James Dean Fest is site of U.S. documentary premiere

Mike Sheridan was simply a James Dan fan. When he was 17 years old, one year after Dean died, he hitchhiked from Pennsylvania to Fairmount, Ind. to see where his hero was born. There, he met Ortense Winslow, Dean's aunt. The woman brought him in, fed him and made him call his mother in Pennsylvania. The next morning, after talking with him, she put him on a Greyhound bus home.\nIt was this single-minded admiration that led Sheridan to spend more than 10 years creating the documentary "James Dean: Forever Young."\nSaturday saw the U.S. premiere of the film in Marion, Ind., during James Dean Fest 2005. A crowd of approximately 5,000 attended the premiere. \nBrian Jameson, an executive producer of the film, introduced Sheridan. \n"We can see the love and passion that the filmmakers put into this documentary," he said. "It's evident in every part."\nJameson said the film received a six-minute standing ovation during its world premiere at last year's Cannes Film Festival. \nThe film, narrated by Martin Sheen, started from Sheridan's collection of 28 clips of film. It is the only place many fans can see samples of his early TV work and a rare, silent screen test for the film "East of Eden." The documentary also includes a screen test between Dean and Paul Newman, who was being considered for the role of Dean's brother. \nSheen was scheduled to attend the festival in Marion and introduce the documentary, but was unable to be present because he was working on another project in New York City. \nAfter all the time he put into the project, Sheridan felt that when the film premiered on U.S. soil, it should be in Indiana. \n"Marion is great, and I felt that this was where it belonged," Sheridan said. "This is Jimmy Dean country. Things just came together, and Brian and I are both extremely grateful"