*The following is an (extremely) expanded version of an interview that appears in this week’s San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Director Paul Rachman and writer Steven Blush collaborated on every aspect of their new music doc, American Hardcore. “This is a two-person operation,” Blush explained as we settled into a booth at a not-very-punk-but-hey-we-were-hungry downtown San Francisco restaurant. Read more »

That's my motto. I'm gonna get it tattooed in Olde English letters across my stomach, "Thug Life"-style. With the two question marks and everything. Here's a couple of new recommendations for my doc-loving homies.

Tonight on IFC: the premiere of Rank, director John Hyams' look at the elite ranks of the professional bull-riding circuit. (Hyams previously made a film for HBO about mixed martial arts fighting called The Smashing Machine. Read more »

Well, this comes as absolutely no surprise. As the Hollywood Reporter noted today, Newmarket Films is running into difficulties with the distribution of Death of a President. The Toronto International Film Festival hit -- which imagines the assassination of President George W. Bush, and all the Cheney-led chaos and freedom-crackdowns that follow -- will not be playing at the nation's largest theater chain, Regal Cinemas. Read more »

Documentaries are taking over my life. Lately, everything I wanna watch is either true or the next best thing. So it was only a matter of time before I'd cross paths with Docurama, a DVD label that handles documentaries exclusively. Good ones, too, including The Staircase, about a high-profile murder trial in my home state of North Carolina. Read more »

I interviewed writer-director-editor-supporting actor Andrew Bujalski last year, prior to Funny Ha Ha’s August 2005 opening at the Red Vic. He’d actually completed his debut film in 2002; during its meandering journey into theaters (with stops at over ten fests, including the San Francisco Independent Film Festival), he was able to shoot his follow-up, Mutual Appreciation. Read more »

Tory in Jesus Camp. Copyright Magnolia Pictures.

Fascinated disgust and aghast amusement are two feelings I don't experience often enough. Jesus Camp elicits both in spades. Read more »

Casual readers of this blog might deduce that all I ever do is watch movies. Well, that's mostly true. But I do a few other things on occasion. Like, listen to music. And inevitably, read two or more books at a time. Here's what-all's dividing my literary attentions four ways at the moment:

From the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim show, Robot Chicken. So ridiculously stupidly funny.