Here’s the shortlist. AJ Schnack has more information on each film on his blog including some robust criticism of the list that I find myself agreeing with. I was really disappointed that films like Billy The Kid, We Are Together, Manda Bala, and The King of Kong didn’t make the list. The King of Kong is one of the funniest and most skillfully constructed documentaries I have seen in a long time and I wish that films like this would…

A while back AJ Schnack asked a bunch of people to guess what Sicko would make at the box office. I had no idea but I guessed it wasn’t going to do the business of Farenheit 9/11 so I went for 25 million and I won! Sicko ended up taking just over 24.5 million so to be fair Jonathan Marlow was bloody close too with 24 million (but I’m holding on to my bragging rights!) Very few documentaries are crossing…

Eric Byler and Annabel Park have started an interesting “interactive documentary” project on YouTube to cover immigration policy in Northern Virginia in a timely fashion – before the news gets outdated in the usual production process. Here’s what it says on their channel: This channel is an “Interactive Documentary” about the politicization of the immigration issue, currently being shot in Northern Virginia. We will be posting new videos in quick intervals. And we will respond to viewer feedback, including requests…

I went to see Gimme Shelter at the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in NYC yesterday. I have seen this film many times before but really felt the tension last night, perhaps something to do with watching it in a room full of other people. I was torn, as I always am, between the rock and roll exhilaration of a young, hot Jagger prancing about on stage and the truly disturbing bad trip that Altamont became. I have…

The Academy has changed the rules for documentaries for the 81st Awards (ie. for the Oscars taking place in 2009), dropping the requirement for a multi-city rollout. Instead docs will now have to screen for 7 days in BOTH Los Angeles County and the Borough of Manhattan, rather than in one or the other as the rules stand now. Films that reach the semifinal round of voting will no longer be required to provide two film prints to the Academy…

There are so many great documentaries out in NYC this week: AJ Schnack’s Kurt Cobain About a Son, Amir Bar-Lev’s My Kid Could Paint That and Tony Kaye’s Lake of Fire. I haven’t seen Lake of Fire yet but I’ve heard that it is very powerful and thought provoking on the highly-charged subject of abortion and I am looking forward to catching it at Film Forum this week. Kaye funded the film himself and worked on it for 17 years!…

Stranger Than Fiction’s Fall Season launched last week at the IFC Center with Nina Davenport’s Operation Filmmaker. The story starts simply enough: shortly after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, MTV aired a documentary about Muthana Mohmed, a young Baghdad film student. Liev Schreiber saw the MTV piece while preparing to direct his first feature, Everything is Illuminated, and decided to invite Muthana to be an intern on the film. Davenport was hired to document the feel-good experience. But nothing goes…

AJ Schnack’s beautiful and haunting Kurt Cobain About a Son is opening in NYC on October 3rd. You can read AJ’s About a Blog for more info on the film and my Beatmag article reviews About a Son as well as some other wonderful films I saw at SXSW this year. Here’s the trailer:

Hey UK People, Holy Modal Rounders. . . Bound to Lose is screening at the Horse Hospital in London on Wednesday and since I cannot make it I am humbly requesting that some of you go see it in my place. As the leaves start falling off the trees and the nights turn cold there is nothing like a bit of folky psychedelia to keep you happy and the filmmakers are lovely, lovely people. Details here: www.thehorsehospital.com

The Shooters posse went to see DARKON at Rooftop Films last night. I’d forgotten quite how funny the film is and it was lovely to watch it on the lawn of the Automotive High School where we have done Shooting People screenings with Rooftop in the past. By the way there are only a few more Rooftop screening happening this Summer so make sure you go before the frosts set in – it’s a really great experience to sit outside…