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Kit Kittredge: An American Girl

Directed by Patricia Rozema
United States, 2008 (children's / fiction, 101 minutes, colour, English)
Also known as "An American Girl Mystery", "Kit Ketteredge : jeune fille américaine", "Kit Kittredge", "Kit Kittredge - Neiti neuvokas", "Kit Kittredge : journaliste en herbe", "Kit Kittredge: Amerykanska dziewczyna", "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl Mystery", "Kit Kittredge: Sueños de periodista", "Kit Kittredge: Una chica americana", "Kit och kassaskrinsmysteriet", "Kit: Uma Garota Especial"
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
Image: © patriciarozema.com

Film Description:
"Aspiring reporter Kit Kittredge can't resist bringing home strays, whether it's Grace, an aspiring basset hound, or Will (Max Thieriot [...]) and Countee (Willow Smith), a pair of young hobos willing to trade work for meals. Bright, inquisitive and generous, Kit is a natural born leader. But her happy childhood is abruptly interrupted when her father (Chris O'Donnell) loses his car dealership and must leave Cincinnati to look for work. Kit and her mother Margaret (Julia Ormond) are left to manage on their own, growing vegetables, selling eggs and even taking in an assortment of boarders including an itinerant magician (Stanley Tucci), a vivacious dance instructor on the prowl for a husband (Jane Krakowski) and a zany mobile librarian (Joan Cusack). When a crime spree sweeps Cincinnati, all signs point to the local 'hobo jungle,' where Will and Countee live with a group of their impoverished companions. Kit, who always has her antennae out for a good news story, convinces her new friends to take her to see the hobo camp for herself and writes an article that creates a sympathetic portrait of the camp's residents. But when Kit's mother and their boarders become the latest victims in a string of robberies, Kit's loyalties are tested. [...]"
-- patriciarozema.com (source)

Film Credits (partial):
Written by: Ann Peacock, Valerie Tripp
Produced by: Ellen L. Brothers, Lisa Roberts Gillan, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Terry Gould, Julia Roberts, Marisa Yeres
Principal Cast: Abigail Breslin, Julia Ormond, Chris O'Donnell, Jane Krakowski, Wallace Shawn, Max Thieriot, Willow Smith, Glenne Headly, Zach Mills, Kenneth Welsh, Madison Davenport, Joan Cusack, Dylan Smith, Stanley Tucci, Douglas Nyback
Cinematography: David Boyd
Film Editing: Julie Rogers
Music: Joseph Vitarelli
Production Company: American Girl Brands, Goldsmith-Thomas Productions, HBO Films, New Line Cinema, Red Om Films
(sources)

Notes about Kit Kittredge: An American Girl

(sources)

Quotes by the Director

"I have children, and I was looking around for a film to do for them—just to somehow acknowledge them with the skills I happen to have, to make a movie they could see and be a part of, where they could visit the set."
-- Patricia Rozema (source)

"I simply loved the values the script was giving kids. Kit's a journalist, she's fighting for social justice, she's learning not to feel shame for having to wear dresses made out of feed sacks—all that felt like it could be contemporary, although I had no idea all these foreclosures were going to be happening in the U.S. when the movie came out, and that the film would actually end up being quite contemporary."
-- Patricia Rozema (source)

Quotes about Kit Kittredge: An American Girl

"Helmer Patricia Rozema [...] does an excellent job navigating the film's tonal shifts, incorporating comedy, tragedy and a suspenseful denouement with equal grace."
-- Lael Loewenstein (source)

"[Patricia Rozema] did something I'd never seen anyone do on a film before: She directed a scene with her four-year-old snuggled in her lap. 'What are the two words Mommy says?' she asked the angelic blond, who was in costume to play a hobo extra. 'Action and cut,' the tot said. 'And in between, what do you do?' Rozema asked. 'Zip it!' her daughter squeaked, pulling a finger across her pursed lips."
-- Joanna Schneller (source)

"At the end of the film [Kit Kittredge: An American Girl], society is remade in the image of Kit's own desire (which is also her mother's): as a benevolent matriarchy which is inclusive of racial, class, and, within limits, gender differences."
-- Sue Thornham (source)

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