FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
05.23.2003

CHICAGO (05.23.2003) The Christopher Wetzel Award for Independent Film Comedy at the Gene Siskel Film Center announces this year's lineup. The film series, which runs between June 7 and July 3, showcases the best recent American independent comedies, including this year's winner, MARTIN & ORLOFF. Directed by Lawrence Blume, the Austin Chronicle said that this hilarious gem recalls "the comedic chaos theory of the Marx Brothers and watching the Python Troupe while on a supremely mind-warping weekend LSD bender."

The other features selected to screen during the month-long fest are the black-comedy, OPTIMISM (dir. Christian MacDonald) and the film voted "Audience Favorite" at this year's Slamdance Film Festival, THE REAL OLD TESTAMENT. Directed by the Hannum brothers, TROT is an unabashedly irreverent reenactment of some of the more colorful chapters Genesis, including life in Sodom and Gomorrah.

The series' two comic shorts programs lay waste to any sitcom now on the TV airways. Fresh, edgy and uninhibited, these 15 shorts highlight a wealth of filmmaking talent who, on their varying budgets, manage to entertain and inspire.

On the humor spectrum, the short films volley from the dutifully disgusting (BUM RUNNER) to the superbly sly (WHAT ARE YOU HAVING?). Michelle Cutler's short FUNERAL walks the razor between tragedy and comedy when a daughter obsessed with creating the perfect funeral for her father, ends up lusting after the funeral director. Other shorts to note beneath the heading, Not To Be Missed: BEER GOOGLES, so original and acted to the hilt; the sparkling dialogue in the wonderfully crafted narrative of CREATIVE PROCESS 473; and Ward Robert's violent and genuinely hilarious THE BOY SCOUT.

For more information on this Film Series, please visit:

http://www.artic.edu/webspaces/siskelfilmcenter/wetzel.html

The Gene Siskel Film Center Offices | 164 North State Street, Chicago, IL 60601

TEL 312-846-2600 | FAX 312-332-5859

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