Screening #2: "Billy in the Lowlands," Brattle Theater, May 1

It's not the first Boston independent feature. It's not the best Boston independent feature. But Cambridge-based writer-director Jan Egleson's Billy in the Lowlands (1979) is probably the most important Boston independent feature. No similar movie inspired as many subsequent movies as this unpretentious movie inspired by the French New Wave, the story of its trouble-prone title character (Henry Tomaszewski)--The Dozens, Squeeze and, to a small extent, Good Will Hunting being some of its "offspring." That's why Billy is one of the movies that will be revived to help celebrate the release of Big Screen Boston. It will be at the Brattle on the night of May 1. The no-budget movie has a real energy, and some great locations, mainly in Cambridge and Hull (like the evocative photo here, with Paul Benedict and Tomaszewski walking through Nantasket at dawn). As with the screening of Girltalk the night before, some of the people involved with the movie will be coming out for it. Jan Egleson will be there to discuss the first of his "Boston trilogy," while the word has also gone out to several cast members. I'll post an excerpt from the book about Billy soon; in the meantime, if you haven't read the excerpts about the "Beanstreets" movies (of which it's the first), those offer a lot of background into the movie's importance.