Limited-Release Springsteen Documentary Showcased in Wilmette

Bruce Springsteen is a benevolent boss, especially when it comes to using his enduring popularity and rabidly-dedicated fan-base to help out small theaters and local non-profits; the same type of venues that he credits with helping him out early in his career. This weekend The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town, the latest documentary on the well-loved rocker, has recently made the limited-release rounds as a charity benefit screening and Wilmette was the only place in Illinois that Boss-fans could catch it.

On Friday The Promise, a critically acclaimed rock doc about the Boss’ seminal 1978 album, made a one-night-only appearance at the Wilmette Theatre (1122 Central Ave.) for a special one-night-only screening to an audience of a little over one hundred. The Wilmette Theatre was just one of around 50 venues nationwide where The Promise could be seen on the big screen.

The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town, directed by Thom Zimny, is an extremely intimate portrait of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band as they struggle through legal issues with former manager Mike Appel and the Boss’ artistic perfectionism, which led him to throw out somewhere around sixty songs while composing this sparse “tone poem” of an album.

Using rare archival footage from 1977-78 The Promise is a fascinating lesson about both the meticulous methodology and the madness of creating an album and is a Springsteen fanatic’s treasure trove of out-takes, arguments, alternate lyrics and other marginalia. The Promise also features revealing interviews with E Street luminaries such as Steve van Zandt and Max Weinberg, as well as punk rocker Patti Smith.     

As the sole screening of The Promise in the Chicago-area, half of the proceeds from the evening’s ticket sales went to the theater’s non-profit 501-(c)(3) division, the Wilmette Theatre Education Project (WTEP), as per the Boss’ wishes.

WTEP’s mission, according to it’s website, is to “promote the visual and performing arts and make them available to all populations regardless of age, race, income and ability.”  According the Wilmette Theatre’s PR Director Nili Yelin Wronski, the Education Project specifically focuses on discounting tickets and supporting events for underserved patrons such as lower income seniors and kids.

Manager Chad Byers also expressed his appreciation for the benefit screening and his personal admiration for Springsteen.

“I’ve always been a big Springsteen fan. He’s an amazing musician and writer. He’s a true artist, and more importantly, an honest one,” Byers said in an email after the benefit screening.

“He really knew how to work with people,” said Yeli Wronski, who saw the Boss once at a Connecticut high school dance in 1975 and later playing at a stadium in the mid-80's, “After watching the film I’m just convinced that after all the fame, success and money it’s still all about the art for him.”

Though The Promise had previously appeared at film festivals in late 2010 and later on HBO, the logic behind the extremely limited theatrical release (only April 22-May 3) was always to benefit not-for-profit cinemas.

According to an email circulated to theaters by Barry Rebo of Emerging Pictures, who also served as The Promise’s archival director, “When I first asked Bruce to let me screen some of his concerts for non-profit classic theatres he agreed because he truly loves old cinemas, especially the ones he played throughout the seventies when he was clearly too big for clubs, yet not completely comfortable in stadiums.”

“I’ve seen many seventies-era Springsteen tickets go for between $2.50 and $5 in venues much like yours,” Rebo went on to write, “He really does remember most of them fondly, and he believes in your mission to bring quality entertainment to your hometown.”    

For-profit theaters are required by Emerging Pictures to donate one half of their proceeds to the charity of their choice. Though initially a co-production of Thrill Hill and HBO Productions, The Promise’s theatrical run was managed by Emerging Pictures; a HD video service that typically broadcast’s the Wilmette Theater’s Opera in Cinema events.

As of Tuesday The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town hits shelves nationwide on DVD and Blue-Ray as a part of a box set that includes additional performances and interviews.