The Writer with No Hands

On Friday 27 June 1997, Gary DeVore had been driving home after completing a new film script. He was last seen at a Denny's diner in the Mojave Desert around 1am on the 28th. The subsequent manhunt remained unsuccessful until July 1998 when an amateur detective located fragments of DeVore's car next to the California Aqueduct near Palmdale.

The California Highway Patrol's investigation concluded that DeVore must have driven against oncoming traffic along the highway, crashed into the water and drowned in his vehicle.{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-oct-10-me-31044-story.html |title=CHP Pieces Together Writer's Final Hours |last=Glover |first=Scott |date=10 October 1998 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |access-date=20 May 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170423132533/http://articles.latimes.com/1998/oct/10/local/me-31044 |archive-date=23 April 2017}}

In 2016, director William Westaway raised £4,769 through a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund completion of technical aspects to the production.{{cite web |url=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/242588498/follywood-a-conspiracy-documentary-like-no-other |title=Follywood: A conspiracy documentary like no other |website=Kickstarter |accessdate=20 May 2019}}

An alternative 86 minute cut feature had premiered at Hot Docs in 2014 but was pulled from the festival circuit at the end of that year, heavily re-worked, and never distributed.{{cite web |url=https://www.hotdocs.ca/archive/films/writer-with-no-hands |title=Writer With No Hands |website=Hot Docs |accessdate=20 May 2019}} Although Alford produced the 2014 version of the documentary, he characterised the filmmaking process as highly erratic and was not similarly accredited on the final film.{{cite web |url=http://standingstonesblog.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-writer-with-no-hands-interview-with.html |title='The Writer With No Hands' - An Interview With Matthew Alford |date=10 October 2014 |website=Standing Stone's Blog |accessdate=20 May 2019}}

The 2014 cut prompted concerns about taste. Cineinstyle called the documentary "riveting" but added "I wouldn't want to be Westaway's friend - or enemy".{{cite web |url=http://www.cineinstyle.com/?tag=gary-devore |title=The Writer With No Hands |last=Petrov |first=Dana |date=6 June 2014 |website=Cine in Style |accessdate=4 May 2019 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714112035/http://www.cineinstyle.com/?tag=gary-devore |archive-date=14 July 2014}} It was also dubbed a "sour" and "dubious" product that "borders on unethical".{{cite web |url=http://dorkshelf.com/2014/04/21/hot-docs-2014-the-writer-with-no-hands/#sthash.O63FxbRL.dpuf |title=Hot Docs 2014: The Writer with No Hands Review |last=Brown |first=Phil |date=21 April 2014 |website=Dork Shelf |accessdate=20 May 2019 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140427084853/http://dorkshelf.com/2014/04/21/hot-docs-2014-the-writer-with-no-hands/ |archivedate=27 April 2014}}

The Morning Star called the final film "unmissable" and "as tense and telling as any Hollywood fiction".{{Cite web|url=https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/c/film-round-up-april-3-2020|title = Film round-up: April 3, 2020|date = April 2020}}

• The 2014 cut premiered in the Future Cult Classics strand at Hot Docs. It was awarded the Golden Lantern at the 2014 Ammar International Popular Film Festival.{{cite web |url=http://ammarpopularff.com/festival/aipff-2015/ |title=AIPFF 2015 |website=Ammar International Popular Film Festival |accessdate=20 May 2019}}
• In 2017–2018, the film won Best Documentary at the Vienna Independent Film Festival{{cite web |url=http://www.vienna-film-festival.com/winners-2017.html |title=VIFF 2017 Winners |website=Vienna Independent Film Festival |accessdate=20 May 2019}} and the Creation International Film Festival{{cite web |url=https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=482753405426737&id=212036895831724 |title=Creation International Film Festival |date=2 September 2017 |website=Facebook |accessdate=20 May 2019}} and was runner-up in the same category at the Beloit International Film Festival.{{cite web |url=https://beloitfilmfest.org/biff-event/biffy-award-night-2018/ |title=The BIFFY Award Winners for 2018! |website=Beloit International Film Festival |accessdate=20 May 2019}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.fabriqueducinema.it/festival/italia/fabrique-awards-svelati-tutti-finalisti/|title = Fabrique Awards: Svelati tutti i finalisti|date = 7 December 2017}}

The documentary portrayed Alford as abruptly abandoning his research project in favour of an entertainment career. In 2020, he presented a comical version of The Writer with No Hands at the online Edinburgh Fringe and played himself as a "mediocre stand-up comedian" in a docufiction short called Eagle Kill in which he is recruited by Jeremy Corbyn to kidnap the US President.{{Cite web|url=https://www.starandcrescent.org.uk/2020/04/20/the-feelgood-film-of-the-apocalypse-an-interview-with-derek-swannson/|title = The Feelgood Film of the Apocalypse: An Interview with Derek Swannson}} Alford went on to co-produce the documentary Theaters of War about the role of the CIA and Department of Defence in rewriting Hollywood and network TV scripts.

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2506634 |title=The Writer with No Hands (2014) |website=IMDb}}
• {{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6722208 |title=The Writer with No Hands: Final Cut (2017) |website=IMDb}}
• {{cite web |url=https://www.facebook.com/TheWriterWithNoHands/ |title=The Writer with No Hands |website=Facebook}}

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Category:British documentary films

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Category:2010s British films

Category:2017 documentary films

Category:English-language documentary films