Circus of the Scars - The Insider Odyssey of the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow
Come one, come all, and step into the tent for the wild history of Jim Rose and his Circus Sideshow—sword-swallowing! lizard men! death-defying stunts!—from their early days performing in Seattle dive bars to high-profile international tours and their eventful fallout.
Director/Editor Cory Wees, Matt 'The Tube' Crowley, Tim Cridland aka Torture King, and Producer Jan Gregor scheduled to attend.
Come to the 5/19 screening for your chance to win a swag bag of goodies and physical media from Scarecrow Video Library!
This is Seattle in the '90s! The city was affordable, bands were flocking to town to become the next Nirvana, grunge became a fashion style, and a scrappy street performer named Jim Rose started performing at small clubs with an act designed to shock and appall. He quickly attracted fellow freaks who developed skills that would inspire fainting and worse; people like the Amazing Mister Lifto, Matt "The Tube" Crowley, Zamora the Torture King, and Slug, who would swallow slugs and bugs and swords and later tattooed his entire body and became known as the Enigma. Jim Rose was both carnival barker and ringleader. Pretty soon, the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow is riding the grunge wave onto the 2nd Stage at Lollapalooza. This gritty documentary has footage that dates back to their early days, but also has present-day interviews that puts that footage in a new context. Along with being funny and gross and sometimes infuriating, it's a well-structured doc that follows the ups and downs of how everything developed, where it went, how it turned into world tours, and how it eventually fell apart.
- Director: Chicory Wees
- Principal Cast: Jim Rose, Tim Cridland aka Zamora, the Torture King, Matt “The Tube” Crowley, The Enigma Live, The Amazing Mr. Lifto
- Country: USA
- Year: 2022
- Running Time: 96 min.
- Producer: Jan Gregor
- Screenplay: Jan Gregor, Chicory Wees
- Cinematographers: Tim Cridland, Chicory Wees
- Editors: Chicory Wees
- Music: The Enigma Live
- Website: Official Film Website
- Awards: Chicago Underground Film Festival 2022 (Best Documentary), Arizona Underground Film Festival 2022 (Best Documentary), AARF Amsterdam Film Festival 2022 (Best Documentary)
- Filmography: Debut Feature Film
- Language: English