Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, July 16: AN AFFAIR OF THE HEART
Sylvia Caminer’s look at devoted Rick Springfield fans had its world premiere at the Florida Film Festival, where it picked up a special jury prize. It went on to win awards at Nashville, Sidewalk, and Boston, and also screened at IDFA, Hot Docs, Hot Springs, Sound Unseen, and Planete+ Doc, among others, before its theatrical release last Fall.
Wearing its hagiographic intentions on its sleeves, Caminer’s film unabashedly celebrates the 1980s pop star who famously sang the catchy “Jessie’s Girl” and appeared on GENERAL HOSPITAL. He’s an affable figure, consistently maintaining an active performance schedule in the intervening decades, thanks in large part to, Caminer demonstrates, the obsessive loyalty of his legion of fans. Ultimately, this is what makes her film worthwhile – for, despite its attempts to address Springfield’s history (including, to be fair, some of his missteps or moral failings), he could almost be any once huge but somewhat diminished celebrity – perhaps explaining the odd presence of former teen heartthrob Corey Feldman as an interviewee in the proceedings. What’s really at its core is a look at celebrity fandom, both a cause for inspiration and obsession in equal measures. While it steers clear of the pathological kind of fandom found in the excellent Tiffany fan doc I THINK WE’RE ALONE NOW, Caminer’s film profiles Springfield superfans, some who have been following him for decades, from middle-aged housewives taking girls’ weekends to attend his concerts to a teenager who has been regularly jamming with his idol ever since he was first pulled onstage as a toddler, or, hitting more serious notes, a woman who used a Springfield album to recover from life-threatening surgery, and a minister who gained strength to resist suicide through his music. These ordinary people elevate the project from charges of being a puff piece, speaking instead to the relationship between celebrity and fan, and celebrating it in an entertaining, if generally light, manner.
what (not) to doc 