TAMARA SAVIANO AND PAUL WHITFIELD ANNOUNCE SXSW 2020 WORLD PREMIERE OF ‘WITHOUT GETTING KILLED OR CAUGHT,’ A DOCUMENTARY ON THE COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEGENDARY SONGWRITERS GUY CLARK, SUSANNA CLARK AND TOWNES VAN ZANDT
Featuring narration by Academy Award-winner Sissy Spacek, the film captures the story of two legendary songwriters - and best friends - who love the same woman; she often says she has two husbands: ‘One is my soul, the other is my heart.’
(AUSTIN, TEXAS – Jan. 15, 2020; source: Juice Consulting) – Author, filmmaker and producer
Tamara Saviano
and co-producer and co-director
Paul Whitfield
announce the world premiere of
“Without Getting Killed or Caught,”
their remarkable documentary film about the complicated relationship among legendary songwriters
Guy Clark, Susanna Clark
and
Townes Van Zandt,
and the art it inspired. The film will premiere this March at the
South By Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival
for SXSW badge holders. “Without Getting Killed or Caught” features narration by Academy Award-winner
Sissy Spacek
(as Susanna Clark) as well as interviews with
Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Vince Gill, Jo Harvey Allen, Terry Allen
and
Verlon Thompson,
along with archival soundbites, photos and vintage footage. For more information, see
here.
|
|
Left to right: Guy Clark, Susanna Clark, Susan Walker and Jerry Jeff Walker
“Without Getting Killed or Caught” follows
Guy Clark, Susanna Clark
and
Townes Van Zandt
on their journey from obscurity to reverence. The film makes use of Clark’s songs, family photographs and archives, vintage film footage and radio talk shows to tell its story: Guy, the “Pancho” to Van Zandt’s “Lefty,” struggles to establish himself as the Dylan Thomas of American music; Susanna pens hit songs and paints album covers for top artists; and Townes spirals in self-destruction after writing some of Americana music’s most enduring and influential ballads. The real emotional zing comes from Susanna’s pained remembrances, culled from her private journals and secret audio diaries, as well as taped conversations that Susanna made of the trio and of the “salon” that regularly gathered around them - all serving as witnesses to this seemingly fated intersection of love, art and tragedy.
Based on the diaries of Susanna Clark and Saviano’s 2016 book,
“Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark,”
which No Depression called “an intimate, affectionate, sometimes sad, often hilarious, and vibrant chronicle of one of our most memorable artists,” the film tells the saga from Susanna’s point of view.
“Guy and I were friends for 18 years and spent the last eight of those years working together on his biography and then the documentary,” said the filmmaker
Tamara Saviano.
“It is bittersweet that after all of that, Guy did not survive to see this documentary come to fruition. It is an honor to continue to work on his legacy. I hope the documentary will give fans new insights into the extraordinary artistic life Guy shared with his wife Susanna and best friend Townes Van Zandt.
|
|
Guy Clark, who died in 2016, wrote and recorded unforgettable songs (“L.A. Freeway,” “Desperados Waiting for a Train”) for more than forty years. His lyrics and melodies paint indelible portraits of the people, places and experiences that shaped him - and no one inspired Guy more than his wife, painter and songwriter Susanna Talley Clark, and their best friend, fellow songwriter Townes Van Zandt.
In early December, Saviano and Whitfield recorded
Sissy Spacek’s
narration in Austin, Texas, and Whitfield spent the rest of the month laying in the voice track and making last-minute tweaks to wrap the film at the end of 2019. Now the pair will premiere the 95-minute documentary, funded in part by a Kickstarter campaign, at this year’s SXSW Film Festival, while also looking for a distributor.
Saviano, a longtime figure on the Americana scene, as journalist, artist manager, and Grammy-winning producer, wrote the film with Austin entrepreneur
Bart Knaggs.
She had the complete cooperation of Clark, who sat for numerous interviews on and off camera. “Without Getting Killed or Caught” (the title comes from “L.A. Freeway”) also offers poignant reflections from Clark’s closest friends and musical allies, most prominently
Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Vince Gill, Verlon Thompson
and
Terry and Jo Harvey Allen,
as well as record executive
Barry Poss.
|
|
Filmmaker Tamara Saviano
ABOUT TAMARA SAVIANO:
Tamara Saviano is an author, filmmaker, and Grammy and Americana Award-winning producer. Saviano’s biography on legendary songwriter Guy Clark, “Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark,” won the Belmont Award for the best writing on country music in 2016. Her documentary about Clark, also titled “Without Getting Killed or Caught,” will have its world premiere at the South By Southwest Film Festival in 2020.
Saviano’s music productions include “Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster,” honored with a 2004 GRAMMY for Best Traditional Folk Album, “The Pilgrim: A Celebration of Kris Kristofferson,” “Looking Into You: A Tribute to Jackson Browne,” “Red Hot: A Memphis Celebration of Sun Records,” and the Grammy-nominated “This One’s For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark,” which won Album of the Year at the Americana Honors & Awards in 2012. She produced Kristofferson’s Grammy-nominated “Cedar Creek Sessions” in 2015. Saviano was also a program advisor for Ken Burn’s acclaimed 2019 PBS series “Country Music.” Saviano lives in Austin, Texas and Nashville, Tennessee with her husband Paul Whitfield.
ABOUT PAUL WHITFIELD:
For more than two decades Paul Whitfield has made high-profile artists look and sound great. From Bruce Springsteen to Josh Groban, Kenny Chesney to Metallica, Pearl Jam to Destiny’s Child, Whitfield has fine-tuned the close-ups of the stars. On concert tours, Whitfield has worked as video engineer-in-charge with artists including Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Shania Twain, The Judds, Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Josh Groban, Tim McGraw, Ringo Starr, the Dixie Chicks, Metallica , Destiny’s Child, “Elvis: The Concert,” and the 2007 South American tour of “High School Musical.”
Whitfield has directed the FUSE Network/Hot 97 Summer Jams show at Giant Stadium, the 2005 Americana Honors & Awards at the Ryman and many other live concert events. He’s been a video engineer on broadcast shoots including Bruce Springsteen DVD specials, the Sundance Channel’s “Vote For Change” concert, PBS “Great Performances” featuring Josh Groban, the ABC Faith Hill New Year’s Eve Special, CBS’s CMA Awards, on location with NBC’s Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and many others.
Along with his wife, Tamara Saviano, Whitfield produced and directed the documentary, “Without Getting Killed or Caught,” about legendary songwriter Guy Clark. The film will make its world premiere at the South By Southwest Film Festival in 2020. Whitfield lives in Austin, Texas and Nashville, Tennessee.
###
MEDIA NOTE:
For general press inquiries, interviews or related requests, please contact the team at Juice Consulting:
Heather Wagner Reed
713 208 3891
heather@juiceconsulting.com
Madison Snelling
210 213 8934
madison@juiceconsulting.com
Jackie Goff
281 793 4209
jackie@juiceconsulting.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
