James ‘The Amazing’ Randi is a magician who in the last few decades has become one of the world’s most prominent sceptics of the paranormal, famously offering a million dollar reward to anyone who can prove paranormal abilities under laboratory conditions. Due to his outspoken debunking, he has been sued numerous times by the likes of Uri Geller, although he claims never to have had to pay a cent to anyone (although a lot of cash has gone on defending himself).
He’s also gay, a fact he didn’t reveal until three years ago when he was 81, after being inspired to come out by the film Milk. He was also facing the fact his partner of well over two decades, Jose, could possibly be deported, even though he escaped from his native Venezuela due to persecution for being a gay man.
Now Director/Producer Justin Weinstein is trying to put together a historical biography film project about Randi, called An Honest Liar, and has turned to Kickstarter to help. There’s already been a lot of backing, with $137,000 of the $148,000 total pledged. Weinstein is hoping to raise more that the $148,000 minimum though, as while the current total will allow more filming to go ahead, if they can raise extra cash that will help fund post-production.
Randi is certainly an interesting figure who’s well worth making a film about. For decades he was a well-known magician, even working with Alice Cooper to build stage tricks (and appear onstage) for one of his 1970s tour. He then began demonstrating supposedly paranormal tricks, such as spoon bending and saying they were just illusion, which turned him into a professional sceptic (leading some to claim he is psychic and lying about it!)
Behind all this and unknown to the public, he was living as a gay man – and of course when he was young gay sex was illegal. We’d certainly like to see a documentary about him, so head over to Kickstarter to help.
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