I am SO EXCITED to be able to purchase this movie! I saw it 4 years ago at the Sedona International Film Festival, for which I am a screener. I have wanted to see it again ever since. Here is the review I wrote the morning after I saw it for the first time :
Last night I saw the film The Speed of Life at the Sedona International Film Festival.
The blood is rushing to my head just typing the title.
I feel alive.
I feel important because I saw it.
I feel everyone is important and everyone's story is important.
It represents what independent film making is all about.
This film (do you still call it a film if it was shot on video?) was so layered, so complex, so intricately woven and so beautifully simple, effortless and chaotic at the same time.
It begins with at risk foster kids in Brooklyn who steal tourists video cameras....to sell on the streets, but also to see the world - Sam always keeps the tapes - to see what those people see. Then the layers begin. I compare this to The Visitor, which I adored, only times 5.
On top of the experience of viewing Speed of Life, the writer, director, creator, Ed Radke, arrived from Santa Fe just in time for questions and answers. I couldn't help but like him immediately, and he was so real, present, accessible, genuine, and how he spoke (with no trace of ego, mind you) about the creative process in general resonated with me down to my artist's toes. He is a teacher.
Apparently all the kids in this were "non- actors",(except for the lead, Sam). They were not only beautiful, but such naturals that they made this feel almost like a documentary. Jeremy Allen White played the lead, Sam. He is studying acting. Watch for him. He's going to be famous someday.
