Preview - PAUL WILLIAMS: STILL ALIVE coming to DVD this February...

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On the “Biography” page of PAUL WILLIAMS’ website, it’s pointed out that “he predicts that he’ll be remembered for playing Little Enos Burdette in the SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT Trilogy.” For a kid like me that was born in the 70s and raised in the 80s, I certainly do associate Williams with the role, but it was his work with THE MUPPETS that made him a huge part of my childhood. If you’ve ever seen EMMET OTTER’S JUGBAND CHRISTMAS or THE MUPPET MOVIE, then the music of Paul Williams has flowed through you. Now, as I share those works with my children, it flows through them as well. In PAUL WILLIAMS: STILL ALIVE (out on DVD February 5), filmmaker Stephen Kessler explores the mystery of Williams’ lengthy career.

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PAUL WILLIAMS: STILL ALIVE…

Paul Williams was everywhere in the 1970s – on records, the radio, TV and movies – but he suddenly walked away from it all, and a new generation of pop music lovers has no idea who he is. Director Stephen Kessler sets out to remedy that situation in PAUL WILLIAMS: STILL ALIVE. Kessler’s “fascinating” (Entertainment Weekly) and “endearing” (Paste) film about his journey to find his musical hero will bring the songwriting genius to longtime fans and new listeners alike when it arrives on DVD on February 5, 2013, from Virgil Films.

Even if you don’t know songwriter Paul Williams, you know his timeless classics, such as the Carpenters’ “We’ve Only Just Begun” and “Rainy Days and Mondays,” Barbra Streisand’s “Evergreen,” Three Dog Night’s “Just an Old Fashioned Love Song” and the Muppets’ “Rainbow Connection.” Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and David Bowie, among other giants, have recorded his songs. He has won Grammys and an Oscar, made his own hit records, had a busy acting career, including starring in “Smokey and the Bandit” and Brian DePalma’s “The Phantom of the Paradise,” and made 50 appearances on Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show.”

But where has he been for the last 20 years? Stephen Kessler (“Vegas Vacation”) wanted to know, so he set out to find Williams. The result is an exhilarating film about a fan finally meeting his hero and getting him to open up about his career and why he seemed to simply give it all up. The revelations in PAUL WILLIAMS: STILL ALIVE will stun and move fans, particularly when Williams opens up about his personal struggles and his triumphant return to the music industry as the president of ASCAP.

A wistful musical journey that will reintroduce a new generation to Williams’ soulful classics, PAUL WILLIAMS: STILL ALIVE is the charmingly self-narrated story of what happens when a nostalgic filmmaker finally catches up with his hero.

Wrote Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times: “Filmmaker Stephen Kessler’s sheer delight in following around his boyhood idol, whose music framed much of the ’70s when Kessler was a lad in Queens, is thoroughly infectious.”

Check out this clip about “The Rainbow Connection”
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Check out another clip:
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Coming completely full circle, Williams is nominated for an Academy Award this year for the song entitled “Still Alive,” that he wrote about himself for this film. Listen below…
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While the DVD won’t be available until next month, if you can’t wait to see it, PAUL WILLIAMS: STILL ALIVE is available for download on iTunes right now.