American Superman First Look Released

A documentary on the late Chris Dennis, affectionally known as the Hollywood Superman, previews its first footage later this month at the L.A Shorts Fest. Award-winning filmmaker Vladislav Alex Kozlov has cut a sequence from the upcoming film, featuring Dennis and acting legend Franco Nero, and is set to release it this month in L.A as a short film. The Duel will screen July 22, 3:30pm PT at the aforesaid festival, now in its 26th year. The movie American Superman tells the story of a man who cloaked himself in Superman garb and entertained fans and tourists along Hollywood Boulevard for more than twenty years.

Kozlov hopes the attention from the prestigious shorts festival, accredited by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences Oscar, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts BAFTA, and the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television ACCT Canadian Screen Awards and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Spain GOYA AWARDS, will help the feature-length documentary “American Superman”, which Kozlov is still tinkering with, find both a distributor on a global scale and land on the radar of voters.

“”My plan is to finish and present American Superman to the entire world so people can see the life and struggles of this extraordinary guy whose childhood was very brutal and instead of becoming a bad person, he chose to be a better man and became Superman,” Kozlov said in a statement. “His goal was to always help and entertain people and make them smile and be happy. But as any other entertainer he didn’t have much for himself since he spent all of his energy for the other people. When Chris was out of his costume he would turn to that abandoned and abused kid. He was fighting his demons – the mental illness and drug addiction. I want people to see this story because Superman has always been the symbol of hope, and I want people to have that hope back.”

You can see a featurette from The Duel below.

Christopher Dennis is a Hollywood Superman, who has been working on Hollywood Boulevard for over 25 years. In the morning, he wakes up in his trashy poor apartment and gets an eviction notice from the manager. He doesn’t even have food in his fridge, however, he continues his routine – he dresses up as Superman and goes to the Hollywood boulevard to portray his dream character. There is Oscar’s preparation going on at Dolby Theater and Christopher hopes to make some tips with curious tourists. He ends up meeting famous Italian actor Franco Nero and hopes that this successful man can give him a large tip.

Kozlov has been working with Dennis for the better part of a decade on telling his story.

The documentary American Superman explores how Dennis became homeless, lost his beloved Superman costume, how people donated him whatever money they could spare, and how he got back on his feet and started working as the most beloved superhero on Hollywood Boulevard.

The film will also chronicle Dennis’s time in jail, his alleged battle with substance abuse, how he participated in Church programs to support homeless people, and his death in 2019. On December 7th of that year, Dennis was laid to rest in his Superman costume at the Forest Lawn cemetery.