Third Friday Presents: James Forni -- Behind the Scenes of the Bill Pinkney Exhibit
Friday, June 21st at 7:00pm
Starting in 2019, James Forni, an award-winning director, producer and writer, took on a complex assignment for the Chicago Maritime Museum: create a series of short documentary films about the life of Captain Bill Pinkney, the first Black sailor to solo circumnavigate the globe around the five Great Capes in a sailboat aptly named Commitment. Two years after filming Captain Bill Pinkney through Zoom feeds from his home in Puerto Rico during the pandemic, James and his crew at Octane Rich Media were finally able to interview Bill face to face. On his travels to Chicago, James spent several days filming and interviewing Captain Bill on Chicago’s lakefront, at Guaranteed Rate Field for an honorary event for Bill, and of course at the Chicago Maritime Museum.
Captain Bill’s story presents many inspiring layers of his life and a substantial archive from various sources, including Captain Bill’s own recordings on the Commitment - decades before the term “selfie” became common. Two more years of editing, collaborating and developing the stories resulted in an inspiring mosaic of content for museum goers.
James presented his work on Friday, June 21 as part of CMM’s Third Friday Lecture Series. On the museum’s newly installed audio-visual system with 4K projection, James showed behind-the-scenes, full short film clips and tell the story of how 15 separate films on various topics came together to form the media backbone of the Chicago Maritime Museum’s new exhibit celebrating Captain Bill Pinkney’s incredible accomplishments.
Forni is an award-winning director, producer, writer and founder of Chicago-based studio, Octane Rich Media. James is nationally known film director, and storyteller. With over thirty-five years of experience, James has directed more than 2,500 short films, television commercials and documentaries working with prominent personalities from Michael Jordan to Lenny Kravitz. Recently his docuseries Deadly Associates about the Chicago Mob aired on Amazon and the Reelz Channel. Currently he has several films in the festival circuit worldwide, having recently won best short documentary for his original story set in Chicago: Stevie Bullets at two international festivals.
His feature documentary, Mr. Canoe, showcasing renowned Chicago canoe builder Ralph Frese premiered at the Chicago Maritime Museum to over 200 people in January of 2018. Alex Ruppenthal reviewed the film and stated “Forni and colleagues from his production company, Octane Rich Media, combed through archive materials, films, and radio and television interviews spanning half a century to create a 45-minute film that paints the “complex portrait of one of Chicago’s most interesting and influential citizens.”