6/24/05
A Chicago preview has been scheduled for the independent film
"Chicago Poems"
8:00 p.m. Thursday, July 14, 2005
at the Lakeshore Theater, 3175 N. Broadway in Chicago's East Lakeview (Broadway/Belmont).
Admission is $10, with part of the proceeds going toward final post-production
costs.
Tickets will be available at the door.
Additional information is available by calling 773-678-6656 or going to the
film's official website at www.chicagopoems.com
The stories of a short-tempered boxer and his long-suffering girlfriend, a
lonely landlady and the theater director renting her space, and a young, small-town
couple separated by relationship issues that are dwarfed by the magnitude
of war, are all played out in the Chicago neighborhood where Carl Sandburg
wrote many of his best pieces. Additionally, Chicago Poems is the first film
to be shot in Chicago's Millennium Park.
Combining the intimate aesthetic of Dogme 95 style production, mixed with
edgy, black and white photography, Chicago Poems has a look all its own. The
film’s original score helps set the underground mood. The story provides
an interesting mix of realism and classic character study. Expectations are
flipped upside down as a set of quirky, sometimes humorous characters play
out their own personal drama in the world created for them on film. Shot in
digital photography, Chicago Poems is an exciting work that blurs the lines
of new media.
06/05
Contact: Paul Miller
248-770-5664
LNCLNHP@aol.com
Writer-Director Gerard Jamroz Crafts Urban Tale of Restlessness and Desire
CHICAGO –Writer-director Gerard Jamroz has completed production on “Chicago
Poems,” an independent film that weaves the stories of three couples
and the people they encounter on a spiritual journey to break free from their
ordinary lives. Upon completion of editing and post-production, “Chicago
Poems” will make its way to several major film festivals in 2004 and
2005.
Shot on location in Chicago and Los Angeles, “Chicago Poems” tells
the tale of three couples: Carl, the boxer, and Anna, his live-in girlfriend
who wants him to hang up his gloves; Virginia, the Indiana farm girl who moves
to Chicago, shunning her Army Reservist boyfriend Charlie, who is facing being
activated; and Phil, the stage director adapting Carl Sandburg’s poems
to the stage who befriends and romances Barbara, the hard-working landlady
who rents the theater to him.
Shot digitally in black and white, Jamroz has created a work that resembles
the grainy, high-contrast of super 8 mm film, hearkening to the music videos
of his early career. “Chicago Poems” features original music by
some of Chicago’s best, underground musicians. Influenced by the Dogme
95 genre’s best features, including realistic acting, intimate production,
and a story that will leave the audience with much to ponder, Jamroz has melded
these sensibilities with a more straightforward narrative approach.
The cast is populated with some of the finest professional actors percolating
in Chicago’s vibrant underground theater scene today. Among them: Tera
Dunlap (Anna) is a much in demand professional model/actress who has appeared
in several television commercials and on stage. Robert Tobin is a Los Angeles-based
stage/screen actor who has appeared on TV’s “One Life to Live”
and starred in Dogme 25. Laura Donnelly (Barbara-the landlady) is a 20-year
veteran of the Chicago theater scene. Frank Hillis (Krystoff) is a Second
City product who has appeared in several Lincolnhead productions.
Jamroz, who appears in “Chicago Poems” as Carl the boxer, wrote,
directed and starred in “Valerie Loves Me” at Stage Left theater
to sold-out audiences in 2002. His short film “Mrs. Butterworth”
was screened in the 2003 Chicago Comedy Film Festival” and has been screened
in New York and Los Angeles. He co-produced, acted in, and contributed music
to the soundtrack of Dogme 25 “Converging With Angels,” which has
been featured in festivals worldwide, including Montreal, Lithuania, Los Angeles,
Poland and Switzerland.
“Chicago Poems” is co-produced by Jamroz and Paul Miller, who appeared
Lincolnhead’s “The Street Musician” in 2000. Miller currently
produces and hosts a radio talk show in suburban Detroit.
For information about “Chicago Poems” contact Paul Miller at 248-770-5664.
On the Web: www.chicagopoems.com. Or lnclnhp@aol.com*******