BILLS MOUNTAIN
By Dyanne Asimow
If you saw him lumbering towards you, you might
cross the street. He calls himself a ‘freak.’ Some
neighbors call him a menace; others, a saint. By 8,
he was a throwaway kid rescued by pedophiles in
Hollywood; by 17, he hustled orgies. In 1972, a car
accident that had severed his foot, bought him a house in Laurel Canyon. Meet my neighbor -- or your neighbor -- Bill Jackson.
"If you want to meet a beautiful soul (who may look like an ax murderer) check it out."
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--Libby Molyneaux, LA Weekly
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"Told with humor and pathos, this movie is a portrait both of a man and of a neighborhood, and the ways in which each influences the other. This neighborhood, the legendary Laurel Canyon in the hills above Hollywood (a singular, unconventional place marked by the 60s), becomes a character in the movie. By the end, we've journeyed from our immediate judgment of Bill and his lifestyle to a much wider container within which to hold him and his life. We find his compassion inspiring our own."
--Nick Palevsky, film critic.
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Aside from the extremely well told story which hooked us, is the enduring, ennobling childlike quality of Bill. It was very moving to witness that his humanity and dignity were not stolen from him along with his childhood.
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--Diana Gorden, Santa Monica Coalition for a livable city
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