Paul Williams Still Alive

2012 • 86 minutes

About this movie

If you were around in the 1970s, and even if you weren't, you probably know Paul Williams. He wrote classic songs like, "We've Only Just Begun","Evergreen" and, "Rainbow Connection." He starred in Smokey and The Bandit and on Johnny Carson's couch. And then, he disappeared. Quite by accident, lifelong fan and director Stephen Kessler learned that Paul Williams was still with us. But when Kessler sets out to make a documentary, Williams isn't interested at all. With Kessler never giving up and Williams always trying to get away from the camera, the results are a documentary that is more like a buddy comedy than a "whatever happened to"--both funny and moving. Paul Williams Still Alive is both a rollicking pop-culture flashback filled with great television and performance clips, and the humorous journey of an awkward documentarian and his reluctant subject. Yet it ultimately evolves into the touching tale of a man who has made peace with the beast that fame and celebrity awoke.

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