Wittliff\u2019s Emmy-nominated writing on the 1989 TV adaptation of Larry McMurtry\u2019s Lonesome Dove helped shape the Western genre for a generation. He penned memorable movie roles for Willie Nelson in Honeysuckle Rose, Barbarosa and Red Headed Stranger, which Wittliff also directed. Literary critics mention his name in the same breath as giants like Cormac McCarthy and J. Frank Dobie.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough Wittliff was highly successful, he would not leave Texas for Hollywood. He made Hollywood come to him,\u201d said Marise McDermott, executive director of the Wittliff Collections<\/a> in San Marcos. \u201cIn a way, that helped pave the way to grow the Texas film industry.\u201d<\/p>\n In that sense, the film\u2019s director, Elizabeth Mims, is part of his legacy. Her subject\u2019s towering legacy inspired an overwhelming thought as she prepared to shoot: \u201cDamn, better not mess this up.\u201d<\/p>\n An Austin native, Mims grew up on moviemaking tales from her writer\/director father, Steve. They bonded over dates to the Paramount Summer Classic Film Series, captivated by Lawrence of Arabia and The Guns of Navarone. (In a full-circle moment, her dad shot the interviews for A Man of Vision.)<\/p>\n As a teenager, she made a short film that got into the South by Southwest Film Festival. After graduating from Austin High School, she honed her craft at CalArts. The person-to-person element of documentary filmmaking fascinated her. Weaving different perspectives into a cohesive story seemed like a challenge worth pursuing.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels like fishing to me,\u201d she said. \u201cYou go out in the morning; you don’t know what you’re gonna catch. Then you’re like, look at this big bass.\u201d<\/p>\n That curiosity led to Mims\u2019 debut feature, Only the Young, a 2012 documentary she co-directed with Jason Tippet. It screened at Austin Film Festival, and a couple years later, Mims started working for the fest. Today, she\u2019s an executive producer of its \u201cOn Story\u201d series.<\/p>\n Wittliff had strong ties to the festival, which named an annual screenwriting honor after him in 1995. Mims never properly met him before he died in 2019, but he was a mentor to festival co-founder Barbara Morgan. A few years ago, she and Mims started kicking around an idea for a docuseries exploring the different artists represented in the Wittliff Collections.<\/p>\n While trying to better understand the man behind the archive, A Man of Vision took shape. Mims was particularly taken by Wittliff\u2019s inseparable relationship to Texas. As William Broyles Jr., Wittliff\u2019s friend and fellow screenwriter, says in the documentary: \u201cIf you didn\u2019t want to come to Texas, that\u2019s fine, but Bill was happy to go do something else.\u201d For years, film industry movers and shakers made the pilgrimage to his office on Baylor Street.<\/p>\n Sally Wittliff, Bill\u2019s wife, figures prominently in the documentary, depicted as an essential creative and professional partner. Tommy Lee Jones shows up to tell stories about Lonesome Dove. Wittliff\u2019s words appear on-screen to punctuate key moments.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1793101093_892_.png\"\/)
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