Steven Gomer Documentary
Joe Chaikin Going On
Joe Chaikin is the master director, actor, and teacher whose Open Theater, developed in the mid-1950s, set new standards for the theatrical avant-garde. “For me, he's the main force in the American theater,” comments Sam Shepard in Joe Chaikin Going On, a discerning portrait of Chaikin filmed by newcomer Steven Gomer. Portraying the artist at work and in conversation with the filmmaker, Joe Chaikin Going On develops as a valuable introduction to both the man and his theories. The film captures Chaikin in performance with the Living Theater in The Connection and Man is Man, and rehearsing Samuel Beckett's Endgame. Chaikin describes Beckett as “a poet I'm drawn to because he's marvelous, he's alive, he insists on courage.” Steven Gomer brings out these qualities in Chaikin himself; “I think it's possible to be creative in a commercial setting,” Chaikin offers, “but not for me.”