All these wonderful things

The Great Lost Opportunity of Current's 50 Docs List

Our long national nightmare is finally over.

Current TV, the still-finding-its-identity network co-founded by Al Gore and newish home to left wing commentator Keith Olbermann, concludes its 5-week documentary film countdown - "50 Docs to See Before You Die" - tonight with the naming of its top 10 choices.

Revealed yesterday by the NY Times' Mike Hale, the top choice of the show's expert panel is Steve James' 1994 classic HOOP DREAMS, with Errol Morris' THE THIN BLUE LINE and Michael Moore's ROGER & ME coming in 2nd and 3rd.  The latter two films had previously been identified by the show as the demarcation of the beginning of the current "golden age" of documentary filmmaking on which the "50 Docs" list would focus.

It's this take on the modern age of documentary that seems to have brought the list and the series the most criticism: the late '80s cutoff forms a handy but ultimately confusing way for the series to eliminate any of the classic films by the Maysles, Robert Drew, Fred Wiseman, early Pennebaker, KOYAANISQATSI, HEARTS AND MINDS, HARLAN COUNTY, SHERMAN'S MARCH and any number of other influential works from contention. 

Despite the fact that the Times' Hale notes the "modern documentary" angle and bemoans the focus on "a relentless preference for the story-based or issue-based films that people now seem to think define the documentary field", commenters on the story still wrestle with the series/list's artificial construct - where is WOODSTOCK? THE LAST WALTZ? 7 UP? THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK? SHOAH?  The fact that potential viewers are still confused or find the current (get it) focus impractical suggests a basic problem with the premise.

Still, these are lists and lists are supposed to be fun, right?  Get past the confusion and the Times' comment section is filled with people's righteous indigation that their modern favorites have been overlooked.  Or those who argue that something should be higher on the list or lower or not on the list at all.

So if it gets people talking about documentaries, then who's to quibble, right?

Allow us.

Nearly 200 Top Doc Makers Sign Open Letter of Support for Joe Berlinger

In the aftermath of a judge's ruling that may force filmmaker Joe Berlinger to hand over the outtakes from CRUDE to energy giant Chevron, nearly 200 top documentary filmmakers have signed "an open letter of support", protesting the breadth of the decision by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to allow Chevron to subpeona all of Berlinger's raw footage.

Noting that "it is understood that First Amendment protection of the journalist's privilege is never absolute", the letter goes on to note that "(t)ypically, if such privilege is successfully rebutted in court, a turn-over order demanding a document or other thing is issued..."

"Therefore, it is astounding to us that Judge Kaplan demanded that all of the footage shot during the production of the film be handed over to the attorneys of Chevron, given that the privilege exists primarily to protect against the wholesale exposure of press files to litigant scrutiny...

At the heart of journalism lies the trust between the interviewer and his or her subject.  Individuals who agree to be interviewed by the news media are often putting themselves at great risk, especially in the case of television news and documentary film where the subject's identity and voice are presented in the final report.  If witnesses sense that their entire interviews will be scrutinized by attorneys and examined in courtrooms they will undoubtedly speak less freely.  This ruling surely will have a crippling effect on the work of investigative journalists everywhere, should it stand."

Spearheaded by filmmaker Patrick Creadon and editor Doug Blush (who worked together on WORDPLAY and I.O.U.S.A.), the letter has been signed by a veritable who's who of the documentary community, including at least 20 Oscar winners (among them: Michael Moore, Alex Gibney, Rob Epstein, Barbara Kopple, Peter Davis, Davis Guggenheim, Freida Lee Mock, James Marsh, Louie Psihoyos, Ross Kauffman, Kevin Macdonald, Jessica Yu, Cynthia Wade, Mark Harris, Steven Okazaki and Leon Gast), and even more Oscar nominees (including DA Pennebaker, Morgan Spurlock, Laura Poitras, Kirby Dick, Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady, Jeff Blitz, James Longley, Tia Lessin, Carl Deal, Ellen Kuras, Robert Kenner, Julia Reichert, Steven Bognar, Scott Kennedy, Hupert Sauper, Liz Garbus and Amy Berg) as well as dozens of the community's top filmmakers (Kim Longinotto, Jehane Noujaim, Chris Hegedus, R.J. Cutler, Nick Broomfield, Haskell Wexler, Steve James, Peter Gilbert, Ken Burns, Lucy Walker, Doug Pray and Amir Bar-Lev, among them).

[Full disclosure: I am also a signer on the letter.]

Work began on the letter on Saturday when Creadon reached out to a handful of filmmakers calling for a united community response in support of Berlinger.  A first draft on the letter was completed Sunday, with the IDA joining the effort and working with Creadon and others to finesse the language regarding the case's complex legal issues.  IDA President Eddie Schmidt took the letter to his Board of Directors, which decided to sign the letter en masse to make a statement on behalf of the organization. 

"Advocacy is an area where an organization like IDA can make a difference - and we should try to lead as much as we can," Schmidt told me.  "It seemed important to come out early and instrumentally, and luckily, we have a forward-thinking Board of Directors and an Executive Director who believe in making a stand."

Schmidt said that he was amazed at the support the letter garnered within the community in just a few short days.  "Those names say it all: who can argue with the greatest cinematic arguers of our time?"

In an email exchange, Creadon wrote about his reaction to the news as it broke last Thursday:

"I read the story in the New York Times Saturday morning and was stunned when I realized Joe was likely going to have to turn over all of his footage.  What many outside of our community do not realize is that of all the challenges facing documentary filmmakers, it's often the legal hurdles that prove to be most difficult.  And of course legal difficulties usually lead to big legal bills -- a particularly acute kind of pain that doesn't just hurt the individual but can often hurt that person's family and livelihood."

And earlier today, Blush described the chain of events that unfolded after the judge's decision was announced:

"I've worked on several films with critical interview confidentiality issues, and when I first saw the story Thursday, I was profoundly shaken by its implications.  Patrick called on Friday, and he was on fire.  He proposed bringing together doc community filmmakers around a statement of support, and wrote a first draft.  Since then, with many great suggestions and the incredible tidal wave of signatures, the statement is out there and Joe knows he's not alone in this.  My gratitude goes out to Eddie, the IDA, and this amazing global group of artists, and I believe this can be a first step to amend and increase the vital legal protections for our work."

The full text of the letter after the jump.

Filmmakers and others in the documentary community are invited to add their names to this open letter in the comments section of this post.

My Documentary Decade

Dear Readers -

Apologies for dropping the ball here on the blog the past few weeks.  Between wrapping up shooting on my new film and prepping and planning for this year's Cinema Eye Honors, I've been procrastinating my return to somewhat regular blogging.

Here's a piece I started writing as I was en route to Branson, Missouri just after Christmas.  I'll be posting a couple more looks back at the year we just concluded in the coming days/weeks.  Pardon the delay.

_______________

There’s a story to what happened to me this decade and it starts in the spring of the year 2000.  I was then an Executive Producer at a production company that specialized in music videos, working with a bunch of talented filmmakers, routinely awarded budgets of $350K to make a 3 ½ minute clip that would – hopefully for the band, the label and their hangers-on – be awarded a coveted slot on the Carson Daly-hosted "Total Request Live".

The clips had to be of a certain high production value, the labels seemed to believe, or there would be no possibility of landing on the afternoon countdown show, one of the few venues remaining on MTV for music videos.  So the budgets, even for bands that you and I would never hear from again, had to be mid-six figures.  Or else said band might slip into the ether.

By the spring we’d surfed this wave for almost a year and I was starting to feel restless.  More and more of my own creative ideas were being poured into the work that was coming out of our company, but the execution of these ideas – and the ownership of same – fell, quite naturally, to the director. 

I remember sitting in the color correct of one particular video, a video whose concept I had proposed (and one that would later become such a hit on said MTV countdown program that it would help launch the band and the director’s career) and feeling like I had well and truly reached the end of my ability to stand in the shadows.

Simultaneously, there was a very real sense that the status quo in that industry could not sustain itself.  MTV was continually cutting back on the number of videos it was playing and the labels were under attack from digital downloads.  And how could labels keep spending that kind of money on bands with little hope of recouping the costs of such extravagant vanity videos?

Just prior to this – at the end of the previous decade – I started to direct my own projects – a friend’s music video here, a public service announcement there, and finally, a short film.  And by the end of the year 2000, there was a merger.

My short was out on the festival circuit.  I felt – for the first time – not like an Executive Producer (which was a job I loved and, if I do say so myself, was pretty good at) but like a filmmaker.  I remember flying to London to oversee the shoot a video in the fall of 2000 and writing “Filmmaker” on the occupation line of my landing card and being strangely, wonderfully proud of this new designation.

By that point I had already, mentally, turned my back on music videos.  For a decade I’d worked on more than 100 – respected indie bands and big pop artists – but now I was increasingly ready to go my own way.

And within three months, I’d be in New York shooting footage for what would become GIGANTIC, my first documentary feature.

The how and the why of GIGANTIC’s birth is less important than the fact that the arrival of this decade – one that has been castigated and bemoaned for its acts of terror, war, political combat and natural decay – signaled a significant shift in my life.

My documentary decade.

I couldn’t have known as I was running around New York with my Sony PD-150 following Johns Flansburgh and Linnell in the spring of 2001 what would happen in the decade that followed.

I could not have imagined KURT COBAIN ABOUT A SON or CONVENTION. 

I had no notion that I would start a blog (blog? What’s a blog?) or an award for nonfiction filmmaking.

I would never think that I’d end the decade in the Ozark Mountain town of Branson, Missouri celebrating the arrival of a new decade with a camera in my hand.

I never dreamed that I would take it all so seriously, so personally, so occasionally obsessively.

I fell into documentary almost by chance and – in some kind of Faustian bargain – documentary has run away with me.

The IDA Reveals Winners in 7 Categories: Yes to ANVIL, but THE COVE Gets Nothing

Tonight, the IDA announced winners in seven categories for this Friday's IDA Awards (must admit that I don't understand the logic in this, but...) and the headline is that Oscar snubbed ANVIL will walk off with at least one award but Oscar frontrunner THE COVE has been shut out.

While the IDA is keeping secret the winners in its Best Documentary and Best Short Documentary categories, they have pulled back the curtain on their other winners, spotlighting that ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL, which is also nominated in the Feature category, will take home the 3-year old Music Documentary prize, besting such films as the Oscar shortlisted SOUNDTRACK FOR A REVOLUTION and IT MIGHT GET LOUD.

THE COVE, which is not in the running for Best Feature Doc, was only nominated for the Pare Lorentz Award, given to the the film that best deals with the environment, justice for all and/or the illumination of pressing social problems - and in what has to be considered a surprise, Irene Taylor Brodsky's Oscar nominated short film THE FINAL INCH not only was named the winner over THE COVE, but also over feature nominees FOOD, INC. and MUGABE AND THE WHITE AFRICAN.  Three years ago, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH picked up this prize en route to the Oscars.

Amongst films on the Oscar shortlist, only one was named a winner today - Mai Iskander's GARBAGE DREAMS picked up the new IDA Humanitas Award, given to a film that strives to unify the human family "by exploring the stories of human beings who are different in culture, race, lifestyle, political loyalties and religious beliefs in order to break down the wall of ignorance and fear that separates us". 

Stanley Nelson's WOUNDED KNEE picked up the ABCNews VideoSource Award, for best use of stock footage (all these years and I still can't manage to write that without laughing).  Other nominees included the Oscar shortlisted MUGABE, VALENTINO and SERGIO, although I'm not really sure that there's a direct path from the Best Use of Stock Footage prize to the Kodak Theater.

Finally, POV will receive the Continuing Series Award, based on three submitted "episodes", one of which was Yung Chang's award-winning UP THE YANGTZE.

Full list of winners and remaining nominees after the jump.

James Longley Receives MacArthur Genius Grant

Twenty-four individuals were announced tonight as recipients of the MacArthur Foundation's "Genius" Grant, which awards $500,000 over five years.  Amongst this year's grantees: filmmaker James Longley (IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS).

Described as a "Filmmaker who explores the historical and cultural dimensions of conflicts in the Middle East through the stories of ordinary families",Longley has spent the last two years in Iran working on his new film.  He was nominated for an Oscar for IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS in 2007 and was up for another for his short film SARI'S MOTHER in 2008.

We posted Longley's dispatches from Iran in June during the height of protests and crackdowns surrounding the presidential election there.

James Longley's Translator Reportedly Detained, Beaten in Tehran While Covering Election Aftermath

For the last two years, Oscar nominated filmmaker James Longley (IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS) has been at work (and basically living) in Iran, as he worked on his new documentary film.

24 hours ago, we exchanged emails.  He'd been posting to the D-Word online community about his experiences in Tehran in the aftermath of the recent contested elections and rare public protests.  He gave me permission to reprint his comments here on the blog.

Sunday night, before I'd had an opportunity to post his observances, a mutual friend emailed me his most recent post, a first-person account of the detention and beating of Longley's translator.

Here, in order, are Longley's posts over the last 3 days.  They show the situation in Iran escalating by the hour.:

Right now the incumbent camp is declaring itself the big winner. In fact, they are declaring at Ahmadinejad has won an unprecedented landslide.

From what I've seen, the opposite was more likely the case.

At the moment, off-hand, I would expect some rather upset people in Iran when they wake up on Saturday.

_______________________________

(Responding to a suggestion that revolution my be at hand and rumors that opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi has been arrested.)

Well, revolution I don't know. It's kind of an unpopular idea here still, after the last one. I do think there's bound to be some significant social unrest, however.

Your rumor would jive with the fact that there has been no word from the Mousavi campaign all day.

All gatherings on the street have been banned and those violating the ban are arrested.

It is not possible to approach within several hundred meters the building where votes are being counted.

SMS is still not working – hasn't been working since yesterday morning. Mousavi had complained specifically about this at his press conference last night (around 10:45 pm local time) because his election monitors were to have communicated any irregularities via SMS.

All the Farsi language independent news sources that my translator usually uses to read up on the elections are now blocked.

Tehran's chief of police has reportedly said he hasn't heard anything about the incident yesterday evening at Mousavi's campaign headquarters where armed men burst into the offices and threatened the mostly youthful staff – which is odd since hundreds of riot police were on hand in the scene that followed, as well as the deputy chief of police.

_______________________________

12:12 pm

The rumor about Mousavi being arrested is only that – a rumor. Nothing of the kind happened.

Right now the official election results have still not been announced, so it may be that the Mousavi campaign is wrangling in the background and doesn't want to make any public statements yet.

At the moment, the city seems quiet but tense.

Who Are the Most Important Documentary Directors?

Over at the Doculink listserv, there's been an ongoing discussion the past couple weeks about "the top 20 documentary filmmakers".  Part of the discussion has been - define top 20.  Is it top 20 of all time?  Top 20 currently active?  Most influential? 

But what began as pondering a list for 20, instead became a free-for-all, with folks there throwing out names of esteemed filmmakers until the total list numbered more than 150.  Now some of these were more than a bit nonsensical (what to make of someone proposing a filmmaker whose debut film is just now, unremarkably, hitting film festivals), and a few others were makers of single great films.  Others were documentary stalwarts as series producers, editors or cinematographers.

What follows, after the jump, is a curation of Doculink's original list.  For our standards, we're choosing the terminology "most important" - which could mean influential, indicative of a movement or an era, or that they created masterpieces of the form.  We've removed the one hit wonders and we've created an addendum list for noteworthy filmmakers who are in the early stages of their nonfiction careers.  And we've added a few folks who seemed particularly conspicuous in their absence.

Despite what feels like an exhaustive process, we're certain that we've yet to include some essential filmmakers.  So, let's take this list as a starting point.  Who do you think are the most important documentary filmmakers?  Who should be on the list?  Who is an emerging voice that should be included?  Is there anyone who shouldn't be here?

The Oscars Nominate Michael Moore and 4 on War

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced their nominees this AM and in the two documentary categories, the nominees are:

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

NO END IN SIGHT
Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs

OPERATION HOMECOMING: WRITING THE WARTIME EXPERIENCE
Richard E. Robbins

SICKO
Michael Moore and Meghan O'Hara

TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE
Alex Gibney and Eva Orner

WAR/DANCE
Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

FREEHELD
Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth

LA CORONA (THE CROWN)
Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega

SALIM BABA
Tim Sternberg and Francisco Bello

SARI'S MOTHER
James Longley

All in all, one of the better lists that the Academy could have come up with considering the shortlist. Congrats to all the nominated filmmakers.

A Collective Gasp at the IDAs: A Walk to Beautiful Wins Best Doc

Continuing the most head-scratching year-end awards season in recent memory, the International Documentary Association named Mary Olive Smith's A WALK TO BEAUTIFUL as the Best Feature Documentary of the Year, capping an awards night in Los Angeles marked by no-show winners and surprise guest presenters.

Going into the evening, it was thought to be a contest (and possible Oscar precursor) between Michael Moore's SICKO and Alex Gibney's TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE.  Previously both films were nominated for the Gotham Awards, with SICKO taking the prize.  However, both Richard Robbin's OPERATION HOMECOMING (which like SICKO and TAXI was Shortlisted by the Academy) and Dan Klores' CRAZY LOVE wouldn't have been huge surprises had they taken the trophy.  But it was the fifth film, Smith's look at African women recovering from fistula - a devastating childbirth injury, that shocked the audience at the Directors Guild.  Many were asking others in the audience whether they had even heard of the film, much less seen it.  The film's producer helpfully mentioned that the film would be in theaters starting next month.  (Here's a trailer.)

But at least the winners of the top prize of the night were present.  For much of the lengthy evening, honorees and winners were AWOL, including an ailing Michael Moore (who reportedly strained his back at the airport en route to LA), who sent his sisters to pick up his Lifetime Achievement Award and deliver a charming speech encouraging theater owners to screen documentaries; honoree Christiane Amanpour, who sent an impassioned videotaped message from London; Spike Lee (who was to receive the Pare Lorentz Award for WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE), who sent a victim of Hurricane Katrina who gave an halting, emotional speech; music documentary prize winners Paul Taylor and Teddy Liefer (the filmmakers behind WE ARE TOGETHER) - also in London - who sent their publicist David Magdael with an acceptance speech - as Teddy listened in via my cell phone; and the winners of the IDA prize for Best Short Film - A SON'S SACRIFICE, who sent nobody and nothing, as we were informed by guest presenter James McAvoy.

McAvoy, who was directed by acclaimed documentarian Kevin Macdonald in THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND, was one of three surprise presenters at the IDA Awards.  The first was somewhat predicted - Don Cheadle was on hand to present his DARFUR NOW director Ted Braun with the Emerging Filmmaker Prize.  But the nicest surprise was when Joni Mitchell arrived to present the new music documentary prize to WE ARE TOGETHER.

Despite the fact that Friday's gala doubled as a celebration of the IDA's 25th anniversary, it couldn't live up to last year's raucous affair with a speechifying Al Gore, a flirtatious Jane Fonda and a deserved win by James Longley's IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS.  In fact, although the event had been sold out for some time, there were many seats still open in the theater.

Spirits before the awards were good, however, as a number of filmmakers were on hand enjoying drinks in the DGA lobby, including FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO's Daniel Karslake, MY KID COULD PAINT THAT's Amir Bar-Lev and MADE IN L.A. producer Robert Bahar.

Here are this year's IDA winners:

Best Feature Documentary
A WALK TO BEAUTIFUL
Directed by Mary Olive Smith

Best Short Documentary
A SON'S SACRIFICE
Directed by Yoni Brooks

Alan Ett Music Documentary Award
WE ARE TOGETHER
Directed by Paul Taylor

Pare Lorentz Award
WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS
Directed by Spike Lee

ABCNEWS VideoSource Award
SPUTNNIK MANIA
Directed by David Hoffman

Continuing Series Award
THIS AMERICAN LIFE
Directed by Chris Wilcha

Limited Series Award
THE SUPREME COURT
Directed by Thomas Lennon

David L. Wolper Student Doc Award
LONG HAUL
Directed by Erin Hudson

Career Acheivement Award
Michael Moore

Courage Under Fire Award
Christiane Amanpour

Pioneer Award
Paula S. Apsell (NOVA)

Preservation and Scholarship Award:
Jocelyn Shearer
National Geographic Digital Motion

Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Filmmaker Award
Ted Braun
DARFUR NOW

Five Month Photo Spectacular

For much of the past 14 months I've been on the road with my film.  And with this past weekend's sojourn to my old Missouri stomping grounds, that traveling is now starting to draw to a close.  With that, I realized that there have been a whole flock of photos that I never got around to posting from the past five months on the road - including pictures from our Seattle premiere in May, our screening at the Atlantic Film Festival in Nova Scotia, our US theatrical premiere in New York as well as screenings in Philadelphia and the aforementioned Missouri.  So, with much (or little) fanfare, here's a recap of some of the past five months, starting with Seattle on June 2:

About A Son co-composer Steve Fisk and co-producer/author Michael Azerrad inside the W filmmaker lounge.

IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS director James Longley and legendary Seattle photographer Charles Peterson (and my About A Son co-conspirator) at the Barsuk Records-hosted after-party following our premiere.

Some of my crew at the after-party, including Eddie Adams (having a drink) and Ian Jennings (far right).  It was awesome to see everyone at the screening.

Moving on to St. Louis on July 22, when we did an advance screening at the Cinema St Louis Filmmakers Showcase:

Some of my pals from Edwardsville, Illinois join me for drinks after the screening at Blueberry Hill in the U-City Loop - Tree Ojeda, John Washburne, Nick Twesten and Julie Smith.

More Edwardsville friends - Mike and Stephanie Fedder.

Mark Bielik, Cliff Froehlich and Chris Clark, gurus of Cinema St Louis (and currently holding down the fort at the St Louis Film Festival) at Blueberry Hill.

Later that night, Nick Twesten man-handles my old pal Thad Summers as my newish pal Dave Johnson gets cell-photographic evidence.

Skip forward nearly two months to my short visit up to Nova Scotia for our screening at the Atlantic Film Festival on September 18:

Coming in by air...

...eating from the sea...

...dance party on the shore.

Center frame, the back of Norwood Cheek, my old friend and fine filmmaker who was in town to conduct a music video workshop with local filmmakers in Halifax.

My host in Halifax, Leigh Meldrum, and I at an afternoon reception.  I had a lot to live up to as Leigh previously had been squiring Mr. Al Maysles around the festival.  Methinks I paled in comparison.

Just a couple weeks later I was back on the east coast and in New York City for the premiere of my film at the IFC Center (where it's still playing, FYI, on the weekends).

My old New York pals David Levine and Sherise Lee before the premiere.

Balcony Releasing's Greg Kendall, legendary filmmaker Murray Lerner, Balcony's Connie White and Michael Azerrad at the NYC post-premiere party.

Filmmaker Sarie Horowitz (THREE OF HEARTS), the Flaherty Seminar's Mary Kerr and filmmaker Rachel Libert (BEYOND CONVICTION).

Writer/filmmaker Jonny Leahan, Holly Herrick of the Sarasota Film Festival and filmmaker Jennifer Venditti (BILLY THE KID).

Woodstock Film Fest programmer (and frequent indieWIRE contributor) Michael Lerman, filmmaker/blogger Michael Tully (SILVER JEW), filmmaker Paul Lovelace (BORN TO LOSE) and producer Jessica Wolfson (CRAZY SEXY CANCER and more) react to some post-party karaoke action.

This is our last dance.  This is ourselves...

Two nights later in Los Angeles:

Filmmaker Dave Mendel, About A Son producer Shirley Moyers, About A Son cinematographer Wyatt Troll, About A Son sound editor Kyle Schember, yours truly and filmmaker Gabe Fleming at the LA post-premiere party.

Three of my oldest and dearest friends, Diane Munoz, Kimm Birkicht and Robin "Goldie" Goldwasser at the LA reception.

Two weeks later, I was in Philadelphia...

...where I got to hang out with my pals Joey Sweeney and Ruth Carpenter.

Then back to Manhattan the next night for a performance by Who Shot Hollywood - four 11 to 13 year old boys from Massachusetts who sound a bit like Supergrass - at CMJ.

Lead singer & bass player Lucas Kendall.

Drummer & backing voicalist Dana Kendall.

Finally, earlier this week at the Moxie Cinema in Springfield, Missouri...

...where I got to spend some time with Moxie guru Dan Chilton and filmmaker/blogger David Lowery...

...Moxie co-guru Nicole Chilton and True/False Film Fest's David Wilson.

And with that I got back to Los Angeles (after a detour to Branson, MO, about which I hope to have more to say at a later date) for a week of catching up before I head this Wednesday to Denver for the fest there.  Whew.  I've exhausted myself.

But thanks, as always, to all the friends who hung out with me along this journey - from September of 2006 to the present.  You are swell.