Independent Filmmaker Garners Three Stars From Boston Globe
St. Louis, MO (PRWEB) November 12, 2005
Independent filmmaker Curtis Elliott said he was completely stunned when he found out renowned Boston Globe film critic Ty Burr rated Elliott’s documentary HairKutt three stars (out of a possible four) in the Globe’s November 4th issue. Elliott, who traveled to Boston for the film’s one week run at the Somerville Theatre November 4th-10th, said the distinction is totally humbling.
“Here we are, four guys (Elliott, Anthony “Lark” Davis, Maurice “Reese” Bradley, and the film’s heroin addicted subject Bryant “HairKutt” Johnson) from St. Louis, with nothing but a few cameras and a lot of hope and prayer, with three stars from the Boston Globe,” Elliott said about the acclaimed critique. “I mean, only about five percent of major motion pictures are even reviewed by the Globe, and here we are with three stars. Amazing.”
In his review of the film, Burr said the strength of the award winning film “is the grainy handheld footage of Johnson undergoing a week of cold turkey,” adding “this may be the best ”scared straight” material a cocky kid will ever see: night-time video of a man tossing in pain, and retching, retching, retching.”
Burr, praising the film’s anti-drug message, also mentioned the three men’s willingness to come together to help “HairKutt” kick a terrible habit, resonates throughout the film, offering the following analysis: “the parts that work: the street-level memories of growing up in an urban neighborhood where drugs were literally available on every corner, and the despairing fall-out years later…The people who need to see this movie need to see it when they’re young.”
Elliott said his plans now are to focus on the St. Louis International Film Festival’s November 15th screening of HairKutt, where the film is up for several awards, and getting the film shown to today’s youth of the nation.
“HairKutt is a realistic view of the harm substance abuse can cause to not only the addict, but to family and friends as well,” Elliott said. “I think this film can be an important tool in the fight to deter drug abuse here in North America and I’m looking for support to get this documentary in the hands of the people who need to see it most–our children.”
HairKutt is a sixty minute, award winning documentary about four friends from St. Louis, MO who travel to the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee in the hopes of curing one of them from the throes of heroin addiction. The story evolves around Bryant “HairKutt” Johnson, a heroin addict of more than 15 years.
The documentary takes many twists and turns as “HairKutt” becomes so debilitated from the withdrawal of the poisonous drug that he walks away from the rented cabin used as a drug rehab facility to return to the streets of St. Louis (more than a ten hour drive away) and the source of his addiction: heroin.
Coaxed back to the cabin by his friends, “HairKutt” is eventually rushed to a rural Tennessee hospital after severe life-threatening vomiting episodes. Is the hospital trip a death bed for “HairKutt” or a springboard for a new life free from the drug that has dominated his teen and adult years? The story climaxes more than a year and a half later with a tell-all truth about the fateful trip and “HairKutt’s” final condition.
HairKutt made its’ St. Louis debut in front of a crowd of over 700 at the famed Tivoli Theater in the University City, (MO) Loop on May 12th, 2005. The film has garnered two awards in 2005: Best Social Documentary at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival in Los Angeles (March, 2005) and Best Documentary Feature at Cinema St. Louis’ Independent Filmmaker’s Showcase in July.
For more info or the view movie trailer, please visit www.itstoughtogetoffdrugs.com or Google Search keyword: HairKutt or contact Curtis Elliott at 314.324.5435 or 314.395.2342.
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