PLAYMOVIE | In-Person (11/22)

PLAYMOVIE | In-Person (11/22)

$10.00

Date/Time: Saturday, November 22nd at 7pm

Amateur filmmakers hired to record a play at a Chicago fringe fest take it upon themselves to make a documentary about the playwright and her collaborators, only to turn the cameras on themselves in the face of mounting obstacles. As the directors grapple with the swirling projects, the documentary spins into a farcical examination of the futility and reward of making art in a world that feels increasingly unreal.

Watch Trailer

Runtime: 124m

Quantity:
PURCHASE TICKET

When Chicago playwright Wendy hires amateur filmmakers Sis & Josh to record her new play, they decide to make a documentary about Wendy and her process, helped along by interviews with collaborators from Wendy's past and present projects.

Wendy hasn't staged a play since just before the pandemic and, like the rest of the world, is still finding her footing in 2024, when her new production is set to begin a two-night run at a Chicago fringe fest. Wendy and her collaborators share how lockdown affected the theater world’s reliance on the physical presence of actors and audience alike, as well as the art they made to cope with that experience. Cut to present day, and Wendy's new play—THIS MUSIC SHOULD NOT BE—is put under the microscope via footage and press photos taken at the final tech rehearsal.

Sis & Josh haven't had a project in a while either. Amateur filmmakers who always seem to be grasping for their next idea, they haven't done anything since making a zero-budget monthly movie series in 2022, and they're excited to get their feet wet again by filming Wendy's play and making a documentary about her.

But when the projects start to unravel, the directors turn the cameras on their own films and collaborators (i.e., non-actor friends and family). As the documentary spirals into a deconstruction of the frictions and parallels of the theatrical and cinematic art forms, reality begins to blur amid mounting creative desperation, culminating in a debate over the paranoiac question: "Is a play a play, or is a movie a movie, if no one sees it?"

Doc Chicago Shorts Showcase | In-Person (12/5) A reflection in ice of two people kissing from MINNINGASPOR (MEMORY TRACES).

Doc Chicago Shorts Showcase | In-Person (12/5)

$10.00
BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME - Picture Restart 16mm Series | In-Person (12/20) Film reel of four different angles of a woman talking over an image of a girl riding a tricycle from MADSONG by Kathleen Laughlin

BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME - Picture Restart 16mm Series | In-Person (12/20)

$10.00