After the Demons

The Portrait of Billy Joe

Some might recognize Luciana Pedraza from her appearance in the Robert Duvall film Assassination Tango. Born in Argentina, Pedraza is Duvall's longtime companion. She has now turned to documentary filmmaking, and The Portait of Billy Joe is her first work. The film recounts the story of Billy Joe Shaver, considered by many to be one of the best Texas songwriters of all time, whose songs have been recorded by the likes of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and too many others to list. It illustrates how the 64-year-old Shaver uses words and music to reflect on his difficult experiences from being nearly abandoned as a child to his fight with drugs and alcohol to, most recently, losing his wife, mother, and son in the span of two years. She is currently making two other documentaries about Texans distinguished in their respective creative fields, screenwriter Horton Foote (To Kill a Mockingbird, Tender Mercies, The Trip to Bountiful) and actor Robert Easton, who is known as the world's premier dialect coach.

Austin Chronicle: How did you get interested in documentary filmmaking?

Luciana Pedraza: One day I met Albert Maysles, who was going to do a documentary on Bobby, and he was a great inspiration on what I wanted to do. The way he tells stories is the way I want to tell stories, without interviews, he gets the essence of these people and that fascinates me.

AC: And how did you get involved with Billy Joe?

Luciana Pedraza

LP: I met Billy Joe eight years ago on the set of The Apostle. I thought he was fascinating. We kept in touch over the years. I began filming him two years ago. That's an interesting point, because I also wanted to film Horton Foote, the writer. I was working with Horton in Austin, and there was something going on with Horton in Waco. That's when Billy Joe called me and asked me if I wanted to interview his 102-year-old English teacher. So I thought, "Wow, this is meant to be." I had waited six years to do this and it was unbelievable that it was all coming together like that. So I finished the taping of Horton in the morning and I went to interview Mabel Legg, his English teacher, and she was amazing. Looking back, it was really Billy Joe's indirect way of telling me that he wanted me to do the documentary. I think that other people had tried to do it, and he wasn't ready yet. That was the official start of the project. He was ready to tell his story. Legg passed away two months after I filmed that.

AC: There's a scene of a younger Brenda, his wife, talking about Billy Joe in the film. Where did you get that?

LP: That's part of a documentary that James Lawrence did in 1973. I think it was at the University of California. And Billy Joe provided me absolutely everything we used, like the photographs, and one of the things he gave us was this tape. It was a documentary called Honky Tonk Hero.

AC: Was there anything that surprised you during the filming of this?

LP: The fact that he married his wife three times. It's an amazing love story. ... I found it interesting when he talked about revenge [after his son died of a heroin overdose in 2001]. I don't think he was very impulsive, and with the drugs and alcohol, who knows what kept him from that. But I think in essence he's a good man, but he couldn't be better when he was young. He couldn't control his demons, like a lot of people. Sometimes when you get old is when you get the answers. I think that's what you see in the film. There's a lot of wisdom when he talks.

AC: Are there any plans for distribution?

LP: I'm curious to see what the reaction is to it first. I've invited a wide range of people, art galleries, religious people, directors, people from rehab institutions. It covers a lot of aspects, so I think a lot of people will be interested in it. It's not a biography in the traditional sense. This guy could be a poet from Russia or an actor – he just happens to be a musician. He also tells a story of every individual. What Billy Joe has done has turned all those negative things that have happened to him into something positive. He was an alcoholic and drug addict. He faced all those demons that anybody can have and today he's a very kind man with a lot of wisdom. He doesn't preach about his life, he just tells his story. I found that quite interesting that he could do that.