A capacity crowd of film lovers convened at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica to see a rare big screen exhibition of the documentary “Luck, Trust & Ketchup – Robert Altman in Carver Country”, presented by the American Cinematheque. The film was a behind the scenes look into the making of Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts”.

The ensemble cast of “Short Cuts” included a number of master actors such as Lilly Tomlin, Tim Robbins, and Matthew Modine who joined the documentary’s co-producer/director, Mike Kaplan, in a panel discussion following the screening (pictured to the right). The panel was moderated by screenwriter Scott Alexander (“Ed Wood”, “People vs Larry Flynt”).

“Luck, Trust & Ketchup”, shot in 1992, was the first time that Altman allowed a film crew to document his directing process. It was also to be the last work by EZTV founder John Dorr, who, along with “Short Cuts” Associate Producer Mike Kaplan, co-produced and co-directed the documentary. The film was completed following Dorr’s death, posthumously, in 1994 by Kaplan and EZTV’s Michael J. Masucci. It went on to screen internationally, on BRAVO, and the BBC.

At the time of its release, the documentary was hailed as “a classic of its kind” by the Hollywood Reporter and “illuminating and incisive” by the L.A. Times. In 2009, at the re-release of the DVD version of the film, the U.K.’s The Telegraph hailed it as one of “Five Great-Making of Movies”.

You can see the 94-minute documentary in its entirety at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un-J1i24zhQ