Documentary Takes 33 Years and Counting to Complete

Almost eight years after his death, KURT VONNEGUT remains one of the most popular literary figures of the 20th and 21st Centuries. Readers from one generation to the next, the world over, continue to find their lives transformed by his comic and cosmic insights, on display in such bestselling books as Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions, Mother Night, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, and on and on. Amazingly, all of Vonnegut's works remain in print, and his popularity shows no sign of waning.

In 1982, a young filmmaker wrote a letter to his literary idol, proposing a documentary on the author's life and work. Kurt Vonnegut (then 60) soon met with Robert Weide (22) and authorized the production. Weide thought it would take a few months to raise the needed financing, and figured a film could be completed within the year. That was 33 years ago.

Filming on the documentary finally commenced in 1988 and continued, on-and-off, through the years, taking the pair to several locations, including Vonnegut's hometown of Indianapolis (where the author reminisced through his boyhood homes, his grade school, his high school, and many landmarks of his youth), Iowa City, where Vonnegut taught at the famous Writer's Workshop in the mid-60's, and Buffalo, New York, where Vonnegut would attend the world premiere performance of a humanist Requiem he had authored. Weide's camera would follow the author to his 60th high school reunion, to several public speaking engagements, and on a promotional tour for his final novel, "Timequake."

As the years rolled by, something unexpected happened -- filmmaker and subject would become close friends. The upside to this was that Vonnegut would open up to Weide about his life and work in a personal way never before captured on camera. The downside was Weide's concern that he might be jeopardizing the "journalistic integrity" of the film. Despite his uncertainty, Weide kept filming Vonnegut (and principal people in his life) until shortly before the author's death in 2007.

After Vonnegut's passing, Weide faced big questions about how to continue with the project. What started out as a conventional documentary about an author, had now become a highly personal experience that suddenly felt exploitative to release publicly. And the years kept ticking by. (Incredibly, in 2015, Weide is just five years short of Vonnegut's age when he first approached the author.) Finally, it was a Vonnegut intimate, close to the project, who suggested full disclosure, citing that the evolving friendship between author and fan should be folded into the film -- in the same way that Vonnegut often interacts with characters in his own fictional narratives. This suggestion provided the incentive for Weide to dig out the old footage (dozens of hours of it), and carry on. Meanwhile, documentary filmmaker DON ARGOTT was recruited to document this new "meta" angle, while Weide carried on with Vonnegut's life story, as originally planned. Since Weide had already taken the film as far as he could on his own dime, it was now just a matter of financing. To help fund the completion of this project Weide has launced a Kickstarter campaign.