The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam (2003)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Ann Marie Fleming

Genre:

Documentary

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Runtime:

Canada:90 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

History is relatives.

Just saw this film at the 2006 Pacific Rim Film Festival in Santa Cruz, CA, which at this writing has a couple more days to run. Its easily the most captivating offering so far, and structurally one of the most creative.

Filmmaker/director/writer/animator Anne Marie Miller, a great-granddaughter of the subject Long Tack Sam, used her abundant skills and industry contacts to craft a deeply moving portrait of her once-famous vagabond Chinese ancestor, his Austrian wife, and their three children. It shows a family who made the bulk of their living from an international vaudeville circuit, but who were kept on the move as much by international events spanning both World Wars as by their own pleasure in traveling the world. One of the fascinating relics of their lives seems to be a tendency in their descendants to continue to spread far and wide. Indeed, its this mostly-unknown treasure trove of aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws, and old acquaintances in multiple countries who ultimately provide as much material in collective form as the various museums and associations of magicians Miller also consults.

Long Tack Sam and his magical-acrobatic revue are just one example of entertainers who were very famous in their day, but who somehow have fallen through the cracks of history, even within their own family. Like the estimated 90% of all silent films lost to time and decay, what remains is the more interesting for the glimpse it provides into the early and middle last century. And Sam's story is yet another grand edition to the immigrant history of the U.S. and Canada.

The only negative to all this is the fact no studio has picked this film up for distribution. Its a crime its not on DVD, and a worse one that its not been shown on PBS, nor, apparently, is PBS interested, according to the filmmaker. What the thinking is behind that decision is simply beyond me. Considering that PBS found the peculiar, disturbing, and emotionally distant documentary on the "art" of Henry Darger worth airing at least once, their lack of interest in "The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam" is puzzling.

Bottom line: keep an eye on your local film festival circuit, if you're lucky enough to live where one is held. This is a movie worth seeking out.