This So-Called Disaster

This documentary follows Sam Shepard as he directs Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Woody Harrelson and Cheech Marin in a production of his play “The Late Henry Moss” at San Francisco’s Magic Theater. Penn and Nolte play estranged brothers, reunited by the death of their father. The notoriously enigmatic Shepard -- part laconic, snaggletoothed cowboy, part impossibly glamorous movie star -- is put at ease by filmmaker Michael Almereyda (HAMLET; NADJA). Shepard speaks movingly of his own father, a onetime Fulbright scholar who succumbed to alcoholism. Penn, Nolte and Shepard recall, with considerable humor, their first realization that acting and theater would be their life’s work. Penn attributes it all to an actor who showed up at this high school in ”zipper boots,” Shepard to his infatuation with “that thing Burt Lancaster did with his teeth,” and Nolte to reading Stanislavsky while having a nervous breakdown. (!)

Nick Nolte will be appearing to conduct a Q & A following the 7:45 p.m. screening on Friday, June 18 only.