Posted on Jan 16, 2020 in Latest News

new music doco out 2020

Without Getting Killed Or Caught

The New Documentary About Susanna Clark, Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt

To Premiere At South By Southwest 2020

Author, filmmaker and producer Tamara Saviano and co-producer and co-director Paul Whitfield have announced the world premiere of Without Getting Killed or Caught, a new 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.

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.

 According to the media release:

“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 excellent book Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark, the film will tell the story 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.” 

Saviano, a highly impressive presence on the Americana music 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.

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new music doco out 2020