Billy the Kid

2007 Documentary
63%

"Billy the Kid" is a sensitive and verite portrait of Billy, a 15 year-old outsider growing up in small-town Maine. Billy appears, in many ways, like other teenage boys. He's into heavy metal and martial arts, is desperate to find a girlfriend, and aspires to a career as an actor and rock star. Yet, in other ways Billy is unique. A troubled past and ongoing behavioral issues have left him marked. But, he is unapologetic about his personality and refuses to be victimized, creating his own techniques to help him survive in an environment of pain, conformity, and prejudice. Billy is funny, sharp, strangely wise for his age, and remarkably candid. We witness life from his perspective - from intimate conversations with his mother, to be bullied at school, to his fantasies of becoming a superhero. We also experience the exhilarating pangs of first love as Billy pursues Heather, a shy 16 year-old waitress. Will Billy get the girl? Will his community accept him on his own terms? "Billy the Kid" challenges viewers to imagine themselves beyond labels.