Or maybe it was when our editor, Traci Loth, put together an initial rough cut, and our producer, Amanda Micheli, said, "Congratulations. How has the reception been for the film, and has it affected Slomo's skating in San Diego? You've got a movie." It was a cumulative process. The reception for the film has been tremendous. There are those out there who feel that John is wasting an opportunity in his golden years-maybe to help people, to continue to practice as a neurologist, etc. Some people find what he's doing to be frivolous, or find it threatening in some existential way, which is OK. That said, most people seem to find his story inspirational. There is a "lady skater." Though she actually rides a pink beach cruiser.ĭo you think there's something to his skating style-does it Zen you out? Have you taken it up? People in San Diego and on Pacific Beach, in particular, have been supportive… I don't think he's getting mobbed for autographs or anything.ĭoes he have a lady skater in his life? Is he even interested? For his part, Slomo's skating has only been positively impacted by the film. Slomo's skating style Zens me out that's for sure. He's imparted some pieces of skating wisdom, though, that have changed the way I surf. He told me to skate in my boots-not in front of them, and not behind them. I've tried to translate that to surfing, and I think it's useful advice. I'm currently working on documentaries about boxing in Lansing, Michigan, and drug addiction in Peru. And I'm producing a doc about a former opera singer who now lives on the streets of the Tenderloin in San Francisco. Jeffrey Bowers is a tall mustached guy from Ohio who's seen too many weird movies. He currently lives in Brooklyn, working as an art and film curator. He is a programmer at the Hamptons International Film Festival and screens for the Tribeca Film Festival. He also self-publishes a super fancy mixed-media art serial called PRISM index. There is no shortage of great characters to be found at SXSW, usually as many outside on the streets of Austin as there are inside the film festival’s theaters. Yet even in a city that prides itself on “keeping it weird,” there’s never been one quite like John Kitchin, the 69-year-old star of Joshua Izenberg’s documentary “Slomo.”Ī one-time neurologist who had all the markers of what many would consider the good life, complete with a marriage, a Ferrari, and even an exotic animal farm, Kitchin now skates the Pacific Beach Boardwalk alongside the Mission Beach of San Diego, listening to opera music and wearing a blue tank top and a grey fishing hat, a considerably stripped-down lifestyle that wasn’t brought about by financial calamity but the discovery of a rare disease that began to prevent him from recognizing faces. Rather than trying to readjust what he had to accommodate his condition, Kitchin recalled some advice a mentor once gave him to “Do what you want to do” and used the diagnosis to hit the reset button to live a life on limited means while finding his joy in rollerblading.
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