Perspectives: Noogie's Time to Shine

Join us for a wild ride with Noogie's Time To Shine, a unique film experience with an accessible audio track narrated by the film's blind Executive Producer, Jim Knipfel, offering a fresh perspective on inclusive cinema. Knipfil will be on-hand for a discussion after the film.

After dimwitted film noir-o-phile Ned 'Noogie' Krapczak (pronounced 'crap-chicK,' not 'crap sack') turns up dead in Miami, the FBI, local police, and a couple of hapless Floridians all want to know what happened to the three-point-two million dollars in cash he stole.

Rewind.

A year earlier in NYC, where it was his job to keep bodega ATMs flush with twenties, Noogie had an opportunity to live a life more like his film noir antihero-heroes. In one of the most brazen—and definitely slowest—heists ever hatched, he begins to pocket loose bills. Two years later, he gets an innocent call from his Miami-based employer about a 'discrepancy' in their accounting.

Noogie panics and goes on the lam with his cat, Dillinger, and three-point-two million dollars in stolen cash. He heads for the one place he's pretty sure no one would ever look for him––sunny Florida.

Once there, Noogie buys his way into the life of Kenny Swanson, whose futon is where Noogie's movie finally comes to an anticlimactic end on Christmas Day.

Now, it's a game between FBI special agents Jake Meyers and Sven Ludkvasen, Detective Stone of the Miami-Dade police department, and his recent roommate Kenny (and his ruthless girlfriend Liz) to find the money first.

Some of this story is mostly true.

Accessibility

Jim Knipfel, the author of the book that Noogie is based on, and the film’s Executive Producer, is blind. His celebrated memoir Slackjaw details his experience with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). While filming principal photography back in 2015, Jim still had a modicum of vision. He was able to be on set with us both in Austin and on the road capturing our madcap adventures from New York to Miami. He even made a cameo in the film driving a car - with appropriate safety concerns of course. Now that the film is complete, Jim’s vision has unfortunately completely deteriorated. Accessibility is incredibly important to this production and team. Jim introduced us to Andy Slater, a composer and sound designer who also suffers from RP. Andy was the perfect choice to do the final mix of the film’s audio and is spearheading the audio accessibility track - which is narrated by Jim himself. We feel it is an original and comedic approach to accessibility and Jim imbues it with his own comedic voice and point of view. The film will proudly offer this track for all screenings, and we actively encourage sighted audiences to experience the film with it to shine a light on accessible cinema.

https://www.noogiestimetoshine.com/

Host or Publisher Bainbridge Island Museum of Art