When I saw Becoming Santa at SXSW, I was left with a giant grin on my face and knew that there was something here. Jeff Myers‘ documentary follows Jack Sanderson as he goes in search of his long dormant Holiday cheer by becoming a professional Santa Claus. The documentary works on a multitude of levels, from divulging the history of the Santa character and his different interpretations, to a first-hand account of how demanding and rewarding being Santa Claus really is. Ultimately, it’s a love letter to Christmas and Jolly St. Nick himself, that treats its material with respect and admiration. But enough gushing from me, I have a review from SXSW you can read instead.
And now after touring the film festival circuit, Becoming Santa is getting its official release today via every major VOD service out there (Amazon, ITunes, etc.). To celebrate, Film Buff has given us an exclusive clip to show you. In it, Jack visits a hair salon to go through the first part of his Santa transformation: the dying of his hair to pure white. Anyone who has ever bleached their hair before has already cringed from previous experience; for everyone else, let Jack do the cringing for you.
I also had the pleasure of interviewing both Jack and Jeff at SXSW, and the topic of this very scene came up. Here’s what they had to say about both the process itself and how it led into Jack becoming the subject for Becoming Santa:
Jack Sanderson: We had been looking for and talking to people, but then came the Christmas where my father died and then June came around and I said to Jeff “it’s already June and I’m already dreading Christmas so I’m going throw myself into being Santa and get through the season that way.” So I went and got my hair bleached and Jeff came and filmed the bleaching process. I didn’t think about it at the time because of the pain from the bleach, but later Jeff came to me with the footage and said “we have a movie here because you’re insanely committed.”
Myers: It doesn’t show in the movie because it would’ve taken too long, but the bleaching process took five hours.
Sanderson: Yeah, the first time it came out golden and I looked like an Irish Setter and it freaked me out. I thought “what have I done? What have I done?” And then we just did it again, and for the next few days I had scabs in my beard from the bleach because it burned my skin. But once we got through that initial bleaching, I had to do touch ups once a month because my hair grows a quarter of an inch a month. The touch ups, thankfully, were much easier.
There’s much more fun to be had through out Becoming Santa as Jack continues his journey, from his training with the most energetic human being on the planet to his hilarious interactions with children, to even his realization about just how important a part Santa plays in the life of our youth. And you even get to learn a little about where Santa even came from to boot. I can’t recommend this enough as an addition to your Christmas Watch List this season.
Becoming Santa is out today on all the major VOD services including iTunes, Vudu, Microsoft XBox, Sony Playstation, CinemaNow, YouTube VOD, and Amazon Instant Video. And Jack’s back in the red suit again this year, so keep an eye out there.