Official Selection
FIGUEIRA DA FOZ INTL. FILM FESTIVAL, Portugal.
THE 5TH WALL is a screwball comedy about video artist Willie Boy Walker's life being turned upside down by his winning the Nobel Prize in Literature (and accompanying cash award of nine million Swedish Crowns = $900,000). The thing is...he's never written a book! A Channel 8 reporter (Rohana Kenin) is placed on the strange story by an over-eager TV executive (Michael Bolgatz), and Willie Boy thwarts her efforts in every way possible. Before long, Walker's neurosis regarding the prize (Nobel Prize speech demands, taxation on the money, loss of privacy...), and his secrecy regarding his ability to break down the 5th wall of television using a "secret crystal," results in strange behavioral changes for all those who've made contact. Only a young neighbor girl (Maya Aguayo Schmidt-Feng), is entrusted to carry on his secret television appearances into the next century.
“To capture real life on film, Schmidt fashions a creative weave out of the threads of narrative, documentary, and docu-drama film forms. His actors draw on their own experience enabling him to create a unique blend of fact and fiction. In the end, Schmidt makes art and life intermingle and imitate each other.”
– Vic Skolnick, CINEMA ARTS CENTRE, Huntington, NY
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While ostensively a trailer for THE 5TH WALL, this clip used the movie magic of Willie Boy Walker transferred to Maya (the girl-next door) to give TRUMP an out. So, we'll C if T missed his chance!