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Fund This Film: Mick Foley’s ‘I Am Santa Claus’

By  · Published on June 15th, 2013

We’re about six months away from Christmas, so why not highlight a film about Santa Claus? Actually it’s a very appropriate time to discuss this particular film, because it’s about the off season for guys who play the role of St. Nick. Titled I Am Santa Claus, it’s a documentary that follows six Kris Kringles, including none other than pro wrestling legend Mick Foley. WWE Raw fans may be familiar with his appearances in the ring dressed as the jolly old icon, but for this film he went a bit further by even dying his hair and beard and fully trying out the gig as many men do every December. Additionally Foley is a producer of the doc, which is directed by relative newcomer Tommy Avallone. He’s been thanked in the credits for the films Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles and Indie Game: The Movie, which is good enough for me to trust him here.

Other reasons I’m into this doc, which is done shooting and now raising finishing costs via Kickstarter, are that I love Foley as a documentary subject thanks to Beyond the Mat (if you’ve seen it, you saw his daughter, Noelle, getting very upset as a little girl in the audience of a bloody bout; now you can see her grown up and helping to hawk incentives in a video here) and that I’m a big fan of a similar recent doc, the wonderful Becoming Santa. The latter showed men, yes, becoming Santa, while I Am Santa Claus seems to be going the other way, showing us Santas returning to their regular lives as men. The film previously raised more than $10,000 on Kickstarter in January 2012 to begin filming, now they’re looking for a minimum of $40,000 (with a stretch goal of $80,000) by July 10. And the campaign site has a handy pie graph to show precisely where the money will be going.

Check out a video selling us on the project after the jump. Even if you can’t contribute, you should be aware of it, as it’s got a year of footage in the bag and will surely be completed eventually.

Do you want to see this film? Enough to help fund it?

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Christopher Campbell began writing film criticism and covering film festivals for a zine called Read, back when a zine could actually get you Sundance press credentials. He's now a Senior Editor at FSR and the founding editor of our sister site Nonfics. He also regularly contributes to Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes and is the President of the Critics Choice Association's Documentary Branch.