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ORNETTE: MADE IN AMERICA

By Shirley CLARKE

MILESTONE FILM & VIDEO - as SALES All rights, World

Documentary - Completed 1986

Shirley Clarke's acclaimed documentary on Ornette Coleman with brand-new 35mm prints and 2K masters.

- Year of production
- 1986
- Genres
- Documentary, Musical
- Countries
- USA
- Budget
- 1 - 3 M$
- Duration
- 77 mn
- Director(s)
- Shirley CLARKE
- Writer(s)
- Shirley CLARKE, Ornette COLEMAN
- Cast
- Ornette COLEMAN, Denardo COLEMAN, William BURROUGHS
- Producer(s)
- Kathelin GRAY
- Synopsis
- Shirley Clarke's first feature film was produced by Lewis Allen with money from hundreds of subscribers; like a Broadway play but at that time, unheard of for film. But The Connection, based on the controversial play by Jack Gelber, was far from what they could have imagined. Taking the raw, graphic depiction of drug addicts that Gelber wrote for the stage, Clarke changed the character of the director Jim Dunn to a filmmaker and added a level of humor by poking fun at the world of cinema verité movement. And while constricted to one-set, she combined the French New Wave’s mobile camera with a whirling choreography of movement and jazz unseen in independent film before. A hit at Cannes, it was promptly banned by government censor boards for indecent language and a struggle ensued to have it theatrically screened in the United States. After a two-year battle, the producers and director ultimately won in court and as important as it was judicially, it was sadly a case of too little too late as the film lost its timeliness and failed at the box office. But among filmmakers, it was highly influential. The film has been out of distribution since the early 1980s. In 2012, Milestone will release beautifully restored 35mm prints from the UCLA Film & Television Archives.