Longtime WFMU favorites Daniel Johnston and The Danielson Famile are both subjects of forthcoming documentaries.
The Devil and Daniel Johnston is the new film from WFMU listener Jeff Feuerzig, who also made the documentary, Half Japanese: The Band That Would Be King. Daniel Johnston is the manic depressive singer and songwriter who has appeared numerous times on WFMU over the years, including a telephone appearance with Yo La Tengo doing his song Speeding Motorcycle (later released as a single). I'm not sure if the documentary used the audio from that performance in the movie, but I know the director was originally planning on it. (Incidentally, Yo La Tengo's annual WFMU Marathon performance is scheduled for Tuesday, March 7th from 8-11pm, with Tom Scharpling and Gaylord Fields.) Here's the trailer for The Devil and Daniel Johnston: (download video, 15 meg, Quicktime), and here's the film's website.
New Jersey's own Danielson Famile is the subject of a documentary called Danielson, A Family Movie (Or Make a Joyful Noise HERE), which premiers at the South by Southwest festival next month in Austin. The documentary was made by JL Aronson, and it focuses on the great divide between Danielson's Christian message and the secular, Jesus-killing hipoisie crowd that usually attends their shows. Of course, there's also lots of footage of Daniel Smith, the band's leader dressed as a tree, the Famile's singing nurses, bingo games, and more than one cameo from WFMU's own Robin Edgerton and the ubiquitous and highly photogenic Black Ops. Here's the trailer: (download video, 6 meg, Quicktime) and here's the doc's website.
The Danielson Movie was excellent. I did a blog on it too.
http://blog.myspace.com/jaiagnish
Posted by: Jai Agnish | March 18, 2006 at 02:40 PM
Found this really cool interview of Danielson in an online magazine. The address is:
www.playmusicmagazine.com
Posted by: Cristpin | August 07, 2007 at 09:44 AM