The 30th anniversary of the Sedona International Film Festival continued with the world premiere of the concert film “Chicago LIVE 2024” on Monday, Feb. 26, to a capacity crowd at the Sedona Performing Arts Center.
“It was epic to see the performing arts center packed to the rafters,” SIFF Executive Director Patrick Schweiss said. “People [were] screaming and cheering like they were at a live concert. Truly a magical night of music, movies and excitement. We had the place rockin’ and it was wonderful to have [Chicago trumpeter] Lee Loughnane here with us.”
The premier is the third consecutive project that Chicago has screened with SIFF to sell out, and the film’s editing was completed just four days before the show.
“It’s the best live version of the group that’s ever been,” director Peter Pardini said. “They amaze me, and every time there’s a lineup change, for whatever reason … they always find a guy who can come in and do just as good or better. I just saw them three nights in a row in Las Vegas, and they are unbelievable. The legacy of Chicago, and every current iteration, is that they continue to get better. And they care about the music and they care about the audience. They’re not up there just to play 20 times a year and get some money, they play 110 times a year because they need to do it and need to be in front of an audience, just like the audiences that keep coming back.”
That face-to-face connection between the band and its audience has been vital to the legendary group’s longevity, but the absence of human connection is the topic of Pardini’s other film in this year’s festival — which also features the members of Chicago, who provided the score.
The festival programme states that the film, “Man Goes on Rant,” is about how “a man emerging from years of isolation notices bizarre coincidences throughout recent U.S. history and begins to think they explain why his long-term relationship didn’t work out. When none of his friends will listen to his rants, he finds an outlet for his conspiracy theories by making a documentary following the trajectory of the United States from Y2K to the pandemic shutdowns.”
Pardini explained that the movie grew out of his unreleased documentary “Circuit Breaker,” a COVID-19 pandemic-era project of his that also charted the history of 21st-century America. He said the film seeks to explore the reasoning and emotional state of people who may make bystanders uncomfortable with their unprovoked political or conspiratorial diatribes.
“We all have an opinion of somebody who’s sitting in front of you at lunch and talking about 9/11 and you’re like, ‘Oh, my God, will they shut up,’” Pardini said. “That’s what this [character] is. But then we learn why he’s like that and we see that he’s just now in 2024, coming out of a self-quarantine from COVID, and we don’t know why he’s still so scared of coronavirus. We learn throughout the movie that he had a long-term relationship that ended and he’s just been in front of the computer watching YouTube, watching news and everything he knows now is conspiracy stuff online, and it’s not good or bad. It’s just information. [But] he’s clearly not equipped to handle it, and it’s about his growth from being a shut-in to becoming part of the real world again.”
“It is just so wonderful to be experiencing films the way they are mean to be seen in a universal setting side by side with other film lovers,” Schweiss said. “To be able to discuss films and create dialogue and be taken behind the scenes with the filmmakers. You can’t beat face-to-face interaction like this.”
“Chicago doesn’t need much help drawing an audience, but I made ‘Man Goes on Rant’ with very little money and a lot of passion, and I really want people to come out and see it and come out even if they hate it,” Pardini said.
