''Be Here To Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt'' is a 2004

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by

Margaret Brown Margaret Brown (née Tobin; July 18, 1867 – October 26, 1932), posthumously known as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", was an American socialite and philanthropist. She unsuccessfully encouraged the crew in Lifeboat No. 6 to return to the debris ...

which chronicles the often turbulent life of American singer-songwriter

Townes Van Zandt John Townes Van Zandt (March 7, 1944 – January 1, 1997) was an American singer-songwriter.

. The film includes interviews of Van Zandt's immediate family and contemporaries such as

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country musician. The critical success of the album '' Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of '' Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and '' Stardust'' (1 ...

Kris Kristofferson Kristoffer Kristofferson (born June 22, 1936) is a retired American singer, songwriter and actor. Among his songwriting credits are " Me and Bobby McGee", " For the Good Times", " Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and " Help Me Make It Through the ...

, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle and

Guy Clark Guy Charles Clark (November 6, 1941 – May 17, 2016) was an American folk and country singer-songwriter and luthier. He released more than 20 albums, and his songs have been recorded by other artists, including Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Buffet ...

along with "home movies, old TV performances and, especially, mid-Seventies footage originally filmed by James Szalapski for his outlaw country documentary ''

Heartworn Highways ''Heartworn Highways'' is a documentary film by James Szalapski whose vision captured some of the founders of the Outlaw Country movement in Texas and Tennessee in the last weeks of 1975 and the first weeks of 1976.AllMovie entry for Heartworn Hig ...

''."alt archive
/ref>Linden, Sheri (July 6, 2005)
"Be Here to Love Me (review)"
'' he Hollywood Reporter'. Retrieved 2010-05-31.

Synopsis

Townes Van Zandt John Townes Van Zandt (March 7, 1944 – January 1, 1997) was an American singer-songwriter.

was a well-regarded and influential musician and songwriter.Strauss, Neil (January 3, 1997)
"Townes Van Zandt, Singer And Influential Songwriter, 52"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. Retrieved 2010-07-11. The film follows his life as an artist, and documents the impressions he made on other musicians, his commitment to a mental facility, involvement in music, drugs and alcohol, departure from his family, several of his live performances, and general life on the road. The film covers some of Van Zandt's time spent in Houston, Texas, where he began his musical development, though according to the film's DVD commentary, much was excluded from the early years, when he met many of his early influences and lifelong friends (

Lightnin' Hopkins Samuel John "Lightnin" Hopkins (March 15, 1912 – January 30, 1982) was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist from Centerville, Texas. In 2010, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked him No. 71 on its list ...

, Steve Earle,

Mickey Newbury Milton Sims "Mickey" Newbury Jr. (May 19, 1940 – September 29, 2002) was an American songwriter, recording artist, and a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Early life and career Newbury was born in Houston, Texas, on May 19, ...

, etc.), and developed his musical skills in the city's folk and country scene in the late 60s and early 70s.

Release

''Be Here to Love Me'' was first premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Canada in 2004. It first showed in the United States at the

Wisconsin Film Festival The Wisconsin Film Festival is an annual film festival, founded in 1999. The festival is held every April in Madison, Wisconsin, and has recently been expanded from five days to eights days. The Festival presents a broad range of independent Ameri ...

, then to a limited run of theaters in 2005. The film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

Palm Pictures Palm Pictures is a US-based entertainment company owned and run by Chris Blackwell. Palm Pictures produces, acquires and distributes music and film projects with a particular focus on the DVD-Video format. Palm places an emphasis on such pro ...

in 2006.

Reviews

The film maintains a 93% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

.
Be Here to Love Me
' at

'' said, "Margaret Brown has directed a tender, impressionistic film biography about the Texan singer-songwriter," and ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...

'' called it "loving but frank." ''Be Here To Love Me'' was listed at #7 in a list of "50 Greatest Music Films Ever" in ''TimeOut'' Magazine.Calhoun, David et al. (October 4, 2007)
"50 Greatest music films ever"
''timeout.com''; TimeOut Magazine. Retrieved 2010-06-01.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Be Here To Love Me Documentary films about singers 2000s musical films 2004 documentary films 2004 films American documentary films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films