A new documentary about the life of Guy Clark is being released. Without Getting Killed or Caught recounts the music and life of the legendary Texas singer-songwriter.
Guy Clark is one of my favorite artists, so it is great to see his work getting more attention. One of my favorite all-time songs, Clark’s “L.A. Freeway,” provides the line that is the title of the upcoming film.
The documentary started out and was partially funded as a Kickstarter project. The film features commentary from many of those influenced by Clark, like Steve Earle and Rodney Crowell.
The movie is adapted from Clark’s wife’s writings in The Diaries of Susanna Clark, including the complicated relationship shared by her, Clark, and Townes Van Zandt. In the documentary, actress Sissy Spacek voices Susanna’s narration.
About a decade ago, I caught the eight-part documentary about the North Carolina murder trial of Michael Peterson. In the show, which originally aired on British and U.S. T.V. in 2005, French director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade pulls back the curtain on the American criminal justice system.
I purchased the DVDs and made as many people watch them as I could. Not only did I want them to enjoy the series, but I needed to know if they saw it the same way I did with respect to Peterson’s guilt or innocence. There were a lot of disagreements. Now you may judge it for yourself because the series, with extra episodes, is available on Netflix.
After the original series ran, two more episodes were released in 2011, called The Staircase 2: The Last Chance. The new Netflix release includes those and three more episodes that cover judicial proceedings in 2016. So, now you may binge watch all thirteen episodes.
I do not want to give too much away beyond telling you to drop everything to go watch it. But the accusations against Peterson centered on the events of the night of December 9, 2001. On that night, his wife Kathleen went into the house while Peterson was outside. He later claimed that he found her at the bottom of their staircase, bloody and dead.
Eventually, Peterson was accused and tried for killing his wife. The case not only divides viewers, but the family becomes divided too. The filmmakers created the series with extensive access to Peterson and his lawyers, making you feel you get to know many of the people involved.
The case goes through several twists, turns, and surprises. Did he kill his wife? Did she fall? Or did something else happen? I enjoyed The Staircase even more than the similarly very good crime documentary Making a Murderer (2015). Go check out The Staircase for yourself.
Do you think Michael Peterson was railroaded by the system? Leave your two cents in the comments.
If you grew up in the 1970s, you could not have missed singer-songwriter-actor-showman Paul Williams. He was everywhere. Williams wrote songs like “We’ve Only Just Begun,” the Oscar-winning “Evergreen” (co-written with Barbra Streisand), the theme to Love Boat, and the Muppet classic “Rainbow Connection.” He also wrote one of the first 45 rpm singles I bought as a kid, Three Dog Night’s “Just an Old Fashioned Love Song.” He appeared in movies like Smokey and The Bandit (1977) and Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973).
Additionally, Paul Williams was a regular on Johnny Carson’s late night show and appeared on many other TV shows like The Muppets. And, just as suddenly as he came into our lives and dominated TV, movies, and radio, he disappeared.
Director Stephen Kessler was a big fan of Williams as a child, and like many of us decades later, wondered what had happened to Williams and assumed he was dead. So he tracked down the singer, who was still touring in small venues, and began a documentary, Paul Williams Still Alive (2011).
The movie is not a straight-up documentary about the career of Paul Williams, as Kessler ends up being a part of the story of the film. Surprisingly for someone who was everywhere in popular culture at one time, Williams does not seem to embrace being in what is in some ways a modern reality show, with cameras following him every place he goes.
Williams is also somewhat resistant to analyzing his own life in front of the camera, putting off Kessler’s attempts to get Williams to discuss his feelings about how drugs affected his career. So we have lots of shots of Williams being slightly annoyed at the camera and Kessler’s digging.
Instead of deep introspection from Willimas, Kessler shows his own feelings about traveling with Williams in the Philippines (Kessler is scared, while Williams seems to soldier through every adversity). And Kessler tries to provoke a response from Williams by getting him to watch a talk show where Williams was obviously high.
How much you enjoy the film may depend on how you appreciate the focus on the director-subject relationship. It makes the movie a little less traditional and might engage some viewers more than a straight-up documentary. I appreciated the other part of the film that told us more about Paul Williams, his career, and his current life. But I must admit that it was the combination of the two film styles that told me other things about Paul Williams, such as the way he still perseveres and his refreshing desire to avoid revealing everything about himself.
While Williams rejects the opportunity for self-analysis, you still get to see what happened to one of the big icons of the 1970s and learn a little about the man indirectly. If you ever wondered what happened to Paul Williams, Paul Williams Still Alive is worth your time.
Other Reviews Because Why Should You Trust Me?Rotten Tomatoes reveals that critics liked Paul Williams Still Alive more than general audience members, giving the film a 97% critics rating and a 79% audience rating. Donald Liebenson at the Chicago Sun-Timesfound the movie interesting but was annoyed by the way the director inserted himself into the story. Meanwhile, Sodajerker has an audio interview with Paul Williams where Williams discusses his career and the documentary.
PBS premiered as part of its American Masters series a new documentary about the legendary filmmaker and funny guy Mel Brooks called Mel Brooks: Make a Noise (2013). The informative movie follows Mel Brooks’s early career through his classic movies like Young Frankenstein (1974) and Blazing Saddles (1974) and through his Broadway hit The Producers. The documentary also delves into his childhood and personal life, including his marriage to actress Anne Bancroft.
PBS has made the documentary available online for a limited time, and you may find out more on the PBS website. Below is the trailer.
Robert Trachtenberg wrote, directed, edited, and produced Mel Brooks: Make a Noise. You may read reviews of the film on the A.V. Club or in the Los Angeles Times. What is your favorite Mel Brooks film? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Searching for Sugar Man, which recently won the 2012 Oscar for Best Documentary, is one of those films where the less you know about it, the more you will enjoy the film. I was one of those who was unfamiliar with musician Rodriguez and watched the film Searching for Sugar Man based only on a general sense about the content of the film. So during the movie, I was engrossed in the story and felt like I was discovering a long-lost epic tale of a legendary musician.
Searching for Sugar Man is about the search for Sixto Rodriguez, a singer-songwriter who released two albums in the early 1970s and then disappeared into obscurity after his music failed to find an audience, even though many talented producers and others thought Rodriguez was even better than Bob Dylan. The story might have ended there, but his music did find an audience in South Africa, where many people, suffering during the apartheid years, found a special connection with Rodriguez’s music. There are various theories about how his albums ended up in South Africa, but the one thing for certain is that many South Africans put him on a level with other famous international artists like The Rolling Stones.
Searching for Sugar Man begins with the legend of Rodriguez and his disappearance, and then it follows several fans in South Africa who search to find out what happened to Rodriguez. Using old photos and new interviews, the film explores the power of music and myth. To reveal any more about the movie would ruin your enjoyment of the film. The trailer even reveals too much, so here are a couple of songs by Rodriguez to whet your appetite. Now go watch the film. (But if you must watch the trailer, it is here.)
“I Wonder”
“Cause”
Perhaps Chimesfreedom will revisit Rodriguez’s music more in the future, but for now watch the movie first so you can enjoy the mystery and the discoveries in the film.
What did you think of Searching for Sugar Man? Leave your two cents in the comments.
About a decade ago, I caught the eight-part documentary about the North Carolina murder trial of Michael Peterson. In the show, which originally aired on British and U.S. T.V. in 2005, French director 
