y uncle Eagle Pennell was a pioneering Texas filmmaker who directed two groudbreaking films, The Whole Shootin' Match & Last Night at the Alamo, before drinking himself to an early death. Eagle's first film The Whole Shootin' Match was thought to have been lost, however the producer Mark Rance managed to hunt down a print somewhere in Germany. Mark fully restored The Whole Shootin' Match and as part of the DVD re-release contracted me to make a documentary about Eagle.

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he King of Texas is a feature length documentary chronicling the life and death of Eagle Pennell. My dad, Chuck Pinnell, produced the documentary and I co-directed the film with Claire Huie. We premiered the film at SXSW 2008 and it is available internationally thanks to Watchmaker Films as part of the DVD release of The Whole Shootin' Match.