Documentary About Sam Shepard’s The Late Henry Moss to Premiere at Film Forum

Film Forum will present the U.S. theatrical premiere of This So-Called Disaster, a new documentary by Michael Almereyda (Hamlet, Nadja) that follows Sam Shepard and company through the rehearsal process for Shepard’s play The Late Henry Moss at San Francisco’s Magic Theater.

In the film, Almereyda’s cameras follow Shepard as he directs Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Woody Harrelson, and Cheech Marin during rehearsals for the Magic Theater production, in which Penn and Nolte play estranged brothers who are reunited by the death of their father (portrayed by James Gammon in flashback scenes).

According to a press release on the documentary, “the notoriously enigmatic Shepard — part laconic, snaggle-toothed cowboy, part impossibly glamorous movie star — is put at ease by Almereyda and speaks movingly of his own father, a one-time Fulbright scholar who succumbed to alcoholism.” The film also includes behind-the-scenes moments with Penn, Nolte, and Shepard.

Film Forum is located on West Houston Street (west of Sixth Avenue) in Manhattan. This So-Called Disaster will be shown there for two weeks, April 21 – May 4, with daily screening at 1:00, 2:45, 4:30, 6:20, 8:10, and 10:10pm.