Changemaker

Filmmaker Jared Kirchheimer, right, plays Clay Marks in Say Her, his film about the dreams of an aging Olympic hopeful. Clay serves as mentor in the film to Mo, played by Becca Morello. (By Michael Szymczyk)

Growing up in a working-class family in Skokie, Ill., Jared Kirchheimer, ’95 ENG, always knew he wanted to make movies, but didn’t see a way forward. “You have to have financial backing,” he says. At Illinois, he majored in civil engineering, thinking of it as a more lucrative means to that end. He would make inroads into filmmaking, he told himself, while making money through literal road work.

For more than a decade, Kirchheimer worked on the reconstruction of Chicago’s Jane Byrne freeway interchange, saving up his pay, and equally importantly, witnessing the violence and despair that would inspire Say Her, his first full-length feature film.

“I worked on the South and West sides of Chicago,” Kirchheimer says. “I saw the dark side of humanity—shootings, discarded needles.” He wanted to tell that story—and advocate for solutions. “It was the impetus that started this whole project,” he says.

Say Her depicts the struggles of Clayton Marks—a middle-aged, working-class Chicagoan—played by Kirchheimer. Clay dreams of transcending his troubled life by becoming an Olympic-caliber weightlifter, but can’t face the fact that he is “way past his prime,” as Kirchheimer describes him. Clay ultimately finds purpose in coaching 10-year-old Abby, who shows promise in the sport. The pair train at Chicago’s (Rutherford) Sayre Park, lending the film its title—and historic credibility. The Sayre Park Weightlifting Club has produced two Olympians over its 55-year history.

Bringing a young person’s story into Say Her ties into Kirchheimer’s mentoring work with Chicago’s Mercy Home for Boys & Girls, a Catholic children’s charity. Kirchheimer has pledged to donate 50 percent of the film’s box office receipts to the Mercy Home, as well as to Chicago CRED (Create Real Economic Destiny), a gun violence prevention organization.

Kirchheimer has screened Say Her for Sony Pictures Classics, Chicago’s Gene Siskel Film Center and the Landmark Theatre in Glenview, Ill. He’s also been building buzz for the film on the media circuit. Initial responses have been glowing, with WGN-TV host and arts podcaster Paul Lisnek, ’80 LAS, MA ’80 LAS, JD ’83, PHD ’86 LAS, citing the film’s cinematography as “Academy Award-level stuff.”

“I wasn’t expecting that,” Kirchheimer says. “Thanks to his endorsement, we’re getting additional attention. He’s the best.”