Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made

Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made, directed by Jeremy Coon and Tim Skousen, is a documentary about three Mississippi kids who, starting in 1982 at age twelve, spent seven years on an amateur project to remake Raiders of the Lost Ark shot for shot. Chris Strompolos, Eric Zala, and Jayson Lamb rebuilt the film from memory and VHS viewings on a budget of about five thousand dollars; copies circulated among collectors for years until a 2002 festival screening turned it into a cult phenomenon. Steven Spielberg watched the film in 2003 and wrote its creators a letter praising the imagination behind their tribute. The one major scene the amateur production could never complete, an airplane fight, was finally finished twenty five years later through a 2014 Kickstarter campaign, footage that forms the documentary's climactic section. The documentary premiered at SXSW and holds a 91 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. Who it's for: anyone curious about a documentary following three kids' seven year amateur obsession with remaking a Hollywood classic, a project that eventually earned Steven Spielberg's own praise. Who it's not for: those looking only for a polished production story, since this documentary shows the full messy reality of an amateur project, including an incident that nearly burned down a family basement.