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Arts & Entertainment

From Ace Ventura to Noam Chomsky

Director Tom Shadyac returns home to share his latest film

Director, producer and writer Tom Shadyac will screen his new documentary I AM at JEB Stuart High School tomorrow night. The 1976 Stuart grad grew up in Falls Church and is excited to return to his old stomping grounds for the film screening. 

Shadyac is best known for his comedic partnership with actor Jim Carrey, whom he often casts in the leading roles. His films include Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Liar Liar, Bruce Almighty, Evan Almighty, The Nutty Professor and Patch Adams.

After achieving great success with his films, Shadyac realized that the material wealth he accumulated as a successful Hollywood filmmaker just wasn’t for him. He made a conscious decision to change his lifestyle. He sold his house, moved to a mobile home community and started a simpler life.

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But before he could settle into his new lifestyle, he was badly injured in a bike accident and suffered from post-concussion syndrome. He struggled with debilitating pain and isolation as a result and began confronting his own mortality. It was from this traumatic experience that his inspiration for I AM was born.

The filmmaker took a leap of faith and switched gears from slapstick comedy to philosophical documentary. His vision was to make a film celebrating the indomitable human spirit. As his symptoms faded, Shadyac and a small crew began traveling the world to make the film.

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He turned the lens on some of today’s most profound thinkers – including Noam Chomsky, Desmond Tutu and Howard Zinn – to ask them two questions: What’s wrong with our world and what can we do about it? Shadyac created an onscreen dialogue between these luminaries to explore the way we as a society choose to live and to offer an alternative viewpoint.

I AM has already won the Audience Choice Award and the Student Choice Award at the Mountain Film Festival in Telluride, Colo. It opened last month in Seattle, and rolled out in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York – and now in Falls Church.

The free screening will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Stuart Auditorium, which seats up to 850. The JEB Stuart Educational Foundation will collect donations.         

Susan Tull O’Reilly, a high school friend who graduated with Shadyac in ‘76, helped organize the screening and is determined to fill all 850 seats. “I’m hopeful,” she said, “we will have a good turnout.”

O’Reilly thinks that the local community will be inspired by Shadyac’s visit. “His film is a great impetus for discussion about how to make the world a better place,” she said. “The future will soon be in the hands of our children and I like that this film has an optimistic hopeful view. The message he is spreading – that money can’t buy happiness – is a basic message but one that is often forgotten.  I hope that this event will challenge all of us to ‘take the road less traveled.’ I think it will make all the difference.”

For more information about the screening, contact Susan Tull O’Reilly at sutull@aol.com. To learn more about I AM, click here.

Wednesday, March 23, 7:30 p.m.; Free
3301 Peace Valley Lane; 703-824-3900

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