High Chicago

High Chicago (also released as A Family Man) is a dramatic feature film released in 2012. Director Alfons Adetuyi and his brother and writer Robert Adetuyi used locations in their home town, Sudbury, Ontario when making the film.^[1]

The film had its US premier at the 2012 Pan African Film Festival in February 2012. It had its Toronto premiere at the 2012 ReelWorld Film Festival in April 2012. In an interview in Indiewire's Shadow and Act magazine Adetuyi revealed that his film about a father with a dream was based on one of his own father's dreams. His father had dreamed of opening a North American style drive-in movie theatre in Africa.^[2]

Adetuyi told the Sudbury Star shortly after the release of High Chicago that he planned to return to Sudbury to shoot a second film, as he saw High Chicago as the first in an "African trilogy".^[3]

Plot

Colin Salmon stars as Sam, a hard-drinking father of three, ex-Navy man, ex-miner, and soon to be ex-husband. Sam takes to gambling to bankroll his crazy plan to open a drive-in theatre in Africa. Equally desperate to support his family and keep his dream alive, we watch as Sam’s life spirals out of control in a showdown with a deadly Detroit card shark.

Festivals

|Montreal International Black Film Festival, 2012 Chicago Black Harvest Film Festival, 2012 Boston Roxbury International Film Festival, 2012 Canadian Cinema Editors Awards, 2012 - Nomination - "Best Editing - Feature Length Dramatic" ReelWorld Film Festival, 2012 - Awards - "Outstanding Canadian Feature" and "Audience Choice Award" African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), 2012 - Nomination - "Best Diaspora Feature" Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival, 2012 - Nomination - "Best Director First Feature" Cinefest Sudbury International Film Festival, 2011

References