Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/385207
Jason Knade has a space in Pilsen where he works and, on occasion, lives—not surprising, given his relentless pace. At just 28, the director/writer and Palos Hills resident has had more than 50 film festival screenings globally and won a dozen film festival awards. Last year he directed Steve Grand's viral hit, the gay-themed music video "All-American Boy." "I have a very hard time getting behind most causes because I can always see the other side," says the onetime philosophy major, who is straight and married. LGBT rights, however, "is the only cause where there really is no other side." Audiences, meanwhile, are getting behind his cause. Chicagoans voted Knade best local filmmaker in the Chicago Reader poll in 2011 and again this year. I make films because: It's my way of creating meaning in a seemingly meaningless world. I knew I wanted to be a film director when: The credits rolled for Before Sunset. Favorite movie: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. On paying the bills by making films: Film is very difficult to succeed in, so I realized the hard work it takes to make a living. Most of the people I know do it on the side or they can't fully commit to it. This is how I support myself. Most memorable reaction to a film of mine: A friend told me that if Woody Allen and Terrence Malick had a kid, that would be me. Up next: Searching for Venice, my first feature film as a director, is slated to come out this winter. JASON KNADE THIS UP-AND-COMER HAS DISCOVERED THE SECRET TO SUCCESS: NONSTOP WORK. Suit jacket ($2,795), dress shirt ($345), trousers ($495), tie ($205), and lace-ups ($650), Ermenegildo Zegna. 645 N. Michigan Ave., 312-587-9660; zegna.com. Socks, stylist's own Styling by Tony Bryan Grooming by Gosia Gorniak for 10 MGMT Agency Shot on location at Soho House Chicago