Category: Cinematically Speaking…

What is it? Irish Huckleberry Finn about a pre-teen boy and girl (next store neighbors) who run away from their crappy North Dublin housing project and hide out in the big city, along the banks of the Liffey.

How was it? Sweat, watchable, pleasant. Feels like a lesser known John Cheever short story or perhaps just a right-out-of-film-school project, even though its the director's third project. Acting is hardly what you you'd call natural (more like National-College first-year-student natural) but the cinematography is smooth and elegiac, the script sure and efficient. Written and directed by the same man, one Lance Daly. Picked up for distribution by Oscilloscope Pictures, The Beastie Boys production outfit.

Should I see it? Yes, but don't go out of your way. Would make for a great matinee, a 3:15 PM palette cleanser between a noon and 5 PM screening.

Kisses is playing Mon. April 27th, Tues, April 28, and Thurs. April 30, all at the Sundance Kabuki in San Francisco.

• Official Site.

Wuthering Heights (1939): "Love + Social Class is the most guaranteed tragedy equation in human history."

Seen: As part of an ongoing effort to see all 400 movies in the AFI 400.

132 to go!

Cast Away (2000): "A movie about being stranded on an island can't reveal a rescue in the trailer or, eh, something has been lost."

Anywhere But Here (1999): "Movies where nothing happens are only as good as the characters that nothing happens to."

Girls Rock (2007): "Is the power to express oneself, in any context, the beginning of self realization or an end in itself?"

Note: A lingering question I had watching this still awesome documentary about Girls Rock Camp in Portland.

Later during the first night of SXSW 2009, I got into a conversation with a woman named Debbie Cerda, who is based in Austin and indicated efforts were afoot to start a documentary film festival in town.

She may has well have said "The world is made of ice cream. Here's a spoon."

You see, I love documentaries. Since The Thin Blue Line changed my life over 20 years ago, I've been fascinated with the idea that movies may serve a role similar to investigative journalism: To probe what we think we know, to bring to light what we don't yet. And since you self-select interest the subject of a documentary, you're rarely let down. If gospel music isn't your thing, its unlikely Say Amen, Somebody will change your mind. if the subject interests you, there probably isn't an annoying star performance or an obnoxious product placement to derail your enjoyment.

So when I started going to film festivals in the early 1990s (TIFF with my dad was the first), I naturally gravitated towards the docs. With hundreds of movies to choose from and just a few days to see them in, why not bank on a category that rarely lets you down?  In an average year at my local film festival, I may see a dozen movies, 10 of them documentaries.

it was thanks to my friend James McNally and his fabulous blog Toronto Screen Shots that I first heard about all-documentary festivals like Hot Docs (Spring in Toronto v. TIFF in the fall), Silverdocs (June, Washington D.C), docfest (May in New York) and Full Frame (April in Durham, N.C).

These are the biggies. In recent year's I've been hearing about the True/False Film Festival (February, Columbia, MS) and the Big Sky Festival (also February, Missoula, MT). My friend Roman swears by True/False. Small charming university towns give a film festival a feel of communal celebration.

I haven't been to any of these yet. But one year soon, the fiance and I will make a vacation out of attendence, as she is as crazy for docs as I am (reason #573 we're getting married). If this Austin festival comes to pass, so much the better. We go there anyway.

Resources for documentary fans.

• Documentary Film.net
• Sundance Documentary Institute and ongoing projects.
• The Documentary Blog.
• Louis Mendand New Yorker article on the documentary film tradition. Amazing.

Small Time Crooks (2000): "The best of the harmless, forgettable movies Woody Allen made between Mighty Aphrodite and Match Point."

Acquired: In a $28 fit of insanity brought on by San Francisco Library Book Sale resulting in me owning 30 VHS tapes of movies I don't need to see but now feel compelled to.

Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist (2008): "Wild Kingdom with indie kids as the hyenas."

Intruder in the Dust (1949): "Any movie with a main character named "Chick" either a) was made 60 years ago, b) prominently features organized crime or c) stars a chicken."

Notes: An unfortunate chapter in my quest to see each film in the AFI 400.

The Express (2008): "Something tells me that, despite lead ins like Glory Road, Remember the Titans and We Are Marshall, this is still not the last we've seen of lesser-known-but-true-sport- story movies."