Having already made The Hamster Factor And Other Tales Of Twelve Monkeys, filmmakers Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe were enlisted by Terry Gilliam to chronicle the making of his newest film, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.
However, due to the catastrophic bad luck which plagued the production, their film, Lost In La Mancha, ended up being the first un-making of documentary about a film.
From the early pre-production stage onwards, Fulton and Pepes unrestricted access to the set gives us a first-hand look at Gilliams creative vision coming to fruition. But having sacrificed the financial safety of Hollywood for creative freedom, there is no studio money to keep the film alive when flash floods hit the set, damaging sets and equipment and the actor playing Quixote, Jean Rochefort, becomes seriously ill.
The films collapse is made all the more poignant considering the flashes of brilliance we have seen from the first rushes.