The Amazing Meeting was off to a fabulous start yesterday and is as always living up to its name. The workshops have of course been great, but personally a huge highlight was being able to see the screening of “An Honest Liar” for the first time.
If you are at TAM right now, then you can stop reading, because you have most probably also seen the movie. If you are not at TAM and have no idea what I’m on about, then read on, because this is for you.
The official movie site describes it like this …
AN HONEST LIAR is a feature documentary about the world-famous magician, escape artist, and world-renowned enemy of deception, James ‘The Amazing’ Randi. The film brings to life Randi’s intricate investigations that publicly exposed psychics, faith healers, and con-artists with quasi-religious fervor. A master deceiver who came out of the closet at the age of 81, Randi created fictional characters, fake psychics, and even turned his partner of 25 years, the artist Jose Alvarez, into a sham guru named Carlos. But when a shocking revelation in Randi’s personal life is discovered, it isn’t clear whether Randi is still the deceiver – or the deceived.
I’ll not spoil the movie for you, but rather will instead strongly encourage you to just go see it when the opportunity presents itself. You will have an opportunity – right now it still has a few more film festivals to go to, then later in the Autumn it will hit the movie theatres in the US and may (I can’t confirm, but have heard whispers) that it will also be on TV at a some point (talks are in progress and so nothing was said). It will of course also reach Netflix, and the iTunes store in due course, so perhaps that might be another way to get to see it.
Without going into too much detail, I will say this – it is a very powerful emotional ride and contains some big surprises along the way. The producers even managed to persuade Uri Geller to take part. The story I heard was that they contacted him, explained that they were making a movie about James Randi and asked if they could come interview him. The initial response was the usual – “Send a list of questions”, and so they did that. After Mr Geller’s lawyers had taken a look, they got back with “No way”, but then Mr Geller rang them up and said, “I’ll do it”. What can one say except, Uri just loves to be in front of a Camera.
What was also uniquely fun was that once the screening had finished, the producers were out front along with James Randi himself and also others to answer questions – and some great questions were asked (but hey, its TAM of course, that is what to expect).
Awards
It’s a truly fabulous movie, and yes I’m a tad biased when I say that, so if we go beyond my own thoughts, what have the people at the various movie festivals made of it all?
Basically this …
Now remember, these are awards from people who know knowing about James Randi, have no bias here, and have been exposed to him for the first time ever via this movie, and that says it all.
The Trailer
OK, here is a teaser for you, it’s the trailer …
They started down this road at TAM back in 2011 and as events unfolded it took them on a very surprising and quite unexpected journey (no details, that would spoil it for you) and so it took longer than planned …
What can I say expect “well done guys, you have done a fabulous job” …
One further observation, making the movie has left them broke, so if you liked the movie, surf on over to the official site and hit “Donate”, or buy a few things from their shop to help them out a bit.
Final Word
It’s going to have a real impact and will introduce a lot more people to everything that James Randi is all about.
Make sure you get to see it.