Documentary on Vincent Falk to premier next month

Vincent P. Falk is Fashion Man. Clad in brightly colored suits; Vincent twirls on Chicago’s many bridges, performing fashion shows for passing tour boats. As he spins his way through the city, tourists and locals alike are left to wonder just who is this strange man. Over the course of one boat season, we follow Vincent and begin to unravel the mystery that surrounds him. We discover that the man behind the fashion, having come through the travails of life, has decided to do what makes him happy. And so, he spins on. – From the official synopsis for Vincent: A Life In Color, produced by Zweeble Films

23-Oct-08 – A 95-minute documentary on Marina City resident Vincent Falk will have its world premier next month at a film festival in North Carolina.

Vincent: A Life In Color follows Falk through a tour boat season on the Chicago River. The 59-year-old computer programmer for Cook County is better known throughout downtown Chicago as the man who dresses in brightly colored suits and dances on bridges for the amusement of tourists.

Falk has been the subject of newspaper articles by the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, and an NBC5 television news story. Born with glaucoma and blind in one eye, Falk was abandoned at an orphanage as a child. Eight years later, he was adopted and raised by Clarence and Mary Falk of Chicago.

“I’ve seen Vincent around for many years, and always wondered about him,” says Producer/Director Jennifer Burns, “and one day watching him, I thought someone should make a documentary about him.”

The film took three years to make. Burns started on Memorial Day weekend in 2005 and followed Vincent through that boat season.

“We structured the film…chronologically through the boat season but we also flashback to earlier parts of his life so we tell his full life story through the course of the boat season.”

Burns says what was most surprising about Vincent was how few people know anything about him. “And what they think they know is almost always completely wrong. One of the themes of the film is, one by one, busting apart the rumors that swirl around him.”

She and Falk will travel to the Cucalorus Film Festival in Wilmington, North Carolina, where the film will be screened on November 14 in a 360-seat theater.

After that, Burns says she will try to get the film into other festivals throughout the country while she looks for a distributor.

Jennifer Burns

“Everyone’s goal is to achieve distribution. Have a distributor find you at a festival and love your film and buy it and show it in theaters for you. It’s a very tenuous time for independent film these days, in particular for documentaries. That possibility is still out there but it’s much harder to reach.”

Regardless of whether the film finds a distributor, Burns says she will find a screen to show it on in Chicago. “I’ll get it into one of the independent theater houses here and hopefully do a short theatrical run here. And then, of course, get it onto DVD and make those available as well.”

According to its web site, more than 100 films are screened each year at the Cucalorus Film Festival.

 Web site for Vincent: A Life In Color