The story of how Tower Records went from retail powerhouse to bankruptcy is chronicled in Director Colin Hanks’ new documentary, All Things Must Pass.
From its humble beginnings in a small-town drugstore in 1960, Tower Records grew to become a powerful force in the music industry with two hundred stores, in thirty countries, on five continents. By 1999, company sales equaled $1 billion. Seven years later, it filed for bankruptcy. The question of what went right, then ultimately wrong is examined in Hanks’ All Things Must Pass, which follows the company’s trajectory and the legacy forged by its rebellious founder, Russ Solomon.
On May 25, following the DGA Special Projects Committee’s Documentary Series screening in the Guild's Los Angeles Theater, Hanks sat down with Special Projects Committee Chair Jeremy Kagan to talk about the making of the film.
A founding partner with producer Sean Stuart at Company Name where he primarily produces documentaries, Hanks is best known for his success as an actor with an Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated performance in the FX mini-series Fargo and roles in Elvis and Nixon, King Kong, Dexter and Mad Men. All Things Must Pass is his feature directorial debut.