USA,
1996, 145 min
Shown in 1996
CREDITS
- dir
-
Rob Nilsson
- prod
-
Rand Crook, Ethan Sing
- scr
-
Rob Nilsson, Dan Bajema
- cam
-
Mickey Freeman
- editor
-
David Schickele
- cast
-
Kelvin Han Yee, Dan Bajema, Denise Concetta Cavaliere, Johnnie Reese
- source
-
Tenderloin Action Group, Pacific Rim Media
- premiere
-
World Premiere
-
COMMENTS
Rob Nilsson in person.
OTHER
At long last, Bay Area maverick Rob Nilsson returns with another unflinchingly intense drama about society’s forgotten misfits jousting in the shadows for scraps and self respect. The setting is a gritty East Bay pool hall on the wrong side of the tracks, where an underachieving hustler (Kelvin Han Yee) is at a crossroads. Will he spend the rest of his life scamming college students for pocket change, or stake his talent (and his family’s meager savings) against a ruthless cue master (longtime Nilsson collaborator Don Bajema, who also cowrote the screenplay). Nobody gets closer to their characters than Nilsson, whose relentless pursuit of emotional truth is unrivaled in the post-Cassavetes era. This time out he’s blessed with a supporting cast of street-toughened, real-deal nonprofessional actors. Four years in the making, Chalk is a project of the Tenderloin Action Group (TAG), an acting and production workshop made up of recently homeless San Franciscans and volunteer filmmakers. If Nilsson seemed to go underground after his first film, Northern Lights (codirected with John Hanson), won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes and his blazing Heat and Sunlight nabbed the dramatic prize at the 1988 Sundance Film Festival, his return may signal that American movies are once again ready for passionate storytelling, unglamorous characters and emotional honesty.
—Michael Fox
FACTOID #97
Actor Franchot Tone, the former husband of Joan Crawford, was the master of ceremonies at the first festival in 1957.
