Documentaries

AWAKE AND SING

Lee Anne Schmitt
USA 2003
42 min
V'03

Awake and Sing is based on the early writings of Clifford Odets. As a playwright involved in the Group Theater of the 1930s, Odets created a body of work that served as a cogent and tangible document of liberal thinking and protest of the period. This work is a direct illustration of the connection between the personal and political, and illuminates the strains that the many inequities found within Americas political and economic systems place upon the personal lives and relationships of those living with them.
Awake and Sing is a record of the potential of life, a potential often overlooked within a context of spiritual and physical exhaustion. The film uses several techniques to deliver the text, from conventional narrative to didactic voiceover. The film looks into the ideas of acting and realism, as well as the divisions between documentary, perception, and fiction. Some of the scenes appear as if they are occuring, unscripted today, while others seem clearly theatrical, and dated. These scenes combine with the landscape of contemporary Los Angeles, to begin the discussion where Odets left off, as a disillusioned screenwriter, living in Hollywood, and working for television.

Credits
  • Lee Anne Schmitt
  • Lee Anne Schmitt
  • Craig Smith
  • Lee Anne Schmitt
Lee Anne Schmitt

Lee Anne Schmitt

16 mm
col
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