Monday, November 28, 2005

Michael & Michael

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Visiting Filmmaker Michael Almereyda converses with Michael Seiwerath.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Upcoming Music Docs

New York Doll & Be Here to Love Me

I'm glad SIFFBlog is back as I wanted to mention a couple of notable music documentaries coming to town this fall.

First up is New York Doll, which plays at the Northwest Film Forum from 11/18-12/1 (no show on 11/24). I haven't seen it yet, but it arrives with good buzz from the festival circuit and the local response so far has been quite enthusiastic. A friend who attended last week's press screening found it "quite touching." According to the latest NWFF newsletter, "Director Greg Whitely and producers Seth Gordon and Ed Cunningham will all be here for the Seattle premiere of their Park City favorite, about the depressed, suicidal former rock star Arthur "Killer" Kane (of the influential New York Dolls) who found his own humble salvation in...the Mormon Church." They'll be at the 7 and 9pm screenings on Fri., 11/18.

Incidentally, director Michael Almereyda was at last week's premiere of William Eggleston in the Real World, a leisurely home movie-style look at the great color photographer. It raised a lot of questions in my mind; so much so that I wish the Q&A had gone on longer. Kudos to the NWFF for bringing all these interesting filmmakers, producers, and such to town.

I also wanted to spread the word about Margaret Brown's fine solo documentary debut, Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt (following an unreleased doc made with her father Milton, who penned the title track to Clint Eastwood's Every Which Way But Loose, about singing cowboys). It plays at the NWFF from 12/2-14. For my money, it was one of the best music docs at this year's SIFF--if not the best. Highly recommended, even if you don't know much about the late Texas singer/songwriter. Features appearances from Joe Eli, Kris Kristofferson, Steve Earle, Guy Clark, and many others. And guns. And booze. And more guns. And more booze. A friend (yep, the same guy) who caught this week's press screening described it as "Sad sad sad." He's right...but don't let that scare you away! It may be sad, but it's enlightening, too.

For more info: The Northwest Film Forum and Townes Van Zandt

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

The return of SIFFBlog


My apologies, everyone, for not having posted a warning here about this outage. I host SIFFblog on a computer in my home, and my wife and I are in the process of moving. I called Qwest to get the phone and data lines moved on October 26, and they cut off the service to our apartment the next day. Since then, I have been whacking my way through dense layers of ISP undershrubbery to get things rolling again.


While I'm not out of the woods yet, the server appears to be firing on all cylinders. Post away!