AMERICAN MOVIE: Documentary Week at FOMO Cinema Tbilisi

FOMO Cinema Presents: The Art of the Documentary

A week of failed productions, obsessive directors and impossible shoots - this week at FOMO is dedicated to the underappreciated art of documentary filmmaking, and to the filmmakers stubborn enough to keep pointing the camera when common sense suggests they should pack it in.

AMERICAN MOVIE

Chris Smith | 1999 | USA | 1h47m | Presented in the original English audio with English subtitles

AMERICAN MOVIE is one of the funniest, saddest, and most generous documentaries ever made about the strange decision to make a film when almost every practical sign suggests doing literally anything else.

The film follows Mark Borchardt, an independent filmmaker in Wisconsin trying to complete his low-budget horror short COVEN. He has no money, limited resources, family pressure, unfinished scripts, unpaid bills, and an entire production that seems held together by stubbornness, cigarettes, cheap beer, and the goodwill of people who are not always sure what they’ve agreed to. His best friend Mike Schank, gentle, loyal, and quietly unforgettable, becomes one of the great documentary presences of 1990s American cinema.

What makes AMERICAN MOVIE endure is that it never sneers at its subject. Mark can be chaotic, exhausting, delusional, and impossible, but the film understands him. It recognises the ridiculousness of low-budget filmmaking without dismissing the need behind it. The dream may be small, messy, badly funded, and permanently behind schedule, but it’s still real.

Presented as part of FOMO’s Documentary Week, AMERICAN MOVIE is included because it captures filmmaking at its most stubborn and least glamorous. No red carpets, no clean mythology, no genius protected by money. Just one man trying to finish the thing he started, because stopping would mean admitting that common sense was right all along.

FOOD AND DRINK POLICY: FOMO Cinema Lounge Bar opens 1 hour before the first screening of the day and closes at 02:00,.serving a wide selection of beer, wine, cocktails, and non-alcoholic refreshments including coffee and tea, as well as fresh hot popcorn! Outside food is allowed in the bar but not in the cinema. No alcohol from outside allowed. All guests are invited to arrive early and stay late!

LOCATION: FOMO Secret Cinema, Bazari Orbeliani, Tbilisi. A five minute walk from Liberty Square metro.

HOW TO FIND FOMO: Enter Bazari Orbeliani via Atoneli St above Carrefour and take the stairs on your left to Level 1. Signage on the door. You can also check our Instagram story highlights for a video showing exactly how to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17933106294029235/