I watched Billy the Kid at SXSW. I felt good about it on many levels during the viewing and later in Q&A with the director Jennifer Venditti; unfortunately, I missed the big premiere event with Billy and his mom in attendance which I’m told went smashingly. But, even when walking out of the film, I found that some people who saw it with me viewed the film as John Anderson, who reviewed the film at Hot Docs for Variety, did. He writes “anything beyond a casual, surface reading of the film reveals an appallingly callous act of exploitation.” That is an alarming accusation, and one I feel compelled to rebut on behalf of Billy, if I may be so bold. Bear with me for a moment.

One of the top posts on my blog is a short note about the death of Stephen Heywood, the subject of Steven Ascher and Jeanne Jordan’s So Much So Fast (which I coincidently saw at last year’s Hot Docs). The film played several festivals and eventually found a home on Frontline on PBS. I believe that the news of his death would generate significant site traffic because of his amazing story. Heywood was diagnosed with ALS, a degenerative disease that leaves its victims physically unable to move or even breath, yet the mind remains intact and alert; the body becomes a prison and while death can come in 2-5 years, it’s also possible to live with lots of help from technology. Unlike the vast majority of people who receive this diagnosis and see it as a death sentence, Stephen and his family took a different approach.