Chronic is an experimental narrative about a young woman who began mutilating herself as a girl to cope with her bitter mid-western life. The lush optically-printed scenes take Gretchen's point of view from her punk youth, a stay in a mental hospital, and her release into the big city. Scripted scenes are composited with documentary and found footage, illustrating the culture Gretchen lives in, her inner world and relationships from her birth to her final day.
Awards: Jerome Foundation Production Grant; Charlotte Film Festival: First Prize Experimental Film; Oberhausen International Short Film Festival: Main Prize of the International Competition and First Prize from the Jury of International Film Critics (FIPRESCI); Ann Arbor Film Festival: The Screening Committee's Choice Award For Narrative Integrity, and The Tom Berman Most Promising Filmmaker Award; Images Festival of Independent Film and Video, Toronto: Marion McMahon Memorial Award; Shorts International Film Festival, N.Y.: Best Experimental Film; Black Maria Film Festival: Juror#s Choice; Christopher Wetzel Memorial Award, Honorable Mention: Art Institute of Chicago.
Cast:Jennifer Reeves, Noelle Kalom, Barbara Lee , Bill Bronson, Jeanne Liotta, Richard Harrington, Chelsea Penneabaker, Robbin Shahani, Mary Brezovich, Joe Gibbons.