In the world of Alcoholics Anonymous, the name Bill W. is life changing. The co-founder of AA, he was listed in “Time Magazine” as one of the “100 persons of the 20th Century.” In life outside the AA meetings, he was William G. Wilson and the subject of a documentary, “Bill W.”
The Council on Alcohol & Drug Abuse will screen the movie on Thursday, August 9, at Studio Movie Grill with a panel discussion immediately following with representatives from the Council of Alcohol & Drug Abuse and RightStep.
The admission is $9.60 per person
For those interested in purchasing tickets to this event, please contact:
Diane Feffer
dfeffer@studiomoviegrill.com
Phone: 972-670-7078
Event is Thursday, August 9th at SMG Royal/Central
Doors open: 6:30 p.m.
Movie starts: 7:00 p.m.
All of my many recovering friends who have seen this movie have given it high marks. Here is a review from the LA Times:
Los Angeles Times Review: ‘Bill W.’ cuts through the anonymity
The documentary about the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous is an engrossing success story.|
By Sheri Linden, 5/18/12 Los Angeles Times
There’s an unflashy clarity to the documentary “Bill W.” that suits its subject. William G. Wilson, the “stinking rotten drunk” who had an epiphany and co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935, was a Vermont Yankee whose life’s work was predicated on humility and service.
Today’s celebrity rehab news cycle would likely displease him; a true believer in the value of anonymity, he turned down an honorary degree from Yale and a cover story in Time (which later placed him in the top 20 “Heroes and Icons” of the 20th century).
Bill W., as he was known within AA, was an icon to the group during his lifetime — an unwanted stature that took its toll, as first-time directors Kevin Hanlon and Dan Carracino show through rich archival material, interviews and dramatizations. Enactments can stop a documentary cold, but here they work perfectly, lending a period luster to the meticulously researched film, and complementing the audio of Wilson’s sharp New England bray.
Tracing Wilson’s first Bronx cocktail through late-in-life LSD experiments, the filmmakers pierce to the essence of his struggles and breakthroughs. To create the 12 steps with Akron surgeon Bob Smith, Wilson pushed beyond the era’s limited medical knowledge and the moralism of the temperance movement, drawing tenets from the evangelical Oxford Group.
There are no naysayers among the interviewees. Historians and AA members, shot in modesty-protecting shadow, are here to praise (and thank) Wilson. Laudatory but never simplistic, “Bill W.” is a thoroughly engrossing portrait of Wilson, his times and the visionary fellowship that is his legacy.