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Poster for Portrait of Billy Joe
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Released
2004 · FILM

Portrait of Billy Joe

Directed by
Written by
Runtime
53 min
Documentary

Synopsis

Filmmaker Luciana Pedraza takes a penetrating look into the life of one of country music's behind-the-scenes talents, songwriter Billy Joe Shaver, who composed tunes for luminaries such as Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan. From his troubled childhood in Texas, through a battle with substance abuse and finally to the death of his wife and son, this moving portrait chronicles the career of an artist with a rare gift for transforming tragedy into poetry.

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The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 3

These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

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