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 in the Filmmakers Lodge at Sundance, parading through Columbia, Missouri at True/False, riding a Winnebago through the warm, wide Austin streets at SXSW after a memorable dinner at Polvos). And now I can add to this the wonderful sight of AJ Schnack and Yance Ford wearing “Order of Myths” gowns at the Cinema Eye Honors last night.

DA Pennebaker said the following as he and Chris Hegedus presented the Outstanding Achievement award to James Marsh for Man on Wire: “When I started making films, there was no equipment to even do it with…when I see this marvelous sea of filmmaking, in all kinds of ways, it makes me feel that it was all worthwhile.” Yes, I think it was.

I’m also very, very pleased that Waltz with Bashir picked up 4 gongs. It’s an extraordinary film and it deserves every single pointy, heavy one of them.

Photo by Simon Kilmurry

Here are all the award winners:

Outstanding Achievement in NonFiction Feature Filmmaking
“Man on Wire,” directed by James Marsh; produced by Simon Chinn

Outstanding Achievement in Direction
Ari Folman for “Waltz with Bashir”

Outstanding Achievement in Production
Simon Chinn for “Man on Wire”

Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography
Peter Zeitlinger for “Encounters at the End of the World”

Outstanding Achievement in Editing
Jinx Godfrey for “Man on Wire”

Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design and Animation
Yoni Goldman & David Polonsky for “Waltz with Bashir”

Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition
Max Richter for “Waltz with Bashir”

Outstanding Achievement in International Feature
“Waltz with Bashir,” directed by Ari Folman; produced by Ari Folman, Serge Lalou, Gerhard Meixner, Yael Nahlieli & Roman Paul

Outstanding Achievement in Debut Feature
“Up the Yangtze,” directed by Yung Chang

Audience Choice Award
“Up the Yangtze,” directed by Yung Chang

And here are some photos from the reception beforehand and the party afterwards (the faces get shinier and the photos get blurrier!)

Producer Sandra Whipham with Albert Maysles and Natalie Difford (Chicken & Egg Pictures)

Filmmaker Dmitry Rozin, Ion Furjanic (DJ extraordinaire) and Danielle DiGiacomo (from indiePix who sponsored the event)

Filmmaker Doug Block with Laure Parson (Zeitgeist Films) and Mila Aung-Thwin (Producer of Up the Yangtze, which won the audience award)

Filmmakers Robin Hessman and Margaret Brown

Natalie Difford with Phil Engelhorn and Reva Goldberg from Cinereach

Violet Gaynor, David Nugent (Hamptons International Film Festival), Matt Dentler (Cinetic) and David Wilson (True/False)

Sky Sitney (Silverdocs) and AJ Schnack, the man who drunkenly came up with the idea for Cinema Eye along with Thom Powers. See! When it looks like doc folk are just propping up the bar we’re really inventing the future!

Filmmakers Esther Robinson and Paul Devlin grin for the camera

Flying on One Engine Director Joshua Weinstein (my dancefloor compatriot) with Yoni Brook (Bronx Princess) and Jessica Wolfson

Karina Longworth (Spout), Producer Thoma Kikis, Sandra Whipham and me

Stephanie Skaff, fabulous tie wearer Mark Rosenberg (Rooftop Films) and Jeremiah Zagar (Director of one of my favorite docs of 2008: In a Dream)

Ryan Harrington (indiePix) with Stephanie Sharis (SnagFilms)

This trailer feels a bit like an Arcade Fire video but it’s beautiful and I am giddily excited about seeing the film when it is released in October. I stopped breathing a little bit while watching the trailer. Always a good sign I feel! You can watch a prettier HD version on the Apple website.

No this hasn’t turned into a food blog. But I know I wittered on and on to a lot of people in Austin about all the amazing food I was eating and I feel like you should share the food joy too. I should add that I was mostly vegetarian until I went to Austin for SXSW for the first time in 2004. I still feel terribly guilty about eating meat and I’m back to my veggie ways again now but when in Rome… drink in an Irish pub and all that!

These were my favorite places this year:

BBQ: Stubbs

Mexican: Polvos

Cupcakes: Hey Cupcake

Breakfast: Magnolia Cafe (Everybody Knows, Everybody Goes), 1886 Cafe &  Bakery at the Driskill (an old favorite) and the lovely Bouldin Creek Cafe (a new and really fantastic discovery)

Sunday brunch: Moonshine

These pictures are not exactly appetizing, they’re more Martin Parr-eque terrifying. BBQ and Mexican food tastes better than it looks I think, especially when it’s me taking the photos with my little digital camera.

And this was the Texas Carne Asada Massacre at Polvos with Jamie Jay Johnson, Mike Palmieri and Donal Mosher – tortillas have never looked so disturbing!

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 be thinking about these days: audience, marketing, copyright, new technology. I saw some great films, particularly Aron Gaudet’s The Way We Get By, Ben Steinbauer’s Winnebago Man, Gary Hustwit’s Objectified, Bradley Beesley’s Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo and finally Michael Paul Stephensen’s hilarious Best Worst Movie.

I also ate a LOT of great Austin food but more about that later.

Some photos from my Austin (I love that town!) adventures.

At the party after the fantastic premiere of Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo: Malcolm Pullinger (Editor and Producer of Winnebago Man), Bradley Beesley (Director of Sweethearts), James Payne (Producer of Sweethearts)

Winnebago Man Producer Joel Heller whispers into the very cool, very weird ear broach of Sweethearts Producer (and IFP Deputy Director) Amy Dotson

Malcolm and Joel on the Winnebago right before the sold out premiere of Winnebago Man

Winnebago Man Director Ben Steinbauer with Jack “Do me a Kindness” Rebney himself after the premiere

Winnebago celebrations at the IFP Festival Direct party on Saturday night: Malcolm, Joel and Ben

Standing in the Convention Center, Matt Golding is persuaded to see Jamie Jay Johnson’s Sounds Like Teen Spirit

At the party before Sounds Like Teen Spirit (which involved a Euro pub-quiz and an egg throwing competition): Gary Hustwit (at SXSW with Objectified) with James Lees (at SXSW with his short film Pockets)

BRITDOC’s Jess Search holds up one of the many strange and wonderfully European prizes at the Sounds Like Teen Spirit quiz with Director Jamie Jay Johnson

Three very lovely people: Michael Palmieri (who was at True/False earlier in the month with October Country), Malcolm Pullinger and Donal Mosher (co-director of October Country)

It turns out Mike is a total pro (and winner) at the egg throwing competition – the style! the perfect form!

AJ Schnack (All These Wonderful Things) and Karina Longworth (Spout)

Basil Tsiokos (who was on the Documentary Competition Jury) and Sky Sitney (Silverdocs) – Sky is proudly showing off her rosette for participating in the egg throwing competition!

Q&A after the gently powerful The Way We Get By: Aron Gaudet (Director), Gita Pullapilly (Producer) and Dan Ferrigan (Cinematographer)

After an incredible dinner at Polvos we got a ride back into town on a very crowded Winnebago! Me, Mark Rosenberg (Rooftop Films) and Lina Srivastava (social change strategist and my lovely roommate during SXSW along with the equally lovely Katrin Verclas)

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

I’m stuck in an airport hotel in St Louis. Lots of flights have been canceled because of bad weather in NYC but I’m still feeling the happy glow from True/False and a wifi connection is a wifi connection so all is not lost.

Saturday and Sunday were jam-packed with great screenings and super-fun parties. More on the films to come but here is the final installment of photos.

True/False is on the telly!

Buskers before the final screening of The Yes Men Fix The World in the beautiful and newly renovated Missouri Theatre – they did a banjo version of Paradise City. Yup.

The Rowdy Bunch: Nate Truesdell, Josh Weinstein, Todd Sklar, Jamie Jay Johnson, Danielle DiGiacomo, Natalie Difford and me

Men with great hair: Jamie Jay Johnson and Josh Weinstein

Bryan Stamp (Participant Media), Brian Brooks (indieWIRE) and David Wilson (True/False)

Jamie, me and Nicholas Abrahams (his film The Posters Came From The Walls is really good and very funny – it looks at Depeche Mode fandom all over the world in hilarious sequences that add up to something entirely pleasing)

The most excellent Ionic Furjanic got us all dancing at a party on the final night