![]() ![]() How has the reception been for the film, and has it affected Slomo's skating in San Diego? You've got a movie." It was a cumulative process. Or maybe it was when our editor, Traci Loth, put together an initial rough cut, and our producer, Amanda Micheli, said, "Congratulations. That said, I think it was when I saw the first skating shots that I realized this thing could actually be a film. He had a mix of high-minded philosophical discourse and down-home Southern candor that I found made it easy to listen to him for hours on end. Josh Izenberg: After my first phone call with Slomo, before I even met him in person, I had a sense that he'd be an interesting guy to watch and listen to and could sustain a film. John Kitchin did you know you had a film? VICE: At what point after meeting Slomo/Dr. It was short-listed for best documentary short at this year’s Academy Awards and won best doc at SXSW, AFI Docs, Sheffield Doc/Fest, and more than a dozen others. He's worked as a copy writer, a cab driver, and a carpenter. There is enough color and charm in the film and in Kitchin to make the film work as a look at an interesting character, but the suggestion that there is something of inspiration or aspiration here really didn't wash with me.Josh hails from Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he earned a degree in screenwriting at the University of Michigan. Yet again this sort of undercuts the message and tone of the film so, assuming it is the case, I can see why it did this. Perhaps it is unfair to assume this, but neither Kitchin or the film make any reference to relationships or the needs of others, so it is hard not to conclude thus. A son and an ex is mentioned in the background but never again in the context of the present tense it made me wonder if the son had a connection of if he was ditched because he didn't fit into the "do what you want" life. The second thing that it really side steps is anything in life outside of what Kitchin has decided he wants to do. ![]() We more or less know why Slomo can live this way – because his career has made him very wealthy, so while he shuns his former life, the truth is that without it he would be unlikely to be able to live the one he now has I guess this is not stated so clearly since it would significantly undercut the "do what you want" message, even though it is true. To some this will seem inspirational, but to me what was interesting was what the film stayed silent on. We get the true story behind the man, but from there it is shots of him being happy and talking about why it makes him happy. In a way the contrast with Twenty Eight Feet is good because in that film I appreciated that the subject was open about his choices, how he affords them and the sacrifices in terms of relationships he makes in order to live this life. ![]() Here though the reality is a story of a man deciding to do what he wants with his life and not let the path of the many dictate his, since he really has no value from it anymore. Indeed we open the film with some theories about who Slomo is and why he does what he does and in this regard it is an approach that reminded me of an older short film called The Edgware Walker, which also does the same with a local oddball known to everyone. ![]() Since watching the film I have read some daft comments about how inspirational this film is, how great the "message" is and, being honest, I have to laugh at such comments because this documentary is really just a curio over a local character who I guess people who have been there may have seen. Since then Dr John Kitchin has been better known as "Slomo" in his new home on Pacific Beach, where he spends much of his time gliding in fluid movement down the boardwalk on roller blades. Slomo is similar in some ways because it is about a man who was very successful in his chosen field but, as health issues came, he realized that he didn't want to just "be" a job and then die, so he decided to do something different. The same day I watched Slomo, I had earlier watched a short film called Twenty Eight Feet, about a man who decided he would live on a boat, make enough money to get by and enjoy that "getting by" as his choice. ![]()
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