The Bill Sackter Story
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“A Friend Indeed - The Bill Sackter Story” is a newly completed feature length documentary that explores the real life story of a mentally challenged man escaping the bonds of lifelong institutional confinement, who went on to lead a fulfilling life and influence historic changes in society’s perception of people with disability, with nothing more than a smile, a harmonica, and a warm cup of coffee.
Bill Sackter’s story was made famous through the 1981 made-for-TV movie “Bill”, starring Mickey Rooney, but the real story of Bill Sackter has not been told, until now. This documentary, sponsored by Citizen Advocacy of Washington County and making its Wisconsin premier at the West Bend Mutual Prairie Center October 16, 2008, explores Bill’s extraordinary life, using photographs, and actual film and video footage of Bill himself, along with revealing interviews with people closest to him.
Barry Morrow, a young college student, became Bill’s legal guardian to prevent Bill from having to go back to the institution where he had spent 44 years of his life. He brought Bill to Iowa City and Iowa State University where Bill was able to establish and work in his own coffee shop (known as Wild Bill’s Coffee Shop) in the university’s School of Social Work. Through his positive, embracing spirit, Bill was able to impact the lives of many people in the community. By extension through the TV-movie “Bill”, (staring Mickey Rooney) he touched the lives of people around the country.
Barry Morrow’s desire had been to create a documentary about Bill. Working with film and video equipment he captured precious moments in his experience with Bill, and while a national audience was given a glimpse into this footage at the end of the TV movie “Bill”, the documentary never got produced. Morrow went on to a successful Hollywood screenwriting career (he won an Oscar for "Rain Man"), and the source material has been in storage ever since.
Nearly three decades later, Barry met award winning documentary filmmaker Lane Wyrick and chose him to take on this ambitious project. After Wyrick looked the potential of the story and the resources of film, video, photos, and interviews he decided that this production demanded to be treated as a feature length documentary.
The documentary has a deep universal appeal as an exploration of the way we, as a society, have treated people with disabilities (from institutional abandonment to community embrace), and how human compassion and caring can really make a difference. The documentary is an emotional journey with many funny scenes, very touching and emotional revelations and is overall very inspiring.
This 90 minute documentary finally puts a real face and personality on Bill Sackter, the person who helped change our society for the better and who has become a folk hero for the disability community, and it is an uplifting emotional journey that shows how we have cut across many of the barriers that were prevalent in our recent past, and where we need to go as a society.
To find out more info go to: www.billsackter.com -- Feel free to comment on my page and thank you for checking out my film.
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