Swoon

Directed by : Tom Kalin

SWOON is the true story of two notorious, thrill-seeking young men in 1920s Chicago. Nathan Leopold, Jr. and Richard Loeb were two Jewish intellectuals who became famous for the kidnapping and murder of a boy named Bobby Franks. These brilliant, precocious eighteen-year-old gentlemen genuinely took pleasure in criminal activity, the savagery of which remains legendary. Their motives were chilling. They wanted to do it simply to prove themselves that they were smart enough to get away with it. After committing the murder, however, they were easily captured by the innumerable clues they left behind and by their jumbled alibis, and the subsequent trial became international news – and served to reinforce the culture’s then-stereotypes about the dangers of homosexuality, Judaism and intellectualism.

Leopold and Loeb escaped the death penalty only because of an impassioned defense by Clarence Darrow, the best-known defense attorney of the time, who argued that they were insane, and used their homosexuality as proof of insanity.

Smart, stylized and emotionally jarring, SWOON introduces the talents of Craig Chester (as Leopold) and Dan Schlachet (Loeb), as well as Michael Kirby, Michael Stumm and Ron Vawter, and uses an experimental narrative format to explore the social, judicial and psychological forces which acted upon these two lives. Written, co-produced and directed by acclaimed video and film artist Tom Kalin (director of the forthcoming SAVING GRACE starring Julianne Moore), and produced by Christine Vachon (BOYS DON`T CRY, PARTY MONSTER, FAR FROM HEAVEN).

“Wildly audacious…hauntingly stylish,” raved The New York Times when the first film opened theatrically. “Provocative and seductive,” exclaimed the San Francisco Chronicle. “Stunning!,” said Harper’s Bazaar, while Premiere Magazine gushed “glamorously queer!” The Village Voice noted the film is “a cool, exquisite autopsy of manners!” Critic Roger Ebert perhaps gave SWOON its best accolade: “this is the kind of movie that inspires discussion afterwards.”