shepard & Dark

2012
92 minutes
Oscilloscope Films

Shepard & Dark tells the story of the decades-spanning friendship between Academy Award-nominated actor and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sam Shepard (The Right Stuff, Buried Child) and eccentric, reclusive deli clerk Johnny Dark. As the two men come together to publish their lifelong correspondence at the University of Texas Press — hundreds of eloquent handwritten letters dating back to the early 1960s - their shared memories, literary ties and one-time family bonds emerge in an indelible documentary portrait of a complex friendship rarely depicted on screen.


FESTIVAL SCREENINGS
Toronto International Film Festival (WORLD PREMIERE)
Woodstock International Film Festival
DOC NYC
Cleveland International Film Festival
Florida Film Festival
San Francisco International Film Festival
Houston Cinema Arts Festival
Wisconsin Film Festival
Sarasota Film Festival
Ashland Independent Film Festival
The Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival

WINNER
Cleveland International Film Festival Best Documentary Award +
Special Jury Award Nesnadny + Schwartz Documentary Film Competition

Special Jury Florida Film Festival Outstanding Documentary Directing

Woodstock Film Festival Jury Prize Best Documentary Feature
Woodstock Film Festival Best Editing Documentary Feature

NOMINATED
Cannes Film Festival, Camera d’Or
DOC NYC, Viewfinders Grand Jury Prize