An underrated masterpiece of black cinema—an existential tragicomedy based on a true story of a natural born impersonator. Russian premiere as part of the retrospective programme of the Festival of Singular Films.
Chameleon Street
- Date:
- 27 Sep 2024,
19:30–21:10
- Age restrictions
- 18+
Chameleon Street
1989, Wendell B. Harris Jr.
United States
94 minutes, English with Russian subtitles
Starring: Wendell B. Harris Jr., Angela Leslie, Amina Fakir, Anthony Ennis
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“I think, therefore I deceive.” Douglas Street (incidentally a real person who made a mark in the American criminal press of the 1980s) deceives everyone he meets. For the press, which covers the training matches of a football team, he is a promising player. For hospital patients waiting for an operation, he is a brilliant doctor with a degree from Harvard. For inexperienced investors looking for somewhere to put their savings, he is a financier with an impressive resume. And for the police and the FBI, he is an inveterate conman. But who is Douglas Street for his wife, daughter and lover? Is he also deceiving himself?
Shot from Chameleon Street, 1989
Harris’s direction is as sophisticatedly and allusively playful with the grammar of cinema as the character is with the codes of language—and, for that matter, with the conventions of conduct.
— Richard Brody, The New Yorker
Director Wendell B. Harris plays Street himself, with bravado, almost in an expressionist manner: the story of a conman’s adventures becomes an insightful allegory about the fate of a black (or indeed white) person who is doomed constantly to reinvent themselves, changing masks to rise up the social ladder. Harris also gives the film this quality: he presents it in turn as a witty comedy, surrealist tragedy, light-hearted detective story, and a serious, devastating statement.
The director’s life proved to be as dramatic as the film. The grand jury prize from a prestigious film festival did not help the work gain wide release: the company that bought the rights failed to promote and distribute it properly. And Harris was unable to find financing for his next picture. He believes with some justification that he was put on the Hollywood blacklist—a bitter irony for a person who made one of the finest black films in history.
The screening will begin with a brief speech by the curator in Russian. If you require interpretation into English, please request it at least three days in advance by emailing international@ges-2.org.
The film won the grand jury prize at the Sundance film festival (1990).
