Wednesday Documentary Review: All That Is Sacred (2023)

I'm reading the flash fiction collection The Tokyo–Montana Express (1980) by Richard Brautigan. I like his writing and this is one of the few that I still haven't read. Anyway, I wanted to watch a documentary about him, and I came across this 34 minutes short documentary by Scott Ballew. It was described on Letterboxd in this manner: "In the late 1960s, poets, writers and musicians descend upon Key West to pursue their love of literature and fishing (and cocaine and acid). Tom McGuane is soon joined by friends Jim Harrison, Richard Brautigan, Russell Chatham and Jimmy Buffett. They create some of their generation's best art."

Unfortunately for me Brautigan is a very minor character in this film, partly because he had been dead for almost 40 years when it was made and it is built up on interviews with people that were there. Still, I thought it was an interesting film about this group of artists that came to Key West, became friends, made art, fished, did drugs, and so on. There is a part from a film called Tarpon used quite a bit, and the story around the way that one was made. It featured some of the artists, but eventually told the story of fishing more than the artists themselves. The footage from that film is interesting, but partly because of that All that is Sacred becomes a little aimless. Still, it is a nice film about art, friendship, and fishing.
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Published on June 11, 2025 12:04
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