20th Anniversary Edition
The Beatle Fan
Written and Directed by Peter McArdle
&
Starring Peter Stormare
May 2022 MARKED THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY of the premiere of The Beatle Fan, the film I shot in Rikers Island in 2001. It is about a fan of the Beatles who encounters John Lennon's killer in Attica Prison. Peter Stormare played the title role.
It was accepted as my thesis project in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University's School of the Arts--Film Division. I graduated in the spring of 2002.
Also that spring, at the Columbia University Film Festival, The Beatle Fan screened and won the 2002 Outstanding Achievement in Film Award from Available Light NYC, an Official Festival Sponsor
The film was an Official Selection of the LA Shorts International Film Festival Los Angeles in 2002.
The Beatle Fan was an Official Selection of the Raindance Film Festival in the UK in 2002, and I flew to London for the screening in November.
The film was also an Official Selection of the HDFest Film Festival Los Angeles 2003, where I won Best Director of a Dramatic Short.
Its most impressive credential, however was Official Selection of the 2002 Tribeca Film Festival, where it screened in front of a packed house at the Regal Cinema in Battery Park City.
Tribeca Film Festival is now widely seen as being as prestigious as Sundance, and that is a good thing, because my film was not selected for Sundance, a fact that mystifies me to this day.
Click the link to Director's Notes for the full story of the Beatle Fan, but be warned that it's a spoiler and assumes the reader has seen the film.
Written and Directed by Peter McArdle. Short film shot on 24p HD video (24 min.) Official Selection of the Tribeca Film Festival, Columbia University Film Festival, Los Angeles International Short Film Festival, Raindance Film Festival in London and HDFest World Tour 2002-03. Starring Peter Stormare (Constantine, Bad Boys II, Fargo)