this movie for the first time a few months ago. After the first half, I stopped, because, as a teenage wannabe filmmaker, I found Borchardt's intense passion and lack of sense more tragic than anything else. I finished watching it a few days later for closure's sake, and I could not be more thankful. Though the character's are all either unhappy, disappointed, annoyed, depressed, lonely, delusional, disillusioned, or permanently effected by drugs, the film, and Borchardt's passion for it, instills them with a beautiful dedication. And all of the characters, who a cynical person may call losers, have their own impressive talents (Uncle Bill is quite a poet and Schank has quite a bit of musical talent, while Borchardt himself gets some terrific one-liners). What begins seeming like some mean-spirited sustenance for cynics ends as an inspirational tale of persistence and determination.

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    1. Very well said, Wil A. I think the film does a great job of an unbiased, non-judgmental portrayal of the subjects and is conscience of keeping in the footage which shows the flaws in our "heroes".

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  3. It is a great movie. If this documentary was made by another, more cynical filmmaker you could easily see it existing to mock its subjects.

    I don't think anybody could watch this and not end up admiring Borchardt.

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  4. The first time they ran the guys head into the cabinet and it doesn't break I just about pissed myself. Great column, love it!

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    1. The killer for me in that scene is Schank waiting outside listening to classical music.

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  5. Nice! I saw this way back when I read about it in my film magazine subsections pre-internet in high school. I actually requested my local video store at the time get it so I, and probably just I, could rent and watch it. It meant a lot to me at the time but I haven't watched it since then. I'm about to endeavor on my own micro budget horror flick and am mos def gonna find this again and watch the hell out of it. Thanks!

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    1. That's subscriptions not subsections

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  6. The first time they ran the guys head into the cabinet and it doesn't break I just about pissed myself. Great column, love it!
    +

    Gold Full Movie Online Free

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