Paul Williams Still Alive
2011
•
1h 24min
• Documentary
The most famous person you’ve never heard of, legendary songwriter/actor Paul Williams topped the charts in the early seventies, penning mega-hits for a who’s who list of big-name performers, including Barbara Streisand and David Bowie. Gifted with a raunchy wit and supreme self-confidence, despite his diminutive stature, Williams was constantly in the public eye. He made over 50 appearances on the Tonight Show With Johnny Carson, appeared in several feature films and was a regular on some of the most popular TV shows of that decade. Then, in the mid-80’s, he quietly vanished, a casualty of alcoholism and drug abuse. Obsessed with Williams as a youth and wistful for ‘70’s pop culture, filmmaker Stephen Kessler is shocked to discover in 2008 that his childhood hero is still alive and well, living a sober life in Canada and performing in modest venues. PAUL WILLIAMS: STILL ALIVE is the charmingly self-narrated story of the journey that followed, from Ontario to the Philippine Islands. It’s a cheeky, warts-and-all account of fame and misfortune, abuse and recovery, and the funny and often deeply fraught relationship between Kessler and his reluctant subject.
