A journey through time with Kurt Vonnegut

He was 23 years old when he wrote a letter to his favorite novelist proposing to make a documentary, and his surprise was great when he received an affirmative answer from Kurt Vonnegut (Indianapolis, 1922- New York, 2007).

The iconic author of

was then 60 years old and Robert B. Weide, an unrepentant fan of his work since he had read

in high school, was taking his first steps as a filmmaker after the successful premiere of his first documentary on the Marx Brothers .

He then referred to Vonnegut as "the old man" and the idea that he himself would reach his sixties without having completed this project did not cross his mind.

At the start of

—available on the Filmin platform— Weide recounts the 39-year process used to finish the film.

The director detailed this Tuesday by phone from Los Angeles the long genesis and development of the project.

“For a long time I wanted to make a conventional documentary about my favorite writer, but we became very good friends and it seemed dishonest not to mention it.

It was really others who convinced me to get into the story, because I don't like the fact that a documentary filmmaker gets into the film, but the truth is that Kurt was in some of his stories and explained the problems he encountered while wrote.

There was something of his style in this, ”says the producer of the Larry David series.

and director of the award-winning documentary

.

When he decided that he should be part of the documentary in an open and clear way, Weide hired Don Argott to direct it, and the discussion about how and how much he should appear continued to the cutting room.

Filmmaker Robert B. Weide and writer Kurt Vonnegut in an image from the documentary 'Kurt Vonnegut: Through Time' available on Filmin.

Over two hours,

narrates the life of the heterodox and successful author and also the story of this good friendship.

From Vonnegut's privileged childhood in Indianapolis, as the son of an architect and a wealthy brewery heiress, and his downfall during the Great Depression—something that did not cut short the jokes and good humor that characterized the writer's close relationship with his brothers, especially his sister—until his last days as a scourge of the Bush Administration for the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the documentary offers an intimate and respectful portrait of this World War II veteran who found in literature the best way to harness their experiences.

“I write about ordinary people who try to behave decently in an indecent world”, says the author himself in the documentary, where he defines his books as “mosaics of jokes”.

A heavy smoker, lanky, hooligan, tender and original, Vonnegut was a prisoner in Dresden, where he survived the brutal bombing that devastated the German city and killed more than 130,000 people.

The young soldier removed hundreds of bodies, saw the pyres of corpses and the city reduced to ashes.

That marked the life of the furious anti-war author who studied anthropology in Chicago and worked as a publicist at General Motors while trying to write, who always had the support of his wife Jane, with whom he raised six children, three of his and three of his sister .

He published five novels before becoming a phenomenon with

and leave his wife.

“Marriages sometimes lose their ties to him, he became famous overnight, other women were interested in him.

I don't judge it,” says Weide.

Vonnegut's silence about the details of his experience in the war, and his struggle against depression are two of the issues that, according to the director, most intrigue the public, and that the documentary does not hide, but does not underline either.

There were 25 years of friendship between Weide and Vonnegut, with dozens of interviews and trips that the filmmaker paid for out of his pocket, and hundreds of video tapes that the writer sent him of each of his talks and public interventions.

He also interviews his family, and experts on his work.

“As the years went by and the thing went on and on, it started to get ridiculous and at one point Vonnegut did tell me that we could forget about the documentary, because he didn't want me to feel pressured.

I told him no way,” recalls Weide.

Image from the documentary 'Kurt Vonnegut: Through Time' by Robert B. Weide, available at Filmin.

Fetish writer of the post-war

generation in the US, his narrative freedom, his temporary games and with science fiction, his scathing sense of humor and playful, comic and tragic approach to the world make Vonnegt, whose books continue to be reissued year after year, an essential in the American canon of the 20th century.

In Spanish, the publisher Blackie Books, after recovering

, has reissued this year, which marks the centenary of Vonnegut,

and in the fall it will release

.

It has also just arrived in bookstores thanks to Libros del Kultrum, another work that appears in the documentary and was written by the writer's son, Mark Vonnegut, in the seventies.

, the story of his schizoid outbreak and experience in a commune.

“Kurt was like no other, and his influence is beyond question.

What few remember is that for many years he could not earn a living as a writer, he was a publicist and teacher and car salesman.

He until maturity he did not succeed and became the favorite author of young people.

The lesson is that you have to keep at it, because things can end up coming out, ”reflects Weide.

Although as it happened to him it took 39 years.

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