Graphic documentaries have been known to
make viewers lose their appetites, but on Thursday BAMcinematek
will screen a film that is guaranteed to produce nausea – and
a few laughs.
The documentary "Crazy Legs Conti: Zen and the Art of Competitive
Eating," opens with an impressionable Conti, an East Village
window washer and occasional nude model for art classes, looking
on at the annual hot dog eating contest in Coney Island and follows
him as he puts his own foot in the door of the competitive eating
world by consuming 34-dozen oysters in New Orleans. Conti (pictured)
eats his way up the ladder of success, aspiring to one day compete
in Coney Island’s gastrointestinal endurance test, which he claims
is "the Tour de France of competitive eating." (If
you like the film, don’t miss this year’s hot dog contest at
Nathan’s in Coney Island on July 4.)
Directed by Danielle Franco, of Williamsburg, and Chris Kenneally,
of Manhattan, the film will be screened at BAMcinematek (30 Lafayette
Ave. at Ashland Place in Fort Greene) on July 1 at 6:45 pm. A
panel discussion with Conti, representatives from the International
Federation of Competitive Eating and special guest eaters will
follow the screening.
Tickets are $10, $7 students 25 and younger, seniors and children
under 12. For tickets, call (718) 777-FILM or go to www.bam.org.
For more information, call (718) 636-4100.
