The Writer with No Hands

The Writer with No Hands is a 2017 British documentary feature film, which follows unemployed academic Matthew Alford as he tries to establish that the accidental death of Hollywood screenwriter Gary DeVore was, in fact, an assassination by the United States government.

The Writer with No Hands
Directed byWilliam Westaway
Starring
Music byLorenzo Tomio
Production
company
Drum Roll Films
Release date
  • 27 June 2017 (2017-06-27)
Running time
71 minutes; 55 minutes (TV)

The film was screened at venues on 27 June 2017 to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of DeVore's fate and a television edit subsequently shown on VGTV, Rialto Channel, and Means TV.

Background

On Friday 27 June 1997, Gary DeVore had been driving home after completing a new film script. He was last seen at a Denny's diner in the Mojave Desert around 1am on the 28th. The subsequent manhunt remained unsuccessful until July 1998 when an amateur detective located fragments of DeVore's car next to the California Aqueduct near Palmdale.

The California Highway Patrol's investigation concluded that DeVore must have driven against oncoming traffic along the highway, crashed into the water and drowned in his vehicle.[1]

Production

In 2016, director William Westaway raised £4,769 through a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund completion of technical aspects to the production.[2]

An alternative 86 minute cut feature had premiered at Hot Docs in 2014 but was pulled from the festival circuit at the end of that year, heavily re-worked, and never distributed.[3] Although Alford produced the 2014 version of the documentary, he characterised the filmmaking process as highly erratic and was not similarly accredited on the final film.[4]

Reception

Critical response

The 2014 cut prompted concerns about taste. Cineinstyle called the documentary "riveting" but added "I wouldn't want to be Westaway's friend - or enemy".[5] It was also dubbed a "sour" and "dubious" product that "borders on unethical".[6]

The Morning Star called the final film "unmissable" and "as tense and telling as any Hollywood fiction".[7] We Are Cult called it “an engrossing and spookily conceived [film] that certainly raises the pulse and offers up some lingering questions about this utterly bizarre story [and] becomes an even more interesting and layered piece of filmmaking”.[8]

Awards and nominations

The documentary portrayed Alford as abruptly abandoning his research project in favour of an entertainment career. In 2020, he presented a comical version of The Writer with No Hands at the online Edinburgh Fringe and played himself as a "mediocre stand-up comedian" in a docufiction short called Eagle Kill in which he is recruited by Jeremy Corbyn to kidnap the US President.[14] Alford went on to co-produce the documentary Theaters of War about the role of the CIA and Department of Defence in rewriting Hollywood and network TV scripts.

References
  1. Glover, Scott (10 October 1998). "CHP Pieces Together Writer's Final Hours". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 23 April 2017. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  2. "Follywood: A conspiracy documentary like no other". Kickstarter. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  3. "Writer With No Hands". Hot Docs. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  4. "'The Writer With No Hands' - An Interview With Matthew Alford". Standing Stone's Blog. 10 October 2014. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  5. Petrov, Dana (6 June 2014). "The Writer With No Hands". Cine in Style. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  6. Brown, Phil (21 April 2014). "Hot Docs 2014: The Writer with No Hands Review". Dork Shelf. Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  7. "Film round-up: April 3, 2020". April 2020.
  8. "'The Writer with No Hands' reviewed » We Are Cult". 25 February 2021.
  9. "AIPFF 2015". Ammar International Popular Film Festival. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  10. "VIFF 2017 Winners". Vienna Independent Film Festival. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  11. "Creation International Film Festival". Facebook. 2 September 2017. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  12. "The BIFFY Award Winners for 2018!". Beloit International Film Festival. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  13. "Fabrique Awards: Svelati tutti i finalisti". 7 December 2017.
  14. "The Feelgood Film of the Apocalypse: An Interview with Derek Swannson".
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