I’d like to tell you about my new project, a documentary.

ROY’S WORLD: BARRY GIFFORD’S CHICAGO

Barry Gifford is one of America’s greatest storytellers. His work includes the novel Wild at Heart, which was adapted by David Lynch into a Palme d’Or-winning film, the screenplays Lost Highway and City of Ghosts, and dozens of other novels and books of poetry and essays. In a series of autobiographical stories spanning more than forty years he has chronicled the adventures of Roy, a boy coming of age largely on the gritty streets of 1950s Chicago. In Roy’s World, Gifford’s recollections of his childhood will be interwoven with excerpts from the Roy stories, vintage footage and photographs of Chicago, and an evocative jazz soundtrack to create an impressionistic portrait of a vanished place and time.

It’s been awhile since I tackled a documentary of this sort. (I made AMBIENT STORYTELLING 1 in 1993 and AMBIENT STORYTELLING 2 in 1994.) But I’m fired up! I’ve just started pre-production, which will of course involve a lot of research and legwork and sundry other tasks I probably haven’t even thought of yet.

At the moment, there are two Chicago neighborhoods I’m focusing on: the Rockwell/Devon area in Rogers Park (in the neighborhood of the original Kow Kow) and the intersection of Rush/Chicago (especially anything about Lake Shore Pharmacy, the all-night drugstore which was next door to the Club Alabam). Any photos, tips, or memories are greatly appreciated. Drop me a line at randomcha(at)gmail(dot)com.