Only Halfway Home is a short film inspired by and featuring the late Levon Helm, a great champion of roots and Appalachian music, who succumbed to throat cancer on 19 April 2012. Excerpted from the documentary feature Ain't In It For My Health--which debuted at SXSW in 2010--Only Halfway Home was directed by Jacob Hatley, an award-winning filmmaker from North Carolina.
In a feature for the Huffington Post, Hatley explained about his experience shooting the film: "When you make a documentary about Levon Helm, you root for things not to happen. You root against plot, conflict, inciting incidents, obstacles, and dramatic questions. Basically, you root against anything that could undermine the following shooting conditions: it's late and you're sitting around Levon's kitchen table. It has a hazy glow about it. Crew and cast have slept until at least 11 am that morning. Nothing is scheduled for the next day. Your mind is limber. So Levon just starts talking."
