Over 30 films were selected for exhibition and/or competition at the 2022 Blue Whiskey Independent Film Festival held at Chicago Filmmakers, 1326 W. Hollywood Avenue in Chicago, from July 15-21. The 2022 festival exhibited ten feature films and twenty-one short films. Of the thirty-one official selections, there were sixteen short narratives, eight feature narratives, two feature documentaries, three short documentaries, and two music videos.
The top award-winners were the Best Narrative Feature, Sweet Disaster, and Best Documentary Short, Come On Time – each receiving three Blue Glass Awards. But the highest honor went to the latter.
“This year’s Best of Fest was delightful and intensely surprising,” according to Judge Chair Pete Guither, in his speech during the 2022 Blue Glass Awards on Sunday, July 31. Come On Time introduces its audience to Clive Kennedy, a performer who can’t perform. The music documentary is the story of incredible talent gone unrealized, leading to a joint effort between subject and filmmaker to battle Clive’s mental health and find catharsis in his songs.
“I met Clive at a friend’s house 15 years ago,” said producer/director Chris Vernon. “I loved his music. As I got to know him better I became more aware that something was not as it should be. There was a struggle preventing him from succeeding.”
The 40-minute documentary demonstrates Clive’s inability to finish a song through archival footage and present day interviews as he obsesses over every detail and gets distracted from one moment to the next.
Vernon confesses, “I got sucked into Clive’s world, and began to interfere, trying to find ways for Clive to face his demons and finish some of his songs that he has been tinkering with for 30 years.”
“I was thrilled to learn Chris Vernon’s documentary short won Best of Fest,” said Executive Director Michael Noens. “In the festival’s 12 seasons, this is not only the first short (films less than 45 minutes) to win the top honor, but also the first documentary.”
Come On Time won Blue Glass Awards for Best Editing, Best Documentary Short, and Best of Fest. “It drew us into a compelling character-driven story that entertained us while making us care about this fascinating man,” said Guither.
