Busted City is an 82 minute feature film. It premiered in 2015, in London at the International Filmmaker's Festival of World Cinema and was nominated for four major awards, including Best Supporting Actor, won by our own Arch Harmon!
Busted City will screen at the Illinois International Film Festival in Aurora, Illinois on May 2nd. A week later the film will be shown at the St. Tropez International Film Festival in France. Busted City was nominated for Best Director, Best Producer, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Editing.
We look forward to more festivals and meetings new friends in the months ahead!
Busted City: The Plot
A bookie joint operating in a Chicago bar on the eve of the 1983 Democratic Mayoral Primary is the setting for Busted City. Theo (Guy DiBenedetto) is the Greek-American bartender and bookie monitoring the bets placed on the election; Jimbo (Michael Byrne) is a South Side Irish cop, now retired, who runs things as the alpha male; Al (Tony Pulgine) is the burned-out bagman just a few years from retirement; Johnny Jr.(Nick Leininger) is Theo’s gay brother who runs the hot dog stand next door; Ace (Arch Harmon) is the black mail man who comes in every day with numerous wagers from his colleagues at the Post Office, all betting on the election of the black candidate, Harold Washington.
Tension increases when it becomes apparent that Harold Washington might indeed make history and be elected as Chicago’s first black mayor, while an Irish blood feud plays out between the supporters of the incumbent, Jane Byrne, and the favorite son of many, Richard M. Daley. The bitterly-contested election fractures the city along racial lines as loyalties to family, ethnic heritage and neighborhoods are questioned. Money, power, and a familiar way of life hang in the balance as Busted City careens toward an explosive climax.
