alien boy: the death and life of james chasse
On September 17, 2006, James Chasse, a shy and gentle man with schizophrenia, was tackled by three police officers in front of dozens of eyewitnesses on a downtown street corner in Portland, Oregon.
He was not suspected of a crime, nor had he committed one.
Eyewitnesses report the officers used “knees to the chest, punches to the face” and a Taser to subdue Chasse. He was handcuffed and lost consciousness for several moments. Eyewitnesses feared he was dead.
Paramedics arrived to the scene, but police neglected to share the extent of their violent struggle with Chasse, or his loss of consciousness. Chasse was then hogtied and - in the words of eyewitnesses - carried away “like and shot deer,” loaded into the back of a police car and taken to the police station, not a nearby hospital.
Jail nurses refused to admit Chasse due to the extent of his injuries, and demanded he be taken to a hospital. Rather than going to one of three emergency rooms within two miles, the officers who beat him started to drive Chasse to an emergency room six miles away.
En route, officers noticed Chasse had slumped over in the backseat. They pulled over and attempted CPR, but it was too late. Ninety minutes after the police tackled him, James Chasse died.
The autopsy reports Chasse had suffered 17 broken ribs, a separated shoulder, a punctured lung, and numerous bruises and contusions. At the scene of the struggle, police told on-lookers that Chasse was homeless and had 14 felony convictions for selling cocaine. Not true: Chasse had no criminal record, and lived in an apartment just a few blocks away.
THE FILM
Alien Boy: the Death and Life of James Chasse is a feature-length documentary film that:
* Examines the events of Sept. 17, 2006;
* Explores the impact and meaning of James Chasse’s death;
* Asks questions about how we as a society treat those with mental illness.
The film takes a deep look at Chasse’s life, uncovering his suburban childhood, participation in Portland’s early punk rock scene, the teenage onset of his schizophrenia, the peeling away of friendships and opportunities as his illness progressed into his adulthood, and his ability to carve out an independent existence despite his mental illness.
this film needs help through charitable contributions to wrap up production. i personally support the efforts to make alien boy because not only is there still inadequate awareness/advocacy of mental health causes, but there’s also little knowledge of portland police brutality outside of the city. i think it’s important to bring light to both of these subjects; all profits from the film are to go to the mental health association of portland. go to their kickstarter to watch the trailer and donate. bonus points for supporting this film if you’re a portland punk fan!
at work, showing this right now. 1960s comedy is dope.
help fund TIME WIZARD OUTLAWS!!!!
so my friend tim nicholas (of BRRRPTZZZAP! the subject lore), a recent pratt institute ex-pat (ex-prattriate? haha) just launched a kickstarter project to raise funds for making his senior thesis film, TIME WIZARD OUTLAWS, into a feature length, and he needs your help!! he’s got 28 days to meet his budget, and you can help with a donation as small as $5. there are also amazing incentives for different donation amounts (see: the “all-seeing eye” shortbread cookies!!).
the current trailer to TIME WIZARD OUTLAWS is on the kickstarter page, as well as tim’s pitch, where he explains what the gist of the film is, why he wants to make it a feature length, and exactly how the money will be spent. there will be additional videos posted in the next 28 days under the updates tab about the film, and there’s currently one in which he attempts to explain the aesthetic inspiration of the film.
kickstarter is an all-or-nothing format, so if the budget isn’t met by the deadline, you don’t ever get charged your pledge, so there’s no harm in pledging just a little spare change.
i promise this isn’t a ruthless promotional post; i myself plan to pledge toward this effort, as i think T.W.O. has great potential to be an awesome feature length. at its current state, the film as a short is pretty brilliant, and i think tim is really onto something with it. we both share a strong interest in the philosophy of history, and an appreciation for oddball and campy humor, and i believe this film is a great homage to both.
check out the page, pledge $5 (or more if you’re feeling like a real patron of the arts!) and share it with your friends!!
if you’re interested in seeing some of tim’s other work (including his documentary about noel godin, french anarchist and political pie-flinger), watch some shorts here.
also, happy thanksgiving!
sincerely,
annie soga
it hurts to watch this movie twenty one years later know that there’s still so much work to be done. the hurt is a hard thing to move on from. i think we often get caught up in a sense of fear and hopelessness, but that only perpetuates the issue of hate supposedly “winning.” we forget why it’s important to have documents like do the right thing not only to remind us of how things once were, but so that we may measure up our own times and see if much really has changed.
the scene where the white guy in the larry bird jersey scuffs buggin out’s air jordans is especially alarming to watch retrospectively. they are fighting about gentrification in bed stuy before it became as prevalent as it is now. hipsters and yuppie families taking over old brooklyn neighborhoods feels like an afterthought these days.
i felt really uncomfortable the first time i watched this movie, when i was about 11 or 12. i also thought it was archaic, that i couldn’t identify with the blatant racism it portrayed. that maybe it was just something particular to new york. nine years later and living here now, i know that’s all bullshit that i was inundated into believing, for a lack of real racial politics being discussed in the public school system and in our post-civil rights era society as a whole.
i still feel a lurch in my stomach at the end of the film though, when for mookie, hate overcomes love and the riot starts. where do people find the power to withhold hate that has been imposed on us by systematic oppression from institutions designed to pit people against one another and live in fear and ignorance, and to meet other peoples’ hate with love? how do we construct a community where we all take care of each other, rather than only look out for ourselves? the film poses this paradigm, and concludes with two very different (though not entirely oppositional) approaches, as quoted from martin luther king, jr. and malcom x, figures who pose together in an image that, through the character smiley, are recurrent throughout the film.
i don’t know who i agree with more, martin or malcom. i don’t always find pacifism to be effective, but at the same time, violence often only perpetuates an issue. i believe in radicalism, but i can’t entirely stand behind militancy. i think spike lee doesn’t necessarily stand by one or the other, either, which is why the perspective of the film is both affirming and painful to me.
watched midnight cowboy for the first time tonight, for my new york history through film independent study course. amazing. i’m not ashamed to admit that i almost cried.
still from satyajit ray’s pather panchali (1955).
i watched fellini’s nights of cabiria for the first time on tuesday at my projectionist job. not only did i fall in love with the film, the tragic storyline which i could identify with so well, but i fell in love with cabiria, more specifically, the actress giulietta masina, fellini’s wife. her demeanor, at times vivacious and spunky and, more often, vulnerable and tragic, pulled at my heartstrings. her style (and everyone else’s in late 1950’s italy)- her dress and swagger- was divine. if there is a heaven, everyone will wear adorable vintage clothing of this period and the women will have bitchin’ eyebrows.
i do plan on watching all the other films of fellini’s that she starred in over spring break.
