Phil Ranstrom - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Phil Ranstrom is an American documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

director living in Chicago, Illinois and has been writing, producing and directing documentaries since the early 1980s. Among his credits are the 1983 Chicago Emmy Award

Emmy Award

An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

nominated documentary, The Cocaine Express and the critically acclaimed, Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street

Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street

Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street is a 90 minute documentary film, narrated by actor Joe Mantegna, which details the rise and fall of Chicago's Maxwell Street...

, which Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...

writer and WGN (AM)

WGN (AM)

WGN is a radio station in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It is the only radio station owned by the Tribune Company, which also owns the flagship television station WGN-TV, the Chicago Tribune newspaper and Chicago magazine locally. WGN's transmitter is located in Elk Grove Village, Illinois...

host, Rick Kogan

Rick Kogan

Rick Kogan is a Chicago newspaperman, a Chicago radio personality and a noted author.- Early life and education :A native of Chicago's Old Town neighborhood, Kogan was born the son of longtime Chicago newspaperman Herman Kogan and longtime Chicago literary and journalism fixture Marilew Kogan...

called, "One of the most remarkable pieces of work I've ever seen."

All of Phil Ranstrom's documentaries prior to Cheat You Fair and Electrified were short films, shown on WTTW

WTTW

WTTW channel 11 is one of three Public Broadcasting Service member public television stations serving the Chicago, Illinois market; the others are WYCC and WYIN. WTTW began broadcasting on September 6, 1955 and it is owned and operated by Window to the World Communications, Inc., a not-for-profit...

television in Chicago. Cheat You Fair is Phil's first feature length

Feature length

Feature length is motion picture terminology referring to the length of a feature film. According to the rules of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a feature length motion picture must have a running time of more than 40 minutes to be eligible for an Academy Award.The term may also...

film. It is narrated by actor Joe Mantegna

Joe Mantegna

Joseph Anthony "Joe" Mantegna, Jr. is an American actor, producer, writer,director, and voice actor. He is best known for his roles in box office hits such as Three Amigos , The Godfather Part III , Forget Paris , and Up Close & Personal...

and details the rise and fall of Chicago's Maxwell Street

Maxwell Street

Maxwell Street is an east-west street in Chicago, Illinois that intersects with Halsted Street just south of Roosevelt Road. It runs at 1330 South in the numbering system running from 500 West to 1126 West. The Maxwell Street neighborhood is considered part of the Near West Side and is one of the...

. This epic film is presented in 3 acts—part history, part blues and part expose' about the fight to save the market from being destroyed by the University of Illinois at Chicago

University of Illinois at Chicago

The University of Illinois at Chicago, or UIC, is a state-funded public research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, near the Chicago Loop...

(UIC). Each act is presented in a different documentary genre

Genre

Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...

. Cheat You Fair is considered by many to be the definitive work about Chicago's Maxwell Street, as no other film or book captures this much history, music, interviews and information about this world-famous market. Cheat You Fair was also shown at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival

Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...

in Park City, Utah. It was also shown in various film festivals in the U.S. and in Europe. The DVD is available at the film's website.

Multiple documentary sub-genres

All of Phil Ranstrom's documentaries vary in style and sub-genre. "The Cocaine Express", "Uptown Christian Soldiers", "Reclaiming America" and the third-act of "Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street" incorporate elements of the investigative and news report sub-genres, while "I Remember Riverview", "Cheat You Fair" and "Electrified" incorporate the historical, cultural and experimental sub-genres. Each of the three acts of "Cheat You Fair" utilizes a different sub-genre to tell the story – historical, musical and investigative.

Music documentaries

Fender Musical Instruments Corporation helped to sponsor two of Phil Ranstrom's films - "Cheat You Fair" and "Electrified". In addition, they are working together on a series of music documentaries including, "Pierogi Blues" and "Bounce To Disc".

Documentary Filmography

The Cocaine Express (1983)
I Remember Riverview (1984)
Uptown Christian Soldiers (1985)
Reclaiming America (1986)
Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street (2007)
Electrified: The Story of the Maxwell Street Urban Blues (2008)
Pierogi Blues (in-production) (2010)
Bounce to Disc (pre-production) (2011)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.