American Movie

Toronto International Film Festival Program Book
1999

American Movie
Chris Smith
USA, 1999
107 minutes Colour/35mm
Production Company: Blue Mark Productions
Producers: Sarah Price, Chris Smith
Screenplay: Chris Smith
Cinematographer: Chris Smith
Editor: Jun Diaz, Barry Poltermann, Chris Smith
Production Designer: Dick Blau
Sound: Sarah Price
Music: Mike Schank
Principal Cast: Mark Borchardt, family, and friends
Production: Blue Mark Productions

This spectacularly entertaining, funny and genuinely touching film could well be the documentary sensation of the year. Slated for a major release, its simple story of a simple guy just trying to get his film made masks a complex and thoughtful exploration of the American Dream and what it takes to make that dream a reality.

The film follows Mark Borchardt, a tall, long-haired heavy metal enthusiast living in a working-class Wisconsin suburb. After watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and its ilk growing up, Borchardt was infected with a dream that has made him a man possessed ever since. He embarked on his calling as an independent filmmaker making Super 8 films as a kid, such as The More the Scarier and I Blow Up. When we begin to follow his career, he has decided to shelve his ambitious feature project, Northwestern, and is determined to finish the task he has been working on over the years, the 16mm short Coven (pronounced COH- vin). The video sales of Coven are (dubiously) meant to finance his feature film.

Borchardt is unquestionably inspiring to those around him. He gets his reluctant mom to act when the extras don’t show up, and his drug-addled friend Mike is always there for him. Ultimately he turns to his sickly Uncle Bill for financing after a fundraising trip to, yes, the Toronto International Film Festival doesn’t pan out.

The production has a catastrophic effect on Borchardt’s life, especially his American Movie relationship with his wife and kids. But his single-minded determination to see his dream fulfilled is paramount to him and acts as an inspiration and cautionary tale for us all.

Chris Smith’s approach here is non-intrusive and subtly precise. He allows Borchardt to make his own decisions and his own mistakes. But, more importantly, he also elegantly balances the audience’s relationship with Borchardt. He never allows his subject to appear as a clown, even when he is doing something patently absurd. Yet our empathy is tinged with regret for the amount his dream has cost him.

Coven, to be shown following American Movie, has since been blown up to a 35mm print. It is a black-and-white nightmare excursion into a world of witchcraft and zombies. Not for the faint of heart.
—Noah Cowan