DIRECTORS STATEMENT - Margaret Brown

I grew up around music. At age 37, my dad stopped
selling boat tarps for his father in Alabama, and
started writing country songs. He loved Kris
Kristofferson and Hank Williams and Bob Dylan and
Odetta, and had a whole room full of vinyl. On
Sundays, he recorded gospel music in the studio that
overlooked our garage. Sound baffles made from egg
cartons lined the walls and ceiling. Somewhere in this
house, listening to records with my father, the idea
for this film started to form.

When I showed up at Guy Clark's Nashville home for his
interview for this film, he answered the door smoking
a cigarette, wearing a dark blue work shirt, boots,
and faded Levi's. When he is not writing or touring,
Clark is a luthier - he makes guitars. We decided to
do the interview in the workroom, where he also
writes. It was eleven in the morning, but Guy insisted
that I drink with him, shot for shot, throughout the
interview. After all, this was for Townes, he said,
and we had to get there.

As the interview continued, Guy told me that Townes'
songs work because of negative space. It's the holes
you leave, he said. I wanted Be Here To Love Me to
work in the same way - not by spelling out every
detail of his life, but by presenting details that are
often more telling than dates or facts. By juxtaposing
voiceover with performance, traveling in time to
present effect before cause, and letting the audience
make up their own mind about whether Townes' decision
to drop his family and most trappings of normal life
to "get a guitar and go" was worth it, I felt that
this would create a more emotionally true film.

Twenty-five songs recorded and sung by Townes Van
Zandt populate this film. The songs' tone and lyrical
precision advance the narrative on the same level as
any spoken word in the film.

I wanted the film to feel handmade. Vinyl, not CD.
Analog, not digital. Not talking heads, but
conversations with some of the best Southern
storytellers talking about one of their favorite subjects.

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