The Making Of...
A Friend Indeed - The Bill Sackter Story

In the early 1970s the youthful Barry Morrow met an older man in Minneapolis who was friendly but very disheveled in appearance, someone who could have been easily overlooked as a 'bum'. His name was Bill Sackter, and he and Barry, and his wife Beverly became fast friends. Barry had been dabbling in video and film production at the time, and began chronicling Bill's life with whatever camera equipment he could get his hands on.

He found a man who was abandoned by his family in the state institution for nearly his entire life - 44 years to be exact - for mild mental retardation. Bill said, 'I was there so long, I didn't even know I was there'. Barry took the unprecedented step of becoming Bill's legal guardian so Bill wouldn't be sent back to the institution, and he brought Bill down to Iowa City, to live with his wife and newborn son Clay.

 

(Bill and Mickey Rooney on the set of Bill: On His Own)

Nearly 25 years since his passing, after being deeply immersed in all the original footage, photograph, articles, memorabilia, etc. that have been locked up in storage until now, I have taken over where Barry left off to complete the real life documentary of Bill Sackter.

What I have come to know is an amazing person, a story rich in content, and a wide variety of human emotion with scenes ranging from highly upbeat and incredibly funny to deeply serious to powerfully inspirational. But most of all, I've gotten to know who the real Bill is, and have the priviledge to bring this story and actual real-life footage of Bill to a worldwide audience.

Over the past 6 years, I have met and interviewed all the main people in Bill's life, and have learned amazing true stories about Bill, compiling the hours of footage along with an extensive 35 page written outline of every minute detail relevant to Bill's life. Along the way, I have met many people in the fundraising and production process, and have been working closely with Tom Walz and the Extend the Dream Foundation as well as the International Documentary Association to get the documentary underway.

The final edit push took place through 2007. ]Beginning with nearly 50 hours of great source material, I have edited the production down to a 90 minute feature length documentary that has been described as "inspirational" and "an emotional rollercoaster" in private screenings.

After I completed a fairly detailed edit, there was a private "Sneak Preview" screening for contributors in August 2007, and the reaction was overwhelmingly positive, even with temp music and temp narration.

In late August, I travelled with Composer Peter Bloesch to Seattle to record the full orchestral music score with Seattle Music. Peter's contribution to the emotion of the documentary is quite outstanding. Then I recorded the final narration with professional theater actress Sally Wingert, who brought an incredible amount of richness to the narration.

The documentary is now in a state where I feel that it really captures the essence of Bill and his life story that is quite unlike anything that has been done previously. As I await film festival and theatrical premieres, I am starting to work on ideas for the DVD which will have tons of extra features, since I had to cut out lots of great material.

It has been an incredibly fulfilling journey for me, and I am anxious to share the production with audiences around the country, because I feel the documentary has a lot to say about human compassion, and is also very entertaining.

If you would like to be the first to know about upcoming events, such as screenings, DVD availability, etc., please sign up for the Bill Documentary Email List.

All the best,

Lane Wyrick, Director/Editor

A Friend Indeed - The Bill Sackter Story