American Movie

  • Mark Borchardt
  • Mike Schank
  • Tom Schimmel

American Movie is an American documentary film by Chris Smith from the year 1999. The film documents the creation of the Independent film Coven zwischen 1996 and 1997.

Action

The enthusiastic filmmaker Mark Borchardt tried in the first part of the film, written by him to implement a drama called Northwestern. The project, however, it grows after a few weeks over the head. As the actors and volunteers lose faith in the project, Borchardt changed his plan and tries to the completion of a partially already wacky short film called Coven. With the money he has borrowed from his family and earned at his work at the cemetery, and the support of his parents and his best friend Mike Schank he tried feverishly to finish the movie and then distribute them on VHS. With the proceeds from this project will finally be completed Northwestern.

Reception and Aftermath

American Movie was taken by the New York Times in the list of The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and, according to the International Documentary Association 's 20 best documentaries. At the Sundance Film Festival 1999, the film with the Grand Jury Prize in the category of documentation was excellent .. The American film critic Roger Ebert rated American Movie 4 out of 4 possible points .. The score aggregator Metacritic listed for Chris Smith's film a Metascore of 84 out of 100 on Rotten Tomatoes is the average rating 94 % ..

The film enjoys cult status in the independent film scene and is often quoted by other filmmakers such as James Rolfe. Mark Borchardt acquired in the U.S. by the film great notoriety and became, among other things several times in the TV show of David Letterman. In the episode Brian Sings & Swings the animated series Family Guy Borchardt and Mike Schank are guest speakers and sound to their characters from American Movie.

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