David Gordon Green makes a stunning directorial debut with GEORGE WASHINGTON, a highly poetic drama that tells the story of the inhabitants of a small, impoverished southern town. Focusing on a group of five adolescent friends--George (Donald Holden), Nasia (Candace Evanofski), Buddy (Curtis Cotton III), Vernon (Damian Jewan Lee), and Sonya (Rachel Handy)--Green uses the town's barren landscape to provide a bleak, yet beautiful, backdrop for their day-to-day lives. After Nasia breaks up with Buddy for George, an introverted youth with an extremely sensitive fontanel, tragedy strikes and the friends are forced to come to terms with the situation. The resulting internal struggles send each individual into a search for redemption in intensely personal, yet very different, ways.
Green's film is reminiscent of Terrence Malick's DAYS OF HEAVEN in its potent blend of naturalistic acting, lush photography, and nostalgic voice-over. The 24-year-old shows a maturity that many older directors rarely attain. It is this overriding optimism that makes it such an uplifting moviegoing experience, even amidst such somber circumstances. Also, there is an understated humor--most notably in Paul Schneider's portrayal of Rico Rice--that keeps matters hopeful throughout. GEORGE WASHINGTON is an honest, thoughtful, and deeply transcendent motion picture.
The film was shot in and around Winston-Salem, North Carolina, during the summer of 1999.
The exterior scenes were filmed using an Antique filter.
Director David Gordon Green specifically photographed the independent film in 35mm CinemaScope in order to make it a more visual experience.
The actors in the film rarely, if ever, swear. Green intented this to force his actors to find more unusual and poetic ways of speaking.
The film world-premiered at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival.
At the 2000 Newport International Film Festival, Green's picture walked away with three awards: Best Director, Best Dramatic Feature, and Best Ensemble Cast Performance.
Roger Ebert of EBERT AND ROEPER AND THE MOVIES, Jan Stuart and Gene Seymour of Newsday, and Elvis Mitchell of the New York Times named GEORGE WASHINGTON one of the 10 best films of 2000; Armond White of the New York Press named it the best film of 2000.
The New York Film Critics Circle named GEORGE WASHINGTON Best First Film.
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Anamorphic Widescreen - 2.35
Single Side - Dual Layer
Audio:
Stereo 2.0 - English
Additional Release Material:
Alternate Scenes - Deleted Scenes
Audio Commentaries - 1. David Gordon Green - Director
2. Tim Orr - Cinematographer
3. Paul Schneider - Actor
Bonus Shorts - 1. "Pleasant Grove"
2. "Physical Pinball"
3. "A Day With the Boys"
Interviews
Trailers - Original Theatrical Trailer
Director of Photography
Tim Orr: Director of Photography
Executive Producer
Sam Froelich: Executive Producer
Production Designer
Richard Wright: Production Designer "George Washington"
Special Effects Designer
Christof Gebert: Multi-Talented Sound Recordist/Writer/Director
Costumes
Michael Tully: Actor/Director/Screenwriter
Review 1:
"...The picture [is] bursting with talent from its young cast....Mr. Green has found a style that's defiantly his own....This may be the best-photographed film of the year..."
Source: New York Times
p.E12 09/29/2000
Review 2:
"...Beautifully filmed....Green is feeling his way into tender territory..."
Source: Film Comment
p.75 10/01/2000
Review 3:
"...As poetry is to prose, so is this movie to most other current offerings..."
Source: Box Office
p.64 01/01/2001
Review 4:
"...Fresh, poetic, tender, utterly individual and richly atmospheric..."
Source: Sight and Sound
p.49 10/01/2001
Review 5:
"...GEORGE WASHINGTON is so refreshingly distinctive in its bold lyricism that you can easily get carried away by it....One of the most striking and affecting American independent film of the year..."
Source: Los Angeles Times
p.C2 11/24/2000
Review 6:
"...This is an original and uncategorizable work on its own..."
Source: USA Today
p.6E 03/15/2002
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