Liberation Season: Screening – American: The Bill Hicks Story

Bill Hicks once said, "People in the UK share my bemusement with the United States that America doesn’t share with itself. They have a sense of irony, which America doesn’t have, seeing as it’s being run by fundamentalists who take things literally."

The film tells the story of the controversial comedian’s life from his early days as Sunday school joker to iconic status beyond that held by any other in America. Dubbed the "Comic Outlaw", Bill Hicks‘ comedy was often of a dark nature; questioning American consumer culture, superficiality and the media’s dangerous stronghold on society; keeping it, in his own words "stupid and apathetic".

Bill Hicks‘ life and work are dramatically and viscerally portrayed in this acclaimed documentary. A captivating biopic with cleverly animated scenes from his early life that using two-dimensional photographs, the film is cleverly representative of his idiosyncratic personality.

Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas’s film is both a lucid and entertaining introduction to anyone unfamiliar with Bill Hicks and a moving documentary for his still-growing fan base.

103 mins
2010