Billy Dean Anderson was a prolific criminal and outsider artist who lived in a Tennessee cave for almost five years while on the run from the FBI. Billy’s decades-spanning criminal career included multiple imprisonments, three shootouts with the law, three prison escapes, and culminated with an addition to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list. Billy then embarked on a grueling journey – surviving for almost 5 years in an underground cave. The cave became his home, spiritual refuge, and art studio in the wilderness of the Tennessee mountains. At the end of his tumultuous and conflicted life, did Billy’s art, and immersion in nature, bring some form of redemption?

Despite Billy’s time as an outlaw, he also had an unstoppable creative drive. Our goal is to not only tell a human story of raw survival in unimaginable circumstances, but also show how the power of art can be a healing force for people and their community.