This photo-filled biography celebrates the life, films, and fans of the director responsible for such indie cult classics as Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
Movie-industry veteran David Gati has compiled and edited a humorous and insightful look at Smith’s nearly 30-year filmmaking journey.
Through Smith’s own funny, honest, and uncensored stories—taken from podcasts, Q&As, and documentaries—readers get to know him as a person, the struggles he’s been through, and the people he’s worked with, as well as his process for writing, directing, casting, shooting, editing, and showing his films to the public.
- The book is arranged chronologically with each chapter exploring how an aspect of Kevin’s life is reflected in one of his 14 films.
- Not to be overlooked is Smith’s outsized fan base, who relate to the director’s down-to-earth persona and his geeky, sometimes juvenile, often-nostalgic regular-person characters. Gati uses their fan art to add a visual facet to the book’s colorful narrative gems.
- Rounding out this scrapbook presentation are on-set stills, candid personal photos, and memorabilia.
The result is an exploration of how films affect and reflect the popular culture of their time, with a light-hearted analysis of the phenomenon of fandom. This unusual biography is a must-have collectible dedicated to a member of the ’90s independent filmmakers—which includes Quentin Tarantino, Allison Anders, Robert Rodriguez, Hal Hartley, and Spike Lee—whose relevance and popularity will only continue to grow.
