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Chameleon Street is a 1989 independent film written by, directed by and starring Wendell B. Harris, Jr.[1] It tells the story of a social chameleon who impersonates reporters, doctors and lawyers in order to make money.

Chameleon Street
Directed by	Wendell B. Harris Jr.
Written by	Wendell B. Harris Jr.
Produced by	Dan Lawton
Starring	Wendell B. Harris Jr. Timothy Alvaro Renauld Bailleux
Cinematography	Dan Noga
Edited by	Wendell B. Harris, Jr.
Music by	Peter S. Moore
Release dates	September 13, 1989 (1989-09-13) (Toronto Festival of Festivals) April 24, 1990 (1990-04-24) (New York City)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Summary

The film is a satire based on the life of Detroit con artist and high-school drop-out William Douglas Street, Jr., who successfully impersonated professional reporters, lawyers, athletes, extortionists, and surgeons, going so far as to perform more than 36 successful hysterectomies.[2]

Plot summary

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Cast

• Wendell B. Harris Jr. as William Douglas Street
• Timothy Alvaro as Brian
• Dave Barber as Self
• Marti Bowling as Marti
• Alfred Bruce Bradley as Smooth
• Mano Breckenridge as Neelish Ratnayaka
• Anthony Ennis as Curtis
• Amina Fakir as atiana

Reception

The Washington Post found the film disappointing: "What we have here is a brilliant concept, but unfortunately, Harris just isn't a filmmaker -- not even in the most rudimentary sense. His failures are all on the most basic level. He can't plot or shape scenes; he can't draw out his actors; he can't write dialogue or mount it; he can't create any consistent rhythms or sense of pace."[3] Similarly, The Hartford Courant wrote "Chameleon Street feels like a series of improvised skits, some imaginative and funny, some hackneyed...[Harris] writes with élan and wit, but his sense of structure is minimal, so Chameleon Street feels jumpy and disjointed."[4]

On the other hand, The Philadelphia Inquirer was more generous: "Though, like its subject, the film goes on some pretty strange tangents, Chameleon Street is largely successful as the diary of a compulsive trickster whose marks are suckered by Street's confidence and instinct for telling people what they want to hear. Harris' truth-is-stronger-than-fiction rap is both funny and insightful."[5]

Accolades

Chameleon Street won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival.[6]

A Sundance Film Festival press release in 2008 described it as "one of the first films to examine how mellifluously race, class, and role-playing morph into the social fabric of America."[7]

References

External links

• Chameleon Street at IMDb
• Chameleon Street at the TCM Movie Database
• Chameleon Street at AllMovie
• Chameleon Street at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Reception and aftermath, interview with film-maker.
• Richard Brody's take on the 1989 film at The New Yorker

Awards
Preceded by True Love	Sundance Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Dramatic 1990	Succeeded by Poison

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