Monday Report - with photos!

If Sunday was our serious documentary day, Monday was our music and art day. I already mentioned LEONARD COHEN, I'M YOUR MAN, a lovely doc about one of our most beloved poets that we saw Monday morning.

We then moved on to the noon world premier of SHERRYBABY starring Maggie Gyllenhall. Despite the depressing premise (ex-drug addict just let out of prison struggling to regain custody of her daughter) it was brilliantly acted and hopeful at the end.

After the film we headed to the Music Cafe on Main Street, something we'd never done before. We had specifically carved out time to check out performances by Bruce Hornsby and Judy Collins. They were the only names I recognized, and definitely artists I would love to see in a small intimate setting. It was such a thrill to hear Judy sing, her voice has not changed one iota.


The crowd went wild when she came on stage. It was comforting to be among people who also enjoyed her music at the time it was originally published. Unfortunately we had to leave before it was over to get back to Eccles for the premier of ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL, a hilarious look at the pretentiousness of art via a story about a college kid (Max Minghella) studying drawing.
I'll send a separate email with a link to the video and audio I recorded of her singing. Even from my crappy little camera she sounds incredible.


Plotting out which bus would get us back to Eccles faster during rush hour, we were debating 2 possible routes when Alyssia spotted Bruce Hornsby getting on the Theater Loop bus - we both looked at each other and said at the same time, "That's the bus!". We never figured out if it was faster - but who cares??? - taking a bus with Bruce Hornsby was certainly more fun. He was really friendly and goofy (see above) and Alyssia had quite a long conversation with him on the ride. We contemplated asking him to sit with us for the film, but didn't.


The movie was fun and funny, a perfect festival film to share with like-minded film nuts. John Malkovich plays the professor who predictably has never made it in the art world and Jim Broadbent is is alcoholic artist who went over the edge years ago (he was terrific). It was great to see it with a crowd jazzed to laugh at Terry Zwigoff's new work. (GHOSTWORLD, CRUMB).

Sorry the lighting is so awful in the theaters - not condusive to taking decent shots. Max Minghella is in the white t-shirt and Terry Zwigoff is the short, funny-looking guy at the podium. Given his bizarre sensibilities in film, I'm not surprised at how he looks.


Definitely the treat of the evening was listening to Mr. Malkovich answer questions. He was also a producer on the film - came across quite humbly. Stayed in the back during the Q&A and out of the feeble light - you can't even see him in the picture above, but he's standing far right. He's as smart and sharp and cool as many of his characters. The film already has a release date so you'll be able to see it at the end of April. (when planning our films we typically stayed away from movies with distributors but there were a few too tempting to pass up now).


Because of a rumor of Sting showing up at the Police documentary called EVERYONE STARES: THE POLICE INSIDE OUT, we sold our evening tickets to a Japanese film and instead went out for dinner and then to the 11:30pm screening. This was new ground for Alyssia and me - we'd never done any of the late night films before (there's a whole midnight series too). Well, Sting was a no-show but Stewart Copeland was there as the film was all his home movies from their tour years. While quite amusing, it wasn't worth staying up so late.