Just About Famous

Lady Gaga, Robert De Niro, President George W. Bush, and Elvis Presley team up for this documentary… sort of. Actually, you are at the Sunburst Convention, a yearly gathering where professional celebrity impersonators gather to strut their stuff and attract the attention of agents. But the directors do more than just let us see them romping in character. Expanding on their award-winning 2010 short film (35th CIFF), we get to know the people behind the famous people they are imitating. We meet the retired high school principal who impersonates Hugh Hefner, as well as the man who impersonates both Gene Simmons from KISS and Neil Diamond. These are intelligent, driven professionals pursuing dreams of their own while pretending to be somebody else. We follow them through the rigors, training, and expense of imitating a famous person (such as replicating Lady Gaga's flaming bra) and get to share their joy in pulling it off. Sometimes quite bizarre, JUST ABOUT FAMOUS is as touching as it is fascinating. Did we mention the scuba-diving Elvis? —C.R.