I’ve just been watching Dominic DeJoseph’s wonderful film, Johnny Berlin, and I’m looking forward to seeing the sequel, Johnny Berlin 2, tonight at the Anthology Film Archives where it is screening as part of the fantastic Flaherty NYC monthly series.  Jon Hyrns (aka Johnny Berlin), the subject of both films (and the star of Alex Karposky’s Woodpecker), tells sad, hilarious, wonderful stories about his life. The films are essentially monologues but don’t let this put you off because Jon sees…

There is something about people singing all over the world that just makes me happy (Where the Hell is Matt did a similar thing with dancing). The video below is from a multimedia project called Playing for Change. From the website: The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music…

Sean Farnel, Hot Docs programmer, posted this slide show from the festival’s annual press conference to his excellent Seafar blog. You get to hear about some of the films screening this year without even having to read anything. Magic! I love Hot Docs and will be there again this year so look forward to seeing some of you in Toronto! Hot Docs 2009 Press Conference Slideshow from seafar on Vimeo.

Jeremiah Zagar’s wonderful documentary In A Dream opens tomorrow at Cinema Village. Another great doc to see this weekend. I previously wrote about it here when it was shortlisted for an Academy Award. Here’s the trailer: IN A DREAM: Theatrical Trailer from Herzliya Films on Vimeo.

I’m really looking forward to seeing Sascha Gervasi’s Anvil!: The Story of Anvil in NYC this weekend. Watch the trailer here and then go out and celebrate the less glamorous side of rock and roll!

One of the lessons of 2009 for me: the worse things get, the better people get, or rather the more I realize how important all the people I work with and play with are to me and to the life I want to live. The past few months have been a strange mixture of 3am panics about the state of the world and moments of sheer joy, and most of these moments of joy have been documentary-related (watching Obama’s inauguration…

When your own mother tells you you’re behind on your blog you KNOW you’d better get to it! This was the first year I didn’t stay for the music at SXSW but I had a great and busy time at both the Film and Interactive Festivals. It’s tricky to try to do both because there isn’t really enough time to do either one justice but the Interactive panels are fascinating and cover all sorts of topics that filmmakers need to…

Really sweet thank you video from True/False and Boxcar Films:

I love Helvetica and am really looking forward to seeing Hustwit’s latest film, Objectified, at SXSW in March. I can see long lines for this film too. I nearly didn’t get into the Helvetica screening at SXSW in 2007. The line went all the way through the convention hall because it was a joint Interactive/Film screening and everybody was going crazy over fonts. Look I have proof! Here’s the trailer for Objectified.

I posted footage and photos from the Cinema Eye Honors nominations over on the Festival Focus blog since I attended the announcement in Park City earlier this week. Here’s the full list of nominees. Congratulations to all! OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN NONFICTION FEATURE FILMMAKING MAN ON WIRE Directed by James Marsh Produced by Simon Chinn view website MY WINNIPEG Directed by Guy Maddin Produced by Jody Shapiro and Phyllis Laing view website ORDER OF MYTHS Directed by Margaret Brown Produced by…