AMERIKAN PASSPORT Reed Paget

U.S.A., Documentary, 16mm, 83 min., 1999, Chicago Premiere

The Chicago Underground Film Festival is proud to present the Chicago premiere of Reed Paget’s AMERIKAN PASSPORT, winner of the Documentary Prize at the Slamdance Film Festival. An epic journey for the end of the 20th century, AMERIKAN PASSPORT chronicles Paget’s incredible shoestring odyssey through twelve warzones and across five continents. On a quest to visit and film the seven wonders of the ancient world, the 23-year-old filmmaker is unexpectedly caught in the midst of the student protests and military crackdown in Tiananmen Square. Forced to flee, Paget’s real and often humorous adventure escalates and soon he is drinking whiskey with generals in Cambodia, hitch-hiking with Contras in Nicaragua, finding romance in Peru, infiltrating the Red Army in Moscow and running for his life as Scud missiles crash into Tel Aviv. From South Africa to East Berlin, the most significant events of the decade are seen through the intimate, extraordinary perspective of a low-budget traveler. Through it all, Paget also q uestions the morality of US foreign policy and contrasts the ancient ritual of human sacrifice with the modern culture of war. Unbelievable, ironic, funny and true, AMERIKAN PASSPORT is unlike anything you’ve ever seen.

Shown with:

BILLY’S BALLOON Don Hertzfeldt

U.S.A., Animation, 16mm, 5 min., 1999

An animated look at what balloons would be like if The Chicago Underground Film Festival ran the universe.

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