I'm Keith Hernandez a film by Rob Perri
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Synopsis
Part baseball documentary, part anti drug film, part socio-political satire, I’M KEITH HERNANDEZ utilizes a version of Hernandez life as a vehicle to discuss how male identity is shaped by TV/film, sports, advertising, and pornography.
By examining the aforementioned types of media in conjunction with Lacan’s “Mirror Theory”, a clearer picture of masculinity emerges.As part of this discourse, the physical attribute of the mustache is explored as a symbol of male virility. Other topics include the Iran/Contra Affair and the resulting “Crack Explosion”, celebrity obsessed culture, and the subtleties of children’s television programming.
(For those of you who are confused about this project it was made entirely as an artistic pursuit and not for any commercial gain. At its core, the piece is satirical in nature and although elements of truth exist the project aims to excite, provoke, and entertain for the purposes of education. It is the creators’ belief that through the use of humor and gross inaccuracy that a certain truth can be gained. In this case the filmmakers have chosen Keith Hernandez as a subject in order to make a social commentary. The filmmakers have a great respect for Keith Hernandez as a baseball player, announcer, and personality. It is their hope that if you have enjoyed this site and the film that you will donate to the Alzheimer’s Association a charity supported by Keith Hernandez.)
Click here to make a donation to fight Alzheimer's Disease.
Press
+ My Five Year Plan Review
Brendon Bouzard's review of I'm Keith Hernandez.
"Something I’ve been meaning to write about for quite some time on this blog: Rob Perri’s 2006 experimental documentary I’m Keith Hernandez. The film, which I’ve embedded at the end of this post, packs a lot into eighteen minutes, and moves at a pace that defies easy explication, but I’m going to try to explain what I think the film is getting at.
My job is made easier by Perri, obviously a student of film theory, who provides viewers on his website with a brief explanation of the theoretical basis of the film. Perri draws on Lacan and uses Hernandez as an avatar/mirror of popular images of masculinity in the 1970s and 1980s, drawing lines between sociocultural phenomena of that era – the War on Drugs, Iran/Contra, the rise of pornography in American society, the mustache as emblem of virility (see also: Burt Reynolds, Tom Selleck). In Hernandez, Perri projects with ruthless precision the sweep of ‘masculinity’ as a cultural construct in this era – Hernandez as representative of how culture regards masculinity, Hernandez as figure upon which for male viewers to project themselves."
"Something I’ve been meaning to write about for quite some time on this blog: Rob Perri’s 2006 experimental documentary I’m Keith Hernandez. The film, which I’ve embedded at the end of this post, packs a lot into eighteen minutes, and moves at a pace that defies easy explication, but I’m going to try to explain what I think the film is getting at.
My job is made easier by Perri, obviously a student of film theory, who provides viewers on his website with a brief explanation of the theoretical basis of the film. Perri draws on Lacan and uses Hernandez as an avatar/mirror of popular images of masculinity in the 1970s and 1980s, drawing lines between sociocultural phenomena of that era – the War on Drugs, Iran/Contra, the rise of pornography in American society, the mustache as emblem of virility (see also: Burt Reynolds, Tom Selleck). In Hernandez, Perri projects with ruthless precision the sweep of ‘masculinity’ as a cultural construct in this era – Hernandez as representative of how culture regards masculinity, Hernandez as figure upon which for male viewers to project themselves."
+ The Manhood Behind The Mustache
An Interview with Nerve.com's
Ada Calhoun and
Rob Perri:
"Rob Perri is an L.A.-dwelling twenty-eight-year-old filmmaker with some serious nostalgia for the pre-steroids baseball games he watched growing up on Long Island. He especially loved the '86 Mets, a hardscrabble gang of slutty, drug-addled young men led to victory by the Golden Glove-winning, mustachioed first baseman Keith Hernandez."
Rob Perri:
"Rob Perri is an L.A.-dwelling twenty-eight-year-old filmmaker with some serious nostalgia for the pre-steroids baseball games he watched growing up on Long Island. He especially loved the '86 Mets, a hardscrabble gang of slutty, drug-addled young men led to victory by the Golden Glove-winning, mustachioed first baseman Keith Hernandez."
+ Only in L.A., Steve Harvey, L.A. Times
L.A. Mystery
"My colleague Jim Barrero noticed that a likeness of retired ballplayer Keith Hernandez has popped up on a wall near the Spring Street exit of the 101 Freeway. Why in L.A.? Hernandez never played here. All I can think of is that the artist was a New York Mets fan who was saddened by the team's collapse this year and wanted to remember Hernandez and the 1986 Mets championship team."
"Sorry, I'm not moved. I have my own problems, being a Dodgers fan."
"My colleague Jim Barrero noticed that a likeness of retired ballplayer Keith Hernandez has popped up on a wall near the Spring Street exit of the 101 Freeway. Why in L.A.? Hernandez never played here. All I can think of is that the artist was a New York Mets fan who was saddened by the team's collapse this year and wanted to remember Hernandez and the 1986 Mets championship team."
"Sorry, I'm not moved. I have my own problems, being a Dodgers fan."
+ Keith Hernandez and the Contras
"And you thought the man only sold hair cream"
An unauthorized, unlicensed, gonzo pastiche, the 19-minute mockumentary I'm Keith Hernandez combines elements of Seinfeld, pornography, hair-dye commercials, anti-drug public-service announcements, and footage of the 1986 world-champion Mets to piece together a movie that swerves between love letter to and indictment of Keith Hernandez, the beloved Gold Glove first basemen and current Mets broadcaster. But it's mainly a paean to the man, his machismo, his mustache.
An unauthorized, unlicensed, gonzo pastiche, the 19-minute mockumentary I'm Keith Hernandez combines elements of Seinfeld, pornography, hair-dye commercials, anti-drug public-service announcements, and footage of the 1986 world-champion Mets to piece together a movie that swerves between love letter to and indictment of Keith Hernandez, the beloved Gold Glove first basemen and current Mets broadcaster. But it's mainly a paean to the man, his machismo, his mustache.
+ DC On DVD: “I’m Keith Hernandez” Movie
ESPN’s The Bronx Is Burning is coming out on DVD Tuesday.
Don’t waste your time or money — it sucks.
Instead request a copy of I’m Keith Hernandez, Rob Perri’s 19 minute cinematic mini-masterpiece.
I did — I emailed to request my copy, and it arrived at my local post office in less than a week (perhaps sped along by my mentioning that I was a member of the sporting press) — and I was blown away.
It’s amazing what a difference archival footage makes in the hands of an artist instead of the slimy mandibles of corporate greedhead hacks.
Don’t waste your time or money — it sucks.
Instead request a copy of I’m Keith Hernandez, Rob Perri’s 19 minute cinematic mini-masterpiece.
I did — I emailed to request my copy, and it arrived at my local post office in less than a week (perhaps sped along by my mentioning that I was a member of the sporting press) — and I was blown away.
It’s amazing what a difference archival footage makes in the hands of an artist instead of the slimy mandibles of corporate greedhead hacks.
+ Praise from Erik Lopez of SLUG Magazine
Let me just get this out of the way first: Rob Perri is a genius. He has combined the likes of Being John Malcovich with 99 Tribulations to create a short, sweet and to the point look at, when T-shirts say the man, the legend, Keith Hernandez. Perri brings you into intimate and close contact with what it would be like if you were Keith Hernandez - he masterfully uses news reel, clips and other Hernandez footage to make an obsessively wonderful portrait of America's favorite mustached macho man, but also uses him as a vehicle to talk about how Hernandez has shaped, no I mean is, the 80s. Educational, humorous, thoroughly research and well-crafted, I'm Keith Hernandez is that breath of fresh air in documentaries that is a must-have and deserves to placed next to your copy of High School High.
+ After New York Underground Film Festival
From The Village Voice:
"The mainstream popularity of these forms from Sundance to South Park doesn't invalidate the outsider ethos of Random Lunacy: Videos From the Road Less Traveled, a lively documentary portrait of old-school boho Poppa Neutrino and his peripatetic brood, nor the impish kick of I'm Keith Hernandez, a biography of the cokehead baseball legend and one-time porn star done up VH1 style."
"The mainstream popularity of these forms from Sundance to South Park doesn't invalidate the outsider ethos of Random Lunacy: Videos From the Road Less Traveled, a lively documentary portrait of old-school boho Poppa Neutrino and his peripatetic brood, nor the impish kick of I'm Keith Hernandez, a biography of the cokehead baseball legend and one-time porn star done up VH1 style."
+ Urban Tulsa at Tulsa Overground Film Festival
"Perri has made films since he was a child and has even made music videos in Los Angeles; but this documentary is his baby. For two years, he and his partners have collaborated and researched for this 19-minute documentary hoping audiences will accept it and take away an understanding on how the media and sports can shape young male minds.
Perri was able to breathe a sigh of relief as he sat in the audience and heard the roar of laughter and the thunderous applause at the end of his showing."
Perri was able to breathe a sigh of relief as he sat in the audience and heard the roar of laughter and the thunderous applause at the end of his showing."
+ Overground Film Festival continues a Tulsa tradition
"The best film of the entire festival was Rob Perri's “I’m Keith Hernandez.” A pseudo-documentary of the baseball legend/Just For Men spokesman, the film’s excellent production and subtle humor kept me laughing throughout. If you ever have the chance, check it out. It inspired me to grow out my mustache."
Screenings
+ NEW: Maysles Cinema - Jock Docs
+ Black Rock City Film Festival
Black Rock City, NV
Friday, September 3, 2010
at Black Rock City Film Festival
as part of Burning Man 2010
Friday, September 3, 2010
at Black Rock City Film Festival
as part of Burning Man 2010
+ Game On: Screening and Launch of INCITE!
Pittsburgh, PA
Friday, July 17, 2009
9:00pm - 10:30pm
at WAFFLE SHOP
124 South Highland Ave (next to the Shadow Lounge)
Pittsburgh, PA
Friday, July 17, 2009
9:00pm - 10:30pm
at WAFFLE SHOP
124 South Highland Ave (next to the Shadow Lounge)
Pittsburgh, PA
+ CHROMA 9 Gestación del Arte Audiovisual
Centro de Arte Audiovisual
Lerdo de Tejada 2071
Del 17 al 19 de Noviembre
16:00 a 21:00 hrs
Casa Escorza
Escorza 83-A
Del 18 al 21 de Noviembre
16:00 a 21:00 hrs
Lerdo de Tejada 2071
Del 17 al 19 de Noviembre
16:00 a 21:00 hrs
Casa Escorza
Escorza 83-A
Del 18 al 21 de Noviembre
16:00 a 21:00 hrs
+ Cucalorus Film Festival
Wilmington, NC.
Saturday, Nov. 10, 2007 10:30PM
at Jengo's Playhouse
815 Princess Street
Wilmington, NC 28401
Saturday, Nov. 10, 2007 10:30PM
at Jengo's Playhouse
815 Princess Street
Wilmington, NC 28401
+ Northampton Independent Film Festival
+ Tallgrass Film Festival
+ Calgary International Film Festival
+ N.Y. International Independent Film and Video Festival
+ Chicago Underground Film Festival
+ Seattle True Independent Film Festival
+ Seattle International Film Festival
+ Maryland Film Festival
+ Peripheral Produce
Portland Documentary and Experimental Film Festival
Portland, OR.
Sunday, April 29, 2007 3:15 PM
at the Hollywood Theater
Portland, OR.
Sunday, April 29, 2007 3:15 PM
at the Hollywood Theater
+ Rebel Planet Film Festival
+ Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival
+ Best of TromaDance
+ New York Underground Film Festival
+ Boston Underground Film Festival
+ TromaDance Film Festival
+ Tribeca Grand Hotel
+ Tulsa Overground Film Festival
Merchandise
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Credits
- Adam Walko - Artwork
Visit site - Christian Langdon - Soundmix
Visit site - Ray Van Ness - Voiceover
Visit site - Thanks for Everything
Visit site - Team Sawzall Productions
Visit site - Chris Majewski - Web Design
Visit site - Rob Perri - Director
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