Rex Sikes' Movie Beat

Michael Caplan's career began in the early '90s, when he worked as a producer of independent films in Chicago. In 10 years he produced 3 critically acclaimed feature films, including The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me, & Peoria Babylon,starring David Drake & Ann Cusack. Throughout the decade, Michael wrote and directed several dramatic shorts that screened on PBS in Chicago and film festivals nationwide. In 2003 he completed Stones from the Soil, a personal documentary about his father, who was one of 150 German Jewish teenagers sent to a farm in Germany by their parents during the Nazi period. The film aired on national PBS & at colleges nationwide. Michael's next documentary focused on a Chicago magician and scholar named Eugene Burger. Michael traveled across the country to interview Eugene, Max Maven, Jeff McBride, Luna Shimada, Larry Hass, and other magicians and thinkers fostering a movement to return magic to its roots. A Magical Vision was completed in 2008, premiered at The Gene Siskel The