Allen Ross, a Chicago cameraman and documentary filmmaker, was highly respected within the local independent film community. He was first a student, and later a teacher, at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and he also co-founded Chicago Filmmakers. Ross disappeared in 1995, and after a long search spearheaded by friends and family, his mutilated body was found buried in a basement in Cheyenne, Wyo., in July 2000.
“Missing Allen,” a documentary by German filmmaker Christian Bauer, a good friend of Ross’ who worked with him on several films, tries to fill in the mysterious five-year gap between his disappearance and the discovery of his body.
“Missing Allen” is essentially a personal whodunit, complete with letters, faxes and phone messages as clues that are then clarified and/or reinforced by interviews with friends and colleagues. All roads seem to lead to Ross’ relationship with a woman who was involved in a dangerous cult, especially because Ross’ death has all the earmarks of a ritualistic slaying.
Bauer has clearly put his heart and soul into the film, which he hopes will spur action to identify and track down the killers of his friend. But though it may work as a motivational tool, it is strangely incomplete as a documentary, rife with random suggestions and unanswered questions. I can understand the desire to get this tape out and around as quickly as possible, but from an artistic standpoint, it is a film that has come forward a bit too soon.
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“Missing Allen” ((star)(star) 1/2 ) plays this week at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St.; 312-846-2600.
