ALGREN will play next Tuesday, March 3, at 730 PM at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago, as part of the GET REAL Doc Series. It will also play on Algren’s birthday weekend, March 28-30. Come see the highly lauded film that The Hollywood Reporter called, “riveting and comprehensive.” Also, check out the nice article at FACETS about the movie.
Over 800 people saw ALGREN in three screenings! We are overwhelmed and touched by all of the positive audience response. Thank you, Chicago–this is just the beginning. Stay tuned for more news for upcoming screenings and festivals!
Reviews and interviews of note:
John Williams Show (Rick Kogan Fills In) 10/20/14
http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2014/10/16/documentary-explores-life-work-writer-nelson-algren
http://www.wbez.org/programs/afternoon-shift/2014-10-14/afternoon-shift-karen-lewis-algren-and-ada-lovelace-day-110936
http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-nelson-algren-movie-unappreciated-genius-20141013-story.html
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-chicago-closeup-nelson-algren-20141009-column.html#page=1
We are very pleased to announce that ALGREN will have its world premiere at the Chicago International Film Festival! We are one of 10 documentaries selected world-wide for competition in Docufest. Algren’s story will arise again in his hometown–finally! Three screenings are scheduled–October 14, 20 and 21. Get your tickets now!
Nelson Algren was not the only person who wrote about the poor and dispossessed. What made him stand out was the quality of his writing–it was poetic and beautiful. We have endeavored to make a movie that’s as exciting as reading an Algren novel. We don’t need a boring documentary about an amazing writer. We hope we have succeeded.
With the sad passing of Lou Reed, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on the multiple links of Reed’s work to Algren. The most well known is, of course, Walk on the Wild Side, which drew its title from Algren’s 1956 novel. 
However, Reed also mentioned Algren in 1992, when he said, There was nothing in those songs that I hadn’t read about in books or seen in movies. Man With the Golden Arm had been out for years before I wrote “Heroin.” When people started yelling, I thought, “Go take after Nelson Algren, for Christ’s sake.”
Reed also brings up Algren in his live version of Street Hassle, where he says “I wanted to write a song that had a great monologue set to rock. Something that could have been written by William Burroughs, Hubert Selby, John Rechy, Tennessee Williams, Nelson Algren, maybe a little Raymond Chandler. You mix it all up and you have ‘Street Hassle’.”
RIP, Lou.
2013 has been a good year for us. Algren (the movie) is nearing completion. Wayne Kramer, the outstanding composer, guitarist and all around rock legend is scoring the movie, even as we speak. Then, it’s a sound mix, titles and color correction and we hit the world in 2014. Can’t wait. Stay tuned!
We will complete the movie and get it out to the world in 2013. All of the Nelson Algren, Simone de Beauvoir and great Chicago writers fans in the world will be happy to see it– we think!
Our edit on Algren continues mightily. It is looking to be about 90 minutes and it tells a story that should satisfy the Nelson Algren and Simone de Beauvoir fans and the novice, who doesn’t know that they need to know who Algren is. It will premiere in 2013 that’s a definite we just don’t know what month or where yet!
Welcome to our new website, and our new blog. In this age of blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, et al, it is hard to keep the word out in a way that all of our fans can get, but experts have told us that the best way to link certain names, like Nelson Algren, and Eugene Burger, to the website is to have the blog be linked to the website more completely, so here we are.
The edit of Algren is proceeding mightily, after spending the summer editing together the assembly. We are now editing at Protein Editorial and are looking forward to completing the movie by the end of November and qualifying for festivals in early 2013. Stay tuned, and thanks for checking us out!
