American Movie is also very much a film about failure. Mark Borchardt calls himself a filmmaker, but he has never actually made any films. What he really is -- no offense dude -- is a loser, deep in debt and marginally employed, with no education. He can't stand the idea of a normal job or being like everyone else, and he has wanted to make films from the time he was 14.
At the beginning of American Movie, Borchardt is going to make a full-length movie called Northwestern. This is not a Hollywood movie, but rather a super-low-budget independent film to be written, directed, and produced by Mark Borchardt. Since Borchardt is broke and owes money to everybody including the IRS, even the super low budget seems beyond his reach.
Borchardt assembles a fairly large filmmaking crew from local talent, but they quickly abandon him when it becomes apparent that the film isn't going anywhere. It turns out that Mark has been making this film for six years, but he has never completed it. When it becomes clear to him that he cannot make the film without some money, he decides to complete another film he has been working on for three years, a short black-and-white horror film called Coven. Incredibly, Coven is pronounced with a long O: Coe-ven. Someone tells him how to pronounce the word, but he just says that sounds wrong, it has to be Coe-ven. The idea is to finish Coven and sell enough copies to raise the money to make Northwestern.
American Movie is also about friendship. Mark's friends don't seem like the most reliable lot, but they stick with him and help him make his movies, because that what he wants to do. Mark himself is up and down, energetic and manic about working on his films, then depressed and questioning his own sanity, trying to analyze his own inability to complete his work.
The movie has a bit of a happy ending, as Coven gets completed and shows in the local theater. According to Wikipedia, Borchardt eventually sold over 5,000 copies of the film (his goal was 3,000), although I'm sure American Movie helped, as they actually tell you how to buy Coven at the end. According to IMDB, Northwestern was never completed, and Borchardt is working on another film that was supposed to be released in 2005, but is still not complete. However, IMDB also shows Borchardt with 22 acting credits, 3 as a writer, 3 as producer, 2 as director, 2 as editor, and 1 as cinematographer. Most of those are in his own films, but some of the acting credits are in actual commercial films. It doesn't look like he has that much of a career, but this is a guy with a definite dream to make movies, and it seems he has at least been able to live the dream a little.
I suppose I should add, I loved this movie.
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