Director Bill Rose began his career as an independent filmmaker in the 1970s, before leaving Los Angeles for the Bay Area and spending the 1980s and 90s producing corporate marketing films.
He learned that the Foothill Theatre Company in Nevada City had received a National Endowment for the Arts grant to produce Hall's Grinder's Stand and brought a camera to a rehearsal.
Without a script and unsure of where the story would lead, Rose and his team recorded 200 hours of footage and let the process take them on a journey before editing down to a feature length.
[4] Interviewees include novelist Blair Fuller, father Oakley Hall, sister Sands Hall, Lexington Conservatory alumni Sofia Landon Geier, Bruce Bouchard, Richard Zobel, Stephen Nisbet, Deborah Headwall, Ramona Moon, Michael Hume and Patricia Charbonneau, and poet Molly Fisk.
Amidst rising career pressure, the responsibilities of marriage and family dosed with excessive drinking, Hall falls from a nearby bridge, suffering a traumatic brain injury.
In 2002, a small theatre company in Nevada City begins work to mount a production of Grinder's Stand, his last completed play.
[13] The Sante Fe New Mexican, in a favorable review, also noted that Hall remained an enduring inspiration to his former company members.
[15] The documentary spurred increased interest in Hall's work, with productions of Grinder's Stand in Kansas, North Dakota and Catskill's Bridge Street Theatre.
[21] In 2009, writer and director Fred Dekker said in an interview that he had been approached to write and direct a feature film about Hall, based upon the documentary.