American Zombie
credits:
Director: Grace LeeProducer: In-Ah Lee
Writers: Rebecca Sonenshine, Grace Lee
Cast: Suzy Nakamura, Austin Basis, Al Vincente, Jane Edith Wilson
USA/South Korea 2007 | 91 mins | HDCAM | English
IN PERSON (at select screenings): Grace Lee, Suzy Nakamura, Rebecca Sonnenshine
Grace Lee, in the words of her partner John “a totally legitimate documentary filmmaker” (THE GRACE LEE PROJECT, SFIAAFF ‘05), sinks her teeth into a secretive subculture in Los Angeles that goes by several names, according to the experts: decedents, the nonliving community, revenants, the living dead; in other words, zombies. Disapproving of John’s blunt questioning about their subjects’ rumored diet of human flesh and his confrontational filmmaking methods, Lee probes deeper into their lives and turns up some disquieting clues. Her subjects are, on the surface, ordinary people: Ivan is a slacker who works the night shift at a convenience store and produces a zine. (His roommate, a less functional zombie, is openly hostile and scribbles voids.) Judy does customer service at an organic foods company and scrapbooks hopefully about Mr. Right. Joel runs the Zombie Advocacy Group (ZAG) to organize for their civil rights. Lisa is a New Age type who creates “representational” string sculptures and undergoes ancient healing techniques not only to get in touch with herself, but to remove the pesky worms in her open wound. The big coup of the film is gaining access to shoot at “Live Dead,” a supersecret three-day gathering of the undead community in the hinterlands, which throws the whole production into harrowing tragedy. Lee’s frank and unflinching treatment of her subjects explores a hidden, marginalized community that cries out for compassion and understanding. The ultimate message is that, there but for the Grace, we could all become one of them.
—Frako Loden
