Chameleon Street

Chameleon Street is a 1989 independent film written by, directed by and starring Wendell B. Harris, Jr.. It tells the story of a social chameleon who impersonates reporters, doctors and lawyers in order to make money.

Chameleon Street
Directed byWendell B. Harris Jr.
Written byWendell B. Harris Jr.
StarringWendell B. Harris Jr.
Music byPeter S. Moore
Release date
Running time
94 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The film is a satire based on the life of Detroit con artist and high-school drop-out William Douglas Street, Jr., who successfully impersonated professional reporters, lawyers, athletes, extortionists, and surgeons, going so far as to perform more than 36 successful hysterectomies. A Sundance Film Festival press release in 2008 described it as "one of the first films to examine how mellifluously race, class, and role-playing morph into the social fabric of America."[1] Chameleon Street won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival.

Reception

The Washington Post found the film disappointing: "What we have here is a brilliant concept, but unfortunately, Harris just isn't a filmmaker -- not even in the most rudimentary sense. His failures are all on the most basic level. He can't plot or shape scenes; he can't draw out his actors; he can't write dialogue or mount it; he can't create any consistent rhythms or sense of pace."[2] Similarly, The Hartford Courant said, "Chameleon Street feels like a series of improvised skits, some imaginative and funny, some hackneyed... [Harris] writes with élan and wit, but his sense of structure is minimal, so Chameleon Street feels jumpy and disjointed."[3]

On the other hand, The Philadelphia Inquirer was more generous: "Though, like its subject, the film goes on some pretty strange tangents, Chameleon Street is largely successful as the diary of a compulsive trickster whose marks are suckered by Street's confidence and instinct for telling people what they want to hear. Harris' truth-is-stronger-than-fiction rap is both funny and insightful."[4]

References
  1. sex, lies, and videotape and Chameleon Street selected for 25th Sundance Film Festival From the Collection Screenings. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on August 3, 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-18.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. Hinson, Hal (May 31, 1991). "Chameleon Street". Washington Post. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
  3. Johnson, Malcolm L. (September 28, 1991). "Tales of desperation: successful 'Station', disjointed 'Street'". Hartford Courant. p. B8. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
  4. Rickey, Carrie (June 5, 1991). "Diary of a compulsive trickster". Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 5-D. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
Awards
Preceded by
True Love		 Sundance Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Dramatic
1990		 Succeeded by
Poison


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