😁 Celebrating Laughter: The Life and Films of Colin Higgins,
dir. Nicholas Eliopoulos, 2022, USA, 108 min.
Friday, June 19, 2026, 2:45 PM, Roxie Theater
🌉 Bay Area premiere
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| Celebrating Laughter: The Life and Films of Colin Higgins (Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, Colin Higgins) |
Frameline blurb: Cybill Shepherd lends her voice as the narrator for this insightful documentary that tells the story of Colin Higgins — the man behind classics like 9 to 5, Harold and Maude, Foul Play, Silver Streak, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Determined to paint a fuller picture of its subject, Nicholas Eliopoulos’ film delves into Higgins’ pre-Hollywood life, which was shaped by early-career starts and stops, the turmoil of the Vietnam War, and the burgeoning gay rights movement.
With wit and warmth, the film’s star-studded cast, including Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin, Gene Wilder, Goldie Hawn, and many more, share their memories of one of cinema’s most celebrated comedic talents and reflect on how Higgins’ work and legacy have gone on to influence new generations of filmmakers and writers.
My take: Harold and Maude was one of my favorite movies in high school and college. It captured the feeling that I alone of all teenagers felt of isolation and not being truly seen by parents. (I’m sure no one else felt that way.) It was also the film I was going to see the only time I was ever stood up for a date; I went anyway, but it cast the film in a whole new light. I also loved 9 to 5, which it seems surprising to think was Dolly Parton’s first film role. I never saw Silver Streak, but the hand-me-down car I drove in high school was named for it. The name was a tiny bit ironic, because the car was less like a speeding locomotive and more like a squeaking pushcart, but I didn’t have access to a Jaguar-turned-hearse, so it sufficed for adolescent transportation. It could go from 0 to 35 miles per hour in only 13 seconds!
But it turns out there is far more to the story of Colin Higgins than his film repertoire. He was born in New Caledonia, and moved around a bit in his very early years, as his parents worked to stay out of the way of Imperial Japan advancing across the Pacific. With no television, movies were an outsized influence, leading him to dream of making movies of his own some day. He wound up at Stanford, eventually (after a stint in the U.S. Army in Germany during the Vietnam era) getting a B.A. in Creative Writing, followed by UCLA film school. His senior thesis was a screenplay that became Harold and Maude. Unfortunately, the film’s release got buried because the studio rushed it to release with almost no publicity because the film they had planned to release that week, had to be delayed. The box office flop seemed destined to put an end to his Hollywood career, but he climbed his way back, finding success with Silver Streak and later projects, while Harold and Maude, of course, became a staple of repertory cinema and a solid cult classic.
Colin Higgins came out to some of his close friends and associates, but went public after attending a retreat sponsored by The Advocate magazine. Far too soon after, he found himself in another closet, diagnosed with HIV when it was still considered a death sentence. He died a week after his 47th birthday. He started a charitable foundation, including grants awarded at the Frameline festival for young filmmakers, and left a lasting legacy with all who knew him personally, the fans of his films, and everyone touched by the foundation’s work. Celebrating Laughter is a worthy tribute, highly recommended for all audiences, but a must see for aspiring filmmakers.
• IMDb • Official website • Filmmaker • Instagram • Facebook: @CollinHigginsFoundation • preview • Colin Higgins Foundation •
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