CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Between takes of a Gap commercial he's filming in New York, director Damani Baker, nearly breathless, says he's looking forward to West Virginia getting a chance to take another look at Bill Withers.

The 35-year-old New Yorker directed "Still Bill," a new documentary about the Grammy award-winning and West Virginia-born singer-songwriter. The film recently screened at the South By Southwest festival and is making the rounds at film festivals around the world. It screens at WVSU Capitol Theater at 7 p.m. June 24.

Withers, 70, had a string of hits through the 1970s and into the early 1980s, including "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Just the Two of Us," but then abruptly vanished from the music scene.

"Still Bill," Baker says, is less of a biographical piece chronicling where he's been, but more of look into who Withers has become since he stepped out of the spotlight 25 years ago.

"Both my co-director and I came to Bill Withers in different ways," Baker said. "Alex Vlack and I grew up together, went to high school together in San Francisco, and the music of Bill Withers was part of that experience."

Baker's father played Withers' music around the house, particularly his "Live at Carnegie Hall" album. Vlack is a musician. In college, his band often covered Withers' hit "Use Me." The two, Baker says, are unabashed Bill Withers fans.

Baker says he first became interested in pursuing the Withers documentary not long after he graduated from film school 10 years ago. It took nearly as long to make it happen.

"We started with some cold calls to various family members, e-mails."

Withers resisted even meeting with them. He just wasn't interested until the pair approached "Celebrate Brooklyn," an annual concert series in New York, about holding a concert paying tribute to the music of Bill Withers.

"They thought it was a great idea," he said. "It was a no-brainer to do something like that."

The concert featured performances by Grammy Award-winner Sting and Jim James from My Morning Jacket. Baker said they flew Withers from Los Angeles to New York for the show, which they recorded. At last Withers agreed to be interviewed, and after the show a film crew went to Los Angeles to meet him. Baker said they had no idea what they were going to get. Withers warmed to meeting them, but wasn't crazy about being the subject of a film.

"We were terrified. He had no reason to help us. We thought we might get 30 minutes we could splice in between pieces of the concert and that would be our documentary."

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Between takes of a Gap commercial he's filming in New York, director Damani Baker, nearly breathless, says he's looking forward to West Virginia getting a chance to take another look at Bill Withers.

The 35-year-old New Yorker directed "Still Bill," a new documentary about the Grammy award-winning and West Virginia-born singer-songwriter. The film recently screened at the South By Southwest festival and is making the rounds at film festivals around the world. It screens at WVSU Capitol Theater at 7 p.m. June 24.

Withers, 70, had a string of hits through the 1970s and into the early 1980s, including "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Just the Two of Us," but then abruptly vanished from the music scene.

"Still Bill," Baker says, is less of a biographical piece chronicling where he's been, but more of look into who Withers has become since he stepped out of the spotlight 25 years ago.

"Both my co-director and I came to Bill Withers in different ways," Baker said. "Alex Vlack and I grew up together, went to high school together in San Francisco, and the music of Bill Withers was part of that experience."

Baker's father played Withers' music around the house, particularly his "Live at Carnegie Hall" album. Vlack is a musician. In college, his band often covered Withers' hit "Use Me." The two, Baker says, are unabashed Bill Withers fans.

Baker says he first became interested in pursuing the Withers documentary not long after he graduated from film school 10 years ago. It took nearly as long to make it happen.

"We started with some cold calls to various family members, e-mails."

Withers resisted even meeting with them. He just wasn't interested until the pair approached "Celebrate Brooklyn," an annual concert series in New York, about holding a concert paying tribute to the music of Bill Withers.

"They thought it was a great idea," he said. "It was a no-brainer to do something like that."

The concert featured performances by Grammy Award-winner Sting and Jim James from My Morning Jacket. Baker said they flew Withers from Los Angeles to New York for the show, which they recorded. At last Withers agreed to be interviewed, and after the show a film crew went to Los Angeles to meet him. Baker said they had no idea what they were going to get. Withers warmed to meeting them, but wasn't crazy about being the subject of a film.

"We were terrified. He had no reason to help us. We thought we might get 30 minutes we could splice in between pieces of the concert and that would be our documentary."

Withers let them in and by the time they were finally finished, Baker said, they'd amassed 350 hours of video footage and traveled thousands of miles.

Baker said they probably wouldn't have gotten very far if the film had been a straight biography of Withers' life.

"He really wasn't that interested in being on camera to begin with."

Instead, what they got was more of a portrait of an artist in self-imposed exile, an artist who could still be recording and performing, but has more or less walked away from the music industry.

"Still Bill" includes recent and archived interview footage with Withers, his friends and family, along with performance excerpts and a couple of personal journeys Withers made, encouraged by the film's producers.

"Part of what we tried to do was create interesting environments," Baker said. "We definitely built scenes around Bill's life. We were willing to take advantage of any chance we could get to provide space where Bill was comfortable enough to be Bill Withers."

In some cases, they went beyond his comfort zones. During the filming, Withers returned to Raleigh County and Slab Fork, where he'd left decades ago. He visited with childhood friends, went to his high school reunion and reminisced about growing up poor in the coalfields of West Virginia.

He was also honored by the Our Time Theater Company in New York, a nonprofit organization that provides an artistic home for people who stutter. Into his late 20s, Withers suffered from a chronic stutter, which deeply affected his self-esteem. The theater company honored Withers for his accomplishments despite his disability.

Withers, Baker says, has seen rough-cut versions of the film, but not the finished product, and seems satisfied with what they've done. There's even some discussion of following the film up with a soundtrack release, even though the film really isn't about making music.

"It's more about how Bill has become comfortable with who he's become."

Famous or not, Bill Withers is still Bill.

Reach Bill Lynch at ly...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5195.