I went to a screening of a new documentary called Billy The Kid last night. It's directed by a first-time film maker called Jennifer Venditti and it's basically about the nine or so days she spent with this 15 year-old kid from Maine called Billy. And it's amazing.
I guess you could call Billy 'special' - mentally, emotionally and just literally. He's really funny, talks totally frankly and is pretty brave in many ways - especially when deciding to chat up a partially-sighted girl in a cafe (that's her in the pic. She dumped him after two days). You have to respect him for approaching her though - he's the kid everyone ignores or picks on. He tells the story about one bitch cheerleeder type at his school who, after he asked her out, humiliated him in front of the whole lunchroom ('you're a geek, you're a freak, i would never be seen dead with someone like you' etc. It's cool tho, Billy says 'I ended up mooning her').
The director spoke about his 'thing' after the screening, but I liked the way they never really say what it is in the film, because you just accept Billy for what he is, rather than what his 'illness' or whatever is. Like, 'oh, he's autistic/ ADD/ etc, so that's why he's like that.' I think you should just go see the film.
It was shot, as in cinematography, by this guy from new New York band The Virgins who are about to be really hot, so it looks really cool too. Although I did get a bit of that motion-sickness a la The Blair Witch 'wobbly camera effect' Project.
I think they're getting distribution into place because it's won a bunch of awards, so if it comes to a town near you, I urge you to go and see it. Check trailers etc at billythekiddocumentary.com
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