Independent Lens

In 1978, Oakley Hall III was a handsome and artistic wild child on the verge of national recognition and bent on self destruction. The charismatic founder of the avant-garde Lexington Conservatory Theater found his life violently transformed in a mysterious fall from a bridge. THE LOSS OF NAMELESS THINGS is the harrowing tale of Hall’s fall from grace, of the vibrant group of artists who loved and surrounded him, and of how, decades later, one powerful soul finds not only rebirth, but contentment and acceptance in who he is when he can no longer be who he’d been. Filmmaker Bill Rose uses interviews with Hall and his friends and family to tell the haunting story of what happened after a single moment on a slippery bridge snatched Hall’s brilliant mind, and left him a stranger to himself and those who loved him. While the film captures Hall’s electrifying rise and celebrates his accomplishments, it is also a bittersweet look at the brilliance that was lost to the American stage forever.