Portrait of life of recovery

Bill Wilson co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935. A documentary, "Bill W.," tells the story of his life.

The organization is an international mutual aid fellowship with more than 2 million members belonging to 100,800 groups of alcoholics helping other alcoholics achieve and maintain sobriety.

Now, Wilson’s life story has been told thanks to two filmmakers – Kevin Hanlon and Dan Carracino – and eight years of work. The film will screen at the Guild Cinema at 1:30 p.m. today. It also will screen at 1:30 p.m. June 23-24.

Wilson created the organization to help others, but what many don’t realize is that Wilson struggled with depression and drinking.

He also was named one of Time magazine’s “100 Heroes of the 20th Century” in 1999, which was nearly 30 years after his death.

“Bill was a man who wanted to help others,” Hanlon explains. “The project came along after I learned that Bill’s story had never been told. There had not been a documentary made about this man, and we felt the story needed to be told.”

So Hanlon and Carracino – who have been friends since high school – started doing research. But dealing with an organization that protects anonymity made the research difficult.

“We started the research all from scratch and wanted to do original research,” Hanlon says. “We tried to find primary materials but neither one of us could find one.”

While visuals of Wilson seemed to be a challenge, the duo uncovered plenty of audio files. But how would they illustrate the film?

“We recognized AA and its traditions,” he says. “They did have photos but didn’t want to turn them over.”

But then the duo got a break. Carracino says about two years into the project and still with no photographs, they stumbled upon an eBay auction that had 13 negatives of Wilson.

“We contacted the seller and he told us we had to bid on each one individually,” he says. “He told us if we were serious buyers we should contact him.”

When the duo made contact with the seller, they found there were nearly 1,000 negatives of Wilson and his wife, Lois.

“Bill had given access to an old New York Times photographer to get the photos,” Carracino says. “Nothing was ever done with them, and this helped us move forward with the film.”

Hanlon says the photos were saved from being trashed.

“The seller was going to get rid of them because he was a sports memorabilia collector,” he says. “In a way, we saved the photos from being lost forever.”

Hanlon says there were nearly 70 interviews conducted for the documentary, and only 18 of those made it into it.

“We had eight years and hundreds of hours of footage,” he explains. “The editing process was difficult because we started out to tell the story of Bill and AA. As we got into the heavy editing, we decided to focus the story on only Bill and tell his story thoroughly.”

Since the film debuted earlier this year, Hanlon and Carracino say, the response has been amazing.

“People are affected in different ways when it comes to the film,” Carracino says. “Many are not necessarily alcoholics, but they have been affected by someone who is. Both of our families have a history with alcoholism and that’s why it strikes a chord with us.”

The pair say they accomplished their goal for the film and hope to make another film with the cut footage.

“We have enough footage to do many more films,” Hanlon says. “Right now, we’re just taking the movie as far as it will go, and maybe we’ll get a little rest.”

SEND ME YOUR TIPS: If you know of a movie filming in the state, or are curious about one, email film@ABQjournal.com. Follow me on Twitter at @agomezART.

If you go
WHAT: “Bill W.”
WHEN: 1:30 p.m.  June 23-24
WHERE: The Guild Cinema, 3405 E. Central
HOW MUCH: $6 at the door