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Event
Beaver Trilogy & Beaver Trilogy Part IV @ SLIFF
Beaver Trilogy
Trent Harris, U.S., 1979/1981/1985/2000, 83 min., $15 for double bill with "Beaver Trilogy Part IV"
Saturday, Nov. 14, 6:30 p.m., Webster U./Moore
The long, odd tale of "Beaver Trilogy" begins in 1979 with the chance meeting between filmmaker Trent Harris and an earnest small-town dreamer from Beaver, Utah. Charmed and amused, Harris soon accepts the stranger's invitation to come to the small town of Beaver to film a talent show, where the enthusiastic young man dons black leather and a blond wig to perform in drag as Olivia Newton-John. Harris captures the outlandish spectacle on tape, producing "The Beaver Kid," a strange, funny, and ultimately poignant portrait of a true outsider. Not willing to let the story go, Harris then creates a dramatic piece, "The Beaver Kid 2," based on the documentary. This interpretation, shot in 1981 on a home-video camera with a budget of $100, features the young Sean Penn re-enacting the same scenario. Still possessed, Harris rewrites the script yet again in 1985, casting Crispin Glover in the lead and shooting another version, "The Orkly Kid," as an American Film Institute project. The three pieces then are finally re-edited, compiled, and screened at the Lincoln Center in New York City in July 2000, eventually playing to acclaim at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. In the words of the New York Times' A.O. Scott, "Beaver Trilogy" is a "rivetingly strange, multilayered inquiry into celebrity, obsession, and serendipity." With director Harris, who receives SLIFF's Contemporary Cinema Award.
Beaver Trilogy Part IV
Brad Besser, U.S., 2015, 86 min., $15 for double bill with " Beaver Trilogy"
Saturday, Nov. 14, 8:30 p.m., Webster U./Moore
In "Beaver Trilogy IV," filmmaker Brad Besser sets out to examine the story behind the underground cult classic "Beaver Trilogy." The saga of "Beaver Trilogy" began when filmmaker Trent Harris ("Plan 10 from Outer Space," "Rubin & Ed") met and videotaped Dick Griffiths in the parking lot of a Salt Lake City TV station. At that initial meeting, the young man offered funny impersonations while showing off his souped-up car. Fascinated by Griffiths, Harris went on to make not only a documentary -- which included a surreal talent show in which Griffiths performed as Olivia Newton-John -- but also two fictional accounts of the same story, the first starring a then-unknown Sean Penn and the second a young Crispin Glover. But the end of the trilogy wasn't the end of the story: What happened to the two men after that fateful encounter? And what is the full story of Dick Griffiths (aka Groovin' Gary and the Beaver Kid)? "Beaver Trilogy Part IV" answers those burning questions. The Hollywood Reporter writes: "An old Sundance treasure grows richer and only slightly less strange in 'Beaver Trilogy Part IV.'" With director Besser and subject Harris.
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LocationWebster University/Moore Auditorium (View)
470 East Lockwood Ave.
St. Louis, MO 63119
United States
Categories
| Minimum Age: 21 |
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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