TRANSPARENT FILMS, EMERGING PICTURES, SOLARIS, KINDRED MEDIA Present
THE SPEED OF LIFE (formerly titled “Superheroes”)
A film by ED RADTKE
Produced by IRA DEUTCHMAN, ED RADTKE,
GREG O’CONNOR
World Premiere: 2007 Venice Film Festival, Special Jury Prize
Special Jury Award Presentation at Venice Film Festival
Complete Press Kit (PDF)
Synopsis
Lyrical and raw, THE SPEED OF LIFE tells the story of Sammer, a 13 year old boy who escapes the streets of New York City by stealing video cameras from tourists. He and his friends retreat to their working class neighborhood to quickly sell the cameras, but Sammer always keeps the tapes. Alone in his bedroom and editing on a rack of stolen computers, Sammer explores this world of footage, infatuated by all the far away places and other people’s seemingly happy lives. While slowly stashing enough money away so he, too, can travel to these distant places, Sammer must first deal with his older brother who is getting out of prison, while also caring for his ailing foster mother. As Sammer and his gang skip school, camp on the rooftops of buildings or dream of being in the Olympics, they are confronted by a host of characters who stand in their way: a juvenile probation officer who doesn’t like juveniles, an ex-con who hides puppies, and an old man with a secret who thinks he can fly. Sammer’s experiences waver between fantasy and the harsh reality of growing up in Brooklyn, and he soon discovers that not all tourists are happy, that he must go to Alaska and that cameras can indeed fly – even if people cannot.
Ed Radtke (Writer/Director)
Ed Radtke has made three independent feature films, including the award-winning BOTTOM LAND and THE DREAM CATCHER. THE DREAM CATCHER garnered 11 awards at international film festivals and has been released worldwide. THE VILLAGE VOICE described him as “a highly talented filmmaker” and LE MONDE called him a “shooting star”.
Ed Radtke has years of additional filmmaking experience, having served as a writer, producer, assistant director and editor on various projects including: features, documentaries, TV movies, ITVS funded dramas, commercials and music videos. He has taught filmmaking at the university level, worked extensively with at-risk youth, taught media making to developmentally challenged adults and to prisoners. He’s lectured at Columbia and NYU, conducted workshops in Paris and in South America, is the recipient of 2 NEA production grants, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship.
Radtke co-wrote the feature script AIME TON PERE, produced by Gerard Depardieu and starring Depardieu and his real life son, Guillame. The film was the official Swiss entry for Best Foreign Film consideration for the 2001 Academy Awards®.
Hi, I watched “The Speed of Life” on Amazon a few years ago, and I REALLY enjoyed it, but unfortunately there was a problem with the sound – rather constant popping or clicking noises. I reported this at the time both to you and Amazon, and then I tried renting it from Amazon again recently. It was the same.
Curiously, when I watch the TRAILER for the movie on Amazon, it’s fine, but the movie itself has bad sound.
I came back to this website to see if maybe you sold this movie as a DVD or Blu Ray, but I don’t see it.
It would be great if you could figure out the problem at Amazon and fix it!
This really is a special movie but I hesitate to recommend it due to the sound issue.
Thanks!
–Gary Davis
Los Angeles
Thanks for letting me know about this. I’ll look into it.
–Ira