Desperados waiting for a Guy Clark film
Songwriter Guy Clark’s head rests at the center of the poster for the documentary “Without Getting Killed or Caught,” his hat forming a halo and its sweeping brim forming horns, befitting the light and dark life of one of the greatest songwriters Texas has ever produced. His wife, Susanna Clark, and his friend, Townes Van Zandt, flank him. And in the bottom corner is the film-festival laurel common to movie posters: “SXSW Film Festival 2020.”
Tamara Saviano, co-director of the film, is selling copies of the poster as a collector’s item because her film about Clark never screened at South by Southwest. Nor did it hit any other festivals, as Saviano’s labor of love has temporarily been lost because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Film festivals around the world have carried on virtually this year, which has put filmmakers in a bind. They have been given the choice of presenting their films virtually or holding back until some semblance of normal returns.
After SXSW was canceled seven days before “Without Getting Killed or Caught” was set to screen, Saviano decided not to rush into any commitments.
“That experience was so emotional for me,” she says. “A lot of the filmmakers contacted each other to say, ‘What are you going to do?’ So I decided I’m not doing anything in a hurry. I know not to make a decision in a crisis. That’s never been my way.”
Clark’s renown has grown since his death in 2016. Steve Earle made an album of his songs. Aaron Watson wrote a song about him. With the recent passing of Jerry Jeff Walker and Billy Joe Shaver, an increased awareness has arisen for some of the artists involved with the ’70s outsider- country-music scene that made superstars out of Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. Among those artists, Clark is widely considered without peer: a man who dedicated his life to his art without regard for reward.
Saviano has talked to distributors but has no intention of giving up ownership of the film. She may set up a direct-distribution model for the hardcore fans, before considering other outlets such as theaters and video on demand. “We have options,” she says. “Which is good news. And the people in our movie have been talking about it — Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, Terry and Jo Harvey Allen, Vince Gill, Lyle Lovett … Sissy Spacek, our narrator. We have the right people.”
Saviano never intended to be a filmmaker. She was managing editor at Country Music magazine when she met the songwriter, who was well into his elder statesman years in 1998. A few years later she wrote the content for his media kit, then became his publicist and later his biographer.
In 2014, a filmmaker approached Clark about doing a documentary, but Clark passed on it. The singer told Saviano he’d be involved if she served as the filmmaker. When she suggested she wasn’t qualified to make a film, “He told me,
‘ That’s fine. There doesn’t have to be one. I don’t give a (expletive) if there’s a documentary.’ So of course, I immediately felt bound to have to do this. Here I am years later … Guy got the last laugh.”
Her husband, Paul Whitfield, a video operator who works with Bruce Springsteen, codirected. They shot interviews with Clark’s students and admirers. They visited his haunts in Tennessee and Texas, where his youth toggled between Monahans and Rockport before he started playing coffeehouses around Houston in the 1960s. Walker recorded some of his songs (“Desperados Waiting for a Train,” “L. A. Freeway”) in the early ’70s, but Clark didn’t make a debut album until his mid-30s. His body of work over the next 40 years was informed by a tireless pursuit of poetic perfection, and much of it drew from his life in Texas. If it follows the path of the biography, Saviano’s film should get behind the albums to his process and his struggles, acknowledging both his genius and shortcomings.
Saviano has reapplied for SXSW 2021, and she assures “Without Getting Killed or Caught” will be available to viewers in 2021, five years after Clark’s death and coinciding with what would have been his 80th birthday.
“I don’t feel burdened, but I do feel a strong sense of responsibility to take care of Guy’s legacy,” she says. “I want to make sure your children and your children’s children know who Guy Clark is.”