Paul Williams Still Alive
Available on iTunes
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.
Starring Paul Williams, Robert Blake, Karen Carpenter
Director Stephen Kessler