USA,
2001, 90 min
Shown in 2001
CREDITS
- dir
-
Joseph M. Castelo
- prod
-
Michael Hausman, Scott Ferguson, Jonathan Hlupzinski
- scr
-
Joseph M. Castelo
- cam
-
Mark Peterson
- editor
-
Joel Hirsch
- mus
-
Jim Dickenson
- cast
-
Kevin Corrigan, Vincent Schiavelli, Bianca Bakija
- source
-
Antidote Films, 200 Varick Street, Suite 515, New York, NY 10014. FAX: 646-486-5885. EMAIL: info@antidotefilms.com
- premiere
-
World Premiere
-
COMMENTS
Joseph M. Castelo, Kevin Corrigan, Vincent Schiavelli in person.
OTHER
Miles has served one meat loaf platter too many. A waiter with aspirations toward acting, he’s sick of living a cliché and is anxious for a change. So when Milos Forman announces he’s casting a new film about Jack Kerouac, Miles jumps at the opportunity. One problem: Miles is in New York, the auditions are in L.A. Enter Charlie, a Brooklyn cab driver who’s willing to accept, as he calls it, “this endless fare.” As their vintage Checker cab cruises cross-country, Miles searches for the Kerouac within while Charlie tries to keep his secrets neatly tucked away in his suitcase. American Saint may contain beatific poetry slams, Beale Street blues bars and outsider art, but Joseph M. Castelo’s debut feature is more than a tribute to the spirit of Kerouac and his brethren. Miles and Charlie are “on the road,” but it’s one few of us have traveled. Armed with a digital video camera, Castelo and his crew have captured a wryly humorous world situated somewhere between reality and fiction. Indie film stalwart Kevin Corrigan and veteran character actor Vincent Schiavelli mingle with real people who seem unaware they’re in a movie, giving American Saint a disarming air of happenstance and making it one of the most surprising discoveries of the Festival.
—Doug Jones
FACTOID #25
The San Francisco International showed Lina Wertm’ller’s first film, The Lizards, in 1963. A favorite of Bay Area audiences, her features All Screwed Up and The Seduction of Mimi had their U.S. premieres at the SFIFF in 1972 and 1974.
