Willie

Danny Lyon
Bleak Beauty Video

1985 New Mexico, color, b&w, 82 minutes. Willie is a realistic film made in Bernalillo, home of Willie Jaramillo and filmmakers Danny and Nancy Lyon. Defiantly individual and implacable in the face of authority, Willie is repeatedly thrown into jail for relatively minor offenses. The filmmakers gain access to jail cells, day rooms, lunatic wards, and the worst cellblock in the penitentiary where Willie is locked up next to his childhood friend and convicted murderer, Michael Guzman.

“Lyon deftly blends footage of Jaramillo as an adult with scenes of his more carefree youth. The effect is powerful. One gets the sense of the ravages of time, coupled with a feel for the devastation wrought by a life wasted.”
Jon Bowman, The New Mexican

“Extraordinary footage of inmates in the penitentiary is compelling, but it is the ordinary in the film that is frightening.”
Roy Durfee, The Alburquerque Journal

“Willie” was funded by grants from the New Mexico Arts Division and The National Endowment for the Arts.

VIEW Willie for free on Vimeo

Willie
Willie trailer

PURCHASE Willie on DVD

Individual US $20.00 USD
Institution US $100.00 USD
Institution International $110.00 USD

← Return to Films

Films
The Films of Danny Lyon - Vimeo, DVD, and 16mm print rental
After his ground breaking work as a photojournalist in the 1960’s, Danny Lyon turned to films, making a series of non-fiction films in the 1970’s and 1980’s. With the recent recognition of the 2016 de Young/Whitney retrospective, funds were provided to preserve these remarkable 16mm films. High resolution digital scans were made from the original A&B negative rolls under the close supervision of the artist. The DVD covers themselves, first made for VHS tapes, have been recognized for their power and realism, and are on display at the San Francisco Museum of Art show which opened November 3^rd, 2016.
These are great digital copies of some of the best non-fiction films of the seventies and eighties, exclusively available from Bleak Beauty.
The entire body of Danny Lyon 16mm film work can also be streamed on Vimeo. The sixties meets the twenty first century.
View Bleak Beauty Films on Vimeo
16mm prints of certain films are available for rental, please contact Anthology Film Archives for more information
SNCC
Willie
Born to Film
Dear Mark
El Otro Lado
Little Boy
Llanito
Los Ninos Abandonados
Media Man
Soc. Sci. 127