Passing Strange

In this astounding and explosive documentary, Spike Lee captures the eponymous Broadway musical show written by singer/songwriter Stew (with music cowritten by his creative partner, Heidi Rodewald). The resulting work unites revelatory theater with superb filmmaking, raising the whole to a dizzyingly plateau of emotional engagement. The story (developed at the Sundance Theatre Lab) concerns the uneasy relationship of a young black man (called simply Youth in the show’s credits) with his life. Raised somewhere south of Interstate 10 in Los Angeles, our hero, a would-be songwriter, stews in a sea of conflicted cultural signals. He chafes under his mother’s fixation on family ties and church and her bourgeois aspirations. So he sets out on his own—like pioneers Josephine Baker and James Baldwin—to Europe, seeking something “real.” Picaresque misadventures with sex, drugs, politics, and art await Youth in far-out Amsterdam and hypermilitant Berlin. His eyes are opened ever wider, even revealing what he left behind. An absolutely superb cast, ably supported by sparing (but pitch-perfect) costumes, design, and stagecraft, bring to life the emotionally charged story with its astounding original music, narrated and overseen by Stew himself. Lee’s multicamera coverage of the event (including backstage scenes) involves the audience in not only the text but the electricity of the ensemble’s onstage adventure. It's a tour-de-force of creative collaboration and inspiration
CAST
De'Adre Aziza, Daniel Breaker, Colman Domingo, Chad Goodridge, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Eisa Davis, Stew

Spike Lee - Spike Lee is a producer, director, and actor. He graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 1982, and his thesis film, Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads, won a Student Academy Award. Lee's controversial first feature film, She's Gotta Have It (1986), was a huge success. Do the Right Thing (1989) was nominated for an Academy Award for best original screenplay and explored the volatile topics of race and cultural violence, and 4 Little Girls received an Academy Award nomination for best documentary feature. When the Levees Broke, his four-part portrait of the Hurricane Katrina debacle, won an Emmy Award.

Screenings:

Fri. Jan 16 2:30 p.m. - PASSI16LA Library Center Theatre, Park City
Sat. Jan 17 noon - PASSI17SD Screening Room, Sundance Resort
Sun. Jan 18 3:00 p.m. - PASSI18BA Broadway Centre Cinemas VI, SLC
Tue. Jan 20 11:59 p.m. - PASSI204L Holiday Village Cinema IV, Park City
Sat. Jan 24 5:15 p.m. - PASSI24LE Library Center Theatre, Park City