England/France,
1991, 95 min
Shown in 1992
CREDITS
- dir
-
Jean-Pierre Gorin
- prod
-
Daniel Marks
- cam
-
Babette Mangolte
- editor
-
Brad Thumin
- source
-
Gorin
-
COMMENTS
Jean-Pierre Gorin in person.
OTHER
"A word about the title. Crasy with an 's' not a 'z.' Gangsters' spelling, not Webster's. A film on the life and thoughts of members of a Long Beach, California Samoan Crip gang, Sons of Samoa Westside 32nd Street, My Crasy Life has at its core a commitment, radical in its simplicity: to respect the voice of its subjects," explains Jean-Pierre Gorin about his new film. Alberto Garcia of the Sundance Film Festival describes it further: "Penetrating a relentless, complex, foreign and, in many ways, impenetrable social organism, Gorin has recorded an unbridled and authentic articulation of the gang world's convoluted existence. My Crasy Life takes the viewer through the discordant rhythms of raw street talk into the unnerving riddle of gang life and inside its informed sense of inevitable tragedy, without offering or imposing agendas, explanations or clichés. Using radical documentary techniques, wherein the subjects dictate the terms of the film, My Crasy Life aspires to respectfully render a world completely foreign to the filmmaker and most viewers. My Crasy Life is a collaboration that is provocative in content and form." Jean-Pierre Gorin and Jean-Luc Godard made up the Dziga Vertov group in Paris and produced, among others, Letter from Jane. Gorin's American documentary films are Poto and Cabengo and Routine Pleasures. Though shown out of competition, My Crasy Life received special recognition from the Sundance Film Festival jury.
FACTOID #191
The first screenwriter to receive a Festival tribute was Truman Capote in 1974. At the tribute he confessed that, in his opinion, Audrey Hepburn was too chic for the role of Holly Golightly. He would have preferred the then unknown Tammy Grimes for the role.
