Toward the end of the brave, funny and insightful new documentary Chasing Chasing Amy, filmmaker Sav Rodgers says, “It's not the movie I set out to make, but it's the movie we have.”

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For Rodgers, the 1997 movie Chasing Amy was a seminal part of his teenage years, as he grappled with issues of sexuality and gender identity.

As the documentary Chasing Chasing Amy starts, Rodgers is a trans man and an enormous fan of writer/director Kevin Smith. He says Chasing Amy was a surrogate friend during a time that was deeply confusing and scary. Throughout the course of the documentary, there are conversations with people who were involved with the original film, including Smith, as well as critics from the queer community who talk about Chasing Amy as a film that is now considered at least somewhat problematic.

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Chasing Amy centers on a man who falls in love with a lesbian, a narrative that suggests a troubling implication: that queer sexuality might be seen as fluid or impermanent by straight society. It’s something that can be overcome, or worse, “cured.”

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The documentary delves into Smith’s inspiration for the film, partly drawn from his producer Scott Mosier’s experience falling for a gay woman, and partly from Smith’s real-life relationship with Chasing Amy’s star, Joey Lauren Adams. Smith talks about feelings of inadequacy while dating Adams, which was one of the central conflicts of his film.

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As Rodgers goes on to uncover more of this story, more problematic layers unfold. Even though Smith felt he was trying to tell a story from a place of honesty and love, it could easily be seen as reductive.

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It also put Adams, his partner at the time, in the difficult position of having to live out her boyfriend’s inadequacies on screen – and then do a press tour for it. Furthermore, this was a Miramax production, and Harvey Weinstein had a very real presence during filming. Adams notes that, at the same time they were shopping their movie at Sundance, Rose McGowan was being raped by Weinstein.

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One of the documentary’s most powerful moments comes when Rodgers interviews Adams at her home in a deeply emotional conversation that is followed by a years-long pause in the filming. When we next see Rodgers, he has transitioned and is married to his long-time partner, who continues to identify as a gay woman. The real-life parallels to Chasing Amy do not go unnoticed. 

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But all that context and history aside, Chasing Chasing Amy is really about Rodgers’ own journey of self-discovery, from being kind of an awkward person seeking out their hero, to coming into their own as a person and as a filmmaker, and becoming a contemporary with Smith in a way that feels earned. 

Smith, for his part, seems genuinely thankful to Rodgers for, as he sees it, “giving him his movie back” after having a difficult relationship with it over many decades. Now, he can see it through the lens of someone who benefited from his story in a more nuanced way. 

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This is a powerful film, and it feels very necessary to have these conversations in 2024. This is a movie for people who are interested in having these kinds of discussions about sexuality, identity, fandom, perception, and the fact that the stories we tell have very real impacts on the people around us. 

Rodgers says at the outset, “This movie [Chasing Amy] made me be honest with myself.” In the end, this documentary helped Rodgers be honest with himself, and to share that honesty and that journey. As a viewer, it's a beautiful thing to watch.