‘Horton Foote’ Documentary Celebrates The Texas Writer Many Texans Don’t Know

The film’s director calls the award-laden Foote “one of the most important 20th century writers.”

By Laura RiceOctober 23, 2020 1:32 pm, ,

Anne Rapp directed and produced “Horton Foote: The Road To Home.” The film has its world premiere at the 2020 Austin Film Festival. The festival is primarily virtual this year, but the documentary is getting a special in-person screening with a very limited audience.

Foote was born in Wharton, Texas, and based most of his writings on his experiences there.

Horton Foote by Keith Carter

“He wrote the screenplay for ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ He adapted Harper Lee’s novel and he won the Academy Award for that. He’s also well-known for ‘Tender Mercies,’ another film called ‘Trip to Bountiful.’ He got a Pulitzer Prize for drama for a play he did on Broadway called ‘The Young Man from Atlanta.’ And then he also was given the National Medal of Arts by Bill Clinton in 2000.”

 

“He used to just tell me story after story after story, and I would come home thrilled, full of all of the backdrops of the 70 years body of work of his. And one day it occurred to me and a couple of other friends of mine who were filmmakers that that should be recorded. And I recorded the last two-and-a-half, three years of his life.”

 

“Robert Duvall is one of the interviewees in the film. Edward Albee, a famous playwright that was one of Horton’s contemporaries, is in the film. Matthew Broderick, the actor, is in the film. So those are a few household names that make an appearance in the film.”

 

“You know, it’s very sad for all of us that we’re not being able to have that personal interaction this year. But the good thing is, on a virtual basis, there may be even a wider audience for it because people are sitting at home and kind of trapped in there in their environments, and they’re maybe more curious about seeing films and reaching out to something like this.”

If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it here. Your gift helps pay for everything you find on texasstandard.org and KUT.org. Thanks for donating today.