Tom Petty and Guy Clark documentaries to debut at SXSW 2021

SXSW has had a bit of a rough time due to the pandemic. It was cancelled at the last minute last year, but this year they’ve managed to at least move some of the content online which means you don’t need to crank up your airmiles to take part, with all of its 75 films being streamed via web, mobile, and TV platforms.  One of those films is a new Tom Petty documentary entitled ‘Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free’ which was directed by Mary Wharton and produced by Peter Afterman. The bulk of the movie is comprised of “a newly discovered archive of 16mm film showing Tom Petty at work on his 1994 record ‘Wildflowers.’” It was officially announced on Tom Petty’s social media accounts earlier this week.

We are excited to announce “Somewhere You Feel Free” will premiere at @SXSW Film Festival next month. More details to come. #Wildflowers #YouBelong pic.twitter.com/ao6deMpGdX

— Tom Petty (@tompetty) February 10, 2021

And then there’s ‘Without Getting Killed or Caught’, a documentary film about the mythical and complicated relationship between legendary songwriters Guy Clark, Susanna Clark, and Townes Van Zandt, and the art it inspired. The film was produced and directed by longtime Americana music producer and executive Tamara Saviano and filmmaker Paul Whitfield. Narrated by Academy-Award winner Sissy Spacek, it is described as “following Guy, Susanna, and Townes on their journey from obscurity to reverence: Guy, the Pancho to Van Zandt’s Lefty, struggling to establish himself as the Dylan Thomas of American music, while Susanna pens hit songs and paints album covers for top artists and Townes spirals in self-destruction after writing some of Americana music’s most enduring and influential ballads. Based on the diaries of Susanna Clark—the film tells the saga from Susanna’s point of view—and Saviano’s 2016 book Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark, which No Depression called “an intimate, affectionate, sometimes sad, often hilarious, and vibrant chronicle of one of our most memorable artists.””

You can watch the trailer for it below, and full details of the whole festival can be found at SXSW’s site here.