BILLY THE KID
USA, 2007, 85 min
Directed By: Jennifer Venditti
Producers: Jennifer Venditti, Chiemi Karasawa
Executive Producers: Bob Alexander, Barnet Liberman, Lubov Azria
Cinematographers: Donald Cumming, Paris Kain
Editors: Michael Levine, Enat Sidi
Music: Christian Zucconi, Guy Blakeslee
Featuring: Billy P.
"You'll not soon forget Billy P., the remarkable 15-year-old subject of director Jennifer Venditti's engrossing verité portrait of life, love, and growing up different in small-town Maine. At first, Billy seems like any other awkward teen with a baby moustache. He jams air guitar in his bedroom, lifts weights in emulation of his professional-wrestling heroes, and spends his every waking hour, it seems, thinking and talking about girls. Gradually, however, Billy and his mother reveal to Venditti's empathetic camera a darker, parallel history of behavioral problems, institutionalization, and treatment. While Venditti never names Billy's condition in the film, it's clear that growing up has been a constant struggle both for him and his mom. Throw an absentee father into the mix and, against such a background, what seemed normal—karate lessons, choir practice, a first crush—suddenly takes on heroic dimensions.
Venditti gently shapes the episodes of Billy's life, particularly his budding relationship with a girl who works at the local coffee shop, herself a shy outsider, into a captivating story of family, courage, and acceptance. At its center, always, is Billy, a minor miracle of preternatural wisdom, whose disarming humor and engaging personality make him one of the most memorable presences on American screens in a long, long while."
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Paul Malcolm
For information about Jennifer Venditti and BILLY THE KID, visit the website: www.BillytheKidDocumentary.com
