JEAN GENET IN CHICAGO  26:00 | experimental documentary | 2006

A queer rewriting of the events surrounding the 1968 National Democratic Convention from the point of view of the controversial French writer. This “thief-video” combines disparate textual sources, contemporary reenactments of historical events and archival footage in order to relate the uneasy fusion of the French poet’s criminalized sexuality with late 60s American counter-culture.

Distributed by Video Data Bank and Vidéographe

• Between the Lines Award, Ann Arbor Film Festival, 2007
• Best Documentary Award, International Short Film Festival, Santiago, Chile, 2007
• Best Canadian Film (Audience Choice), ReelOut, Kingston, 2007
• Spirit of Garrett Scott Award, Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival, 2006
• First Prize Winner (Video Long form), FLEX Florida Film/Video Festival, 2006
• Second Prize Winner, Onion City Experimental Film Festival, Chicago, 2006
• Special Jury Prize, Chicago Underground Film Festival, 2006
• Colin Campbell Award for Best Canadian Male Short, InsideOut, Toronto, 2006
• Best Short, Image+Nation, Montréal, 2006

Produced with the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts and Experimental Sound Studio

Screenings: Rotterdam Film Festival (Rotterdam), Whitechapel Art Gallery (London), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), 12^th Biennial of Moving Images (Geneva), Vidéoformes (Clermont-Ferrant), Ann Arbor Film Festival, Festival du Nouveau Cinema (Montreal), Cinema Texas (Austin), Shadow Festival (Amsterdam), Kasseler Documentary Film & Video Festival, Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, PDX Portland Documentary and Experimental Film Festival, Dallas Video Festival, Other Cinema (San Francisco), Pleasure Dome (Toronto), Short Film Festival of Santiago Chili, Milwaukee International Film Festival, IndieLisboa (Lisboa), Cucalorus Film Festival (Wilmington), Festival des 3 Amériques (Québec), Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québécois (Montréal), Onion City Experimental Film Festival (Chicago), MIX (New York City), FLEX Florida Experimental Film Festival, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Antimatter Film Festival (Victoria), Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival, Conversations at the Edge (Chicago), London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Inside Out (Toronto), Frameline (San Francisco), Queeries: Volume II (Los Angeles), Queer X (Albuquerque), Experiments in Documentary at the Millennium Film Workshop (New York), Speculate: Queer (Re)Visions (Buffalo), The Power of the People Don’t Stop (Eugene), Torino GLBTQ Film Festival, Image + Nation (Montreal), Milwaukee Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Queer City Cinema (Regina), Colloque Jean Genet, le Québec et l’Amérique (Trois-Rivières), Jean Genet in the USA conference at NYU (New York)…

Jean Genet in Chicago is listed as one of the 25 best film essays in Marcel Jean’s Dictionnaire des films québécois.

Jean Genet in Chicago opened the colloquium Jean Genet, Le Québec et L’Amérique organized by L’Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. I was on hand to introduce the video and answer questions afterward.