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Bill Withers
Still Bill
SCREENS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8TH AT THE GRAND LAKE THEATER
Eight years ago, filmmakers Damani Baker and Alex Vlack had what seemed like a simple idea: make a film about Bill Withers. Little was
known about Withers since he’d left the business of music behind, and his music, which includes the classics “Ain’t No Sunhine”, “Lean On Me”, and “Just the Two of Us”, had left its mark on the world in general and these
two filmmakers in particular. But they soon found that access to Withers was not freely granted, and that many doors would open, only to slam back shut. With such limited access, their attentions shifted to trying to produce a concert of his music, which would provide a narrative thread for a discussion of his influence. For while his songs are part of the American fabric, his name is not well known.
Then things changed. His door cracked slightly open. First, a four-hour interview. Then a trip to his hometown of Slab Fork, West Virginia, the place to which he swore he’d never return. Four hours became forty.
Forty is now three hundred hours, filmed over two years—a persojourney into the life of a complex, fascinating, and profound man.