Synopsis

In rural Wisconsin, aspiring filmmaker Mark Borchardt struggles to complete Coven, a short horror film intended to help finance his planned feature Northwestern. Working with limited money, unreliable equipment, friends, relatives, and personal setbacks, Borchardt battles mounting frustrations while trying to turn his filmmaking ambitions into reality.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film was shot between September 1995 and August 1997, documenting the prolonged production of Coven.

• Although the title screen identifies the project as American Movie: The Making of Northwestern, the documentary primarily follows the making of Coven. Northwestern is the larger feature Borchardt hopes to produce afterward.

• Borchardt's short film was made as a fundraising tool for Northwestern, making the documentary a film about both a production and the ambition behind a second, unfinished project.

• American Movie premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary.

• Sony Pictures Classics released the film theatrically in the United States in November 1999. It later developed a strong cult reputation for its unusually intimate and unvarnished portrait of no-budget filmmaking.

• The film runs approximately 107 minutes and combines documentary observation with an often comic portrait of financial pressure, creative obsession, and the practical difficulties of making a movie outside the studio system.

• Friend Mike Schank composed the music for the documentary, adding to the film's distinctly local, homemade character.