It's been tough to get Japanese distributors for the film because of the controversy it generated in the country. The doc, directed by Louie Psihoyos, is about the international dolphin capture trade practiced in Taiji, Japan.

The movie was previously screened at the 2009 Tokyo Film Festival to a sold-out audience.

This is a big win for Psihoyos and his team who has been focusing on the film's impact over the award recognition it's been getting. When Psihoyos heard about his Oscar nom, he told the IDA exclusively: "The reason the Oscar nomination is so important for me is because it's the most watched program in Japanese television. I didn't get into movies to win awards. I got into making this movie to start a movement to save the ocean. I've been trying to give the oceans a voice and an Oscar nomination amplifies that voice."

In other Cove/award news, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has determined the nominee credits for the Best Documentary Feature nominee. The Academy's Documentary Branch Executive Committee announced yesterday that the official nominees are director Louie Psihoyos and producer Fisher Stevens.

In a statement, the Academy said, "(R)ules for the documentary feature category state that a maximum of two persons may be designated as nominees, one of whom must be the credited director, and the other of whom must have a producer or director credit."

Yet, February 19, 2010 marks the 20th Anniversary of Adobe Photoshop® and Adobe is getting together with the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) to celebrate the anniversary of the software that changed the face of photography and design forever.

The Photoshop 20th anniversary celebration on February, 18 at 7:30 p.m. PST will be streamed live and feature Photoshop luminaries including NAPP's Scott Kelby, John Loiacono, Adobe Senior Vice President and General Manager, Creative Solutions Business Unit, NAPP Photoshop gurus Dave Cross and Matt Kloskowski, Adobe Photoshop star Russell Brown, and other key members of the Adobe Photoshop team. This fun-filled night will feature a walk through Photoshop history, a glimpse into the future, and celebrates all things Photoshop.

It's easy to attend--and you don't even have to leave your computer to do it! Sign up at http://www.photoshopuser.com/photoshop20th, and come back to that page on February 18 at 7:30 p.m. PST to take part.

For Love of  Liberty: The Story of America's Black Patriots premieres on  PBS stations in February in commemoration of  Black History Month in the United States. The two-part, four-hour documentary is introduced by Colin Powell, hosted by Halle Berry and narrated by Avery Brooks.

The film takes audiences on a journey through the history of how African-American patriots have served the country from the revolution against the English monarchy through today's war on terror.

It's a treasure trove of little-known history with words culled from diaries and letters, speeches, newspaper and magazine articles. There are no talking heads. The words are narrated by some 50 volunteers, including Mel Gibson, John Travolta, Morgan Freeman, Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, Kris Kristofferson and Bill Cosby.

As powerful as the words are, For Love of Liberty would be a compelling and remarkably informative documentary if it were a silent movie. The images include re-enactments of history, as well as paintings and drawings, but the most compelling visuals are the still and motion pictures dating back to the dawn of the age of  photography. It's one thing to read or hear someone tell you that African-American soldiers went to battle with Teddy Roosevelt during the Spanish-American War. It is a totally different experience to see it happening with your own eyes.

The genesis of the making of  the documentary dates back to 2000, when filmmaker James Crite found an intriguing book at a garage sale. The title was Black Americans in Defense of  Their Country. The book was published by the Department of Defense when Colin Powell was chairman of  the joint chiefs of  staff.

Crite instinctively felt that the book could be the foundation of an important documentary. He brought his idea to Lou Gossett Jr ., who readily agreed and suggested that Crite contact documentary filmmaker Frank Martin.

"That's how I got involved," says Martin, who is based in Los Angeles. "When I delved into the subject, I realized how relevant the topic is to all Americans, because it's an important part of our history that most of us don't know about.

"It's not a story about Black history," Martin maintains. "It's about American history. I felt it was important to find a way to tell this story from a first-person perspective, using the words of people talking about their experiences."

That was the beginning of a 10-year journey for Martin, who co-authored the script, produced and directed the film. There were no grants funding the project. It was a labor of love for Martin and the people who supported him in this ambitious endeavor.

"It wasn't like we uncovered some secret stash of letters," Martin says. "There have been many books dealing with this subject, including Grand Army of Black Men, which is about African-Americans in the Civil War. It contains many letters. We also found slave narratives on the Internet. It just took digging. A lot of people wrote to say they heard what we were doing, and enclosed letters from their fathers and grandfathers who had fought on the beach at Normandy and in battles in Korea and Vietnam."

Officials at the Pentagon and at veterans organizations provided access to their archives, which included letters, still photographs and posters. But it was no walk in the park for Martin, who travelled to 21 states and various countries in Europe. "We made this documentary the old fashioned way," Martin continues. "We begged. For instance, Air France donated air plane tickets to and from France, and Southwest Airlines gave us free tickets to travel around the country.

 "Producing a documentary like this one is like being an archeologist," he points out. "You are sifting through old bins of film looking for scraps of history. We found thousands of still photographs and hundreds of  hours of  film in archives and in rusty cans in people's homes. The earliest film we found were the Buffalo Soldiers marching off to the Spanish-American War in 1898. John Goodman narrates a newspaper article that was published by The Washington Post while those images are on the screen: ‘If it had not been for the Negro Cavalry, Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders would have been exterminated.' We also found color film of the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African-American pilots who flew P-51 Mustang airplanes during World War II."

For Love of Liberty: The Story of America's Black Patriots flows from era to era. Martin says one of the unifying visual principals occurred to him while he was at Arlington National Cemetery. He realized that one thing stories from different eras had in common were the tombstones of people whose letters and diaries were used. "A lot of the people whose stories are told died in combat," he explains. "We traveled all over the world filming their tombstones. It's a powerful testament to them. We asked ourselves, Why did they give their lives in defense of a nation that treated them worse than second-class citizens? The answer is that they were fighting for liberty."

Martin cites a letter written during the Civil War by an African-American, who said, "I would be willing to fight for three years for this government without one cent of the mighty dollar. Liberty is what I am struggling for." That theme was repeated in the letters and diaries of African-Americans who served their country in every war.   

"People have asked me, Why would you spend 10 years making a documentary?" Martin says. "The answer is that it became an obsession, because I was telling a really important story. Some documentaries that I've made are important if you're a film buff. I worked on MGM: When the Lion Roars for two-and-a-half years, and won an Emmy. I'm proud of that film, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not that important.

"Making this documentary was a process of discovery," he continues. "How many people know that every battle [in which] people in this country fought for liberty had Black heroes? Most of us also don't know how unfairly most African-Americans soldiers were treated. Did you know there were no Medals of Honor awarded to Black soldiers during the First or Second World Wars? One Black soldier who fought in World War I had a Medal of Honor presented to him by President George H. W. Bush. President Bill Clinton presented Medals of Honor to seven Black veterans who fought in World War II. You see reflections of that in our current culture. Patton was a wonderful movie, but the only Black face was the general's orderly. That's just wrong. Patton's army was rescued by the 761st Tank Battalion; they were called the Black Panthers. They were amazingly heroic fighters, but you never hear about them. That's what kept me working on this film for 10 years."

On the brighter side, Martin points to director Ed Zwick's 1989 movie Glory, which highlights the heroism of members of a brigade of Black soldiers during the Civil War. "But that's about it in popular culture," he laments. "How many people have heard about the Harlem Hell Fighters, the Black Panthers or the Black soldiers who fought in the Revolution? The First Rhode Island Regiment did amazing things, but their members were still denied citizenship and rights that most of us take for granted. Nobody knows about any of these things, and that's the thing that surprised me the most. I was in a supermarket not too long ago. I was killing time at the magazine stand flipping through a World War II photo book. It was an inch thick, and filled with wonderful pictures, but there wasn't a single Black face, even though a million or more African-American soldiers fought in that war." 

Asked what his biggest challenge was during the production of For Love of  Liberty: The Story of America's Black Patriots, Martin replied without hesitation, "Picking the right material and editing it down to size."

Bob Fisher has been writing about documentary and narrative filmmaking for nearly 40 years, mainly focusing on cinematography and preservation.

Opening:                    January 31
Venue:                       Camp Hill, PA (opening of national tour)
Film:                          Takedowns and Falls
Dir./Prod:                   Todd Hickey
Distributor:                Self-distributed
http://www.takedownsandfalls.com/

Every autumn thousands of wrestlers throughout Pennsylvania begin their seasons with the dream of making it to the PIAA State Championships. Few ever make it and even fewer win. But, for all who try, the journey to obtain the most elusive titles in high school wrestling is one of dedication, pain, sacrifice, failure and triumph.

Takedowns and Falls tells the story of a group of Pennsylvania teens and their relationships within a high school wrestling team on a journey to attain a state championship. It chronicles  a season of the Central Dauphin Rams in Harrisburg, PA, and highlights the sacrifice of its athletes, the commitment of their families and the dedication of its coaches. Inspired by their love of the sport and their coaches, this group of teens grows up before our eyes, in an attempt to over-achieve and do the impossible. 

Opening:                    February 11
Venue:                       Anthology Film Archives/NYC
Film:                          American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein                       
Directors:                   David Ridgen and Nicolas Rossier
Distributor:                Typecast Releasing
http://www.americanradicalthefilm.com/

American Radical is the probing, definitive documentary about American academic Norman Finkelstein. A devoted son of holocaust survivors, ardent critic of Israel and US Middle East policy, and author of five provocative books including The Holocaust Industry, Norman Finkelstein has been steadfast at the center of many intractable controversies, including his recent denial of tenure at DePaul University. Called a lunatic and disgusting, self-hating Jew by some and an inspirational street-fighting revolutionary by others, Finkelstein is a deeply polarizing figure whose struggles arise from core questions about freedom, identity and nationhood.

From Beirut to Kyoto, the filmmakers follow Finkelstein around the world as he attempts to negotiate a voice among both supporters and critics, providing an intimate portrait of the man behind the controversy while giving equal time to both his critics and supporters.

Opening:                    February 12
Venue:                       Quad Cinema/NYC
Film:                          Barefoot to Timbuktu
Director/Writer:          Martina Egi
Producer:                  Mesch & Ugge AG
Distributor:                Self-distributed
http://www.barefoot2timbuktu.com/

A film about tolerance, conflict and friendship between cultures.
Araouane, a settlement in the middle of the Sahara, seven days by camel from Timbuktu.... In 1989, the once prosperous oasis was disappearing under encroaching dunes, when the noted Swiss-American artist Ernst Aebi passed through on a caravan. The population's destitution leaves a deep impression on him. Trying to help them becomes an obsession for Aebi because attempting the impossible satisfies his quest for adventure.
Aebi, one of the pioneers in the transformation of New York's SoHo factory spaces to lofts, stays for three years in the desert and becomes so engrossed in the project that he is willing to bury his capital there. Under his guidance, the village awakens to a new life: a productive vegetable garden, a school and even a small hotel rise from the barren sands.
A civil war in Mali forces Aebi in the early '90s to escape "his" village. He leaves behind a blooming oasis and a family of friends who await his return.
Except for a few earlier unsuccessful attempts, almost 20 years pass until Aebi is finally able to get back, on a journey between hope and doubt.
Barefoot to Timbuktu cleverly weaves archival and new material into a fascinating portrait of an out-of-the-ordinary

Opening:                    February 12
Venue:                       Gene Siskel Center/Chicago
Film:                          Life as Lincoln
Director:                    Caitlin Grogan
Distributor:                Self-distributed
http://splitpillow.com/lincoln/index.html

More than 300 men across the country live and work as Abraham Lincoln impersonators, or presenters. From a former White House staffer to a truck driver, these men vary in appearance, age, background, and creed. Despite their differences, Lincoln presenters share the common goal of introducing their audiences to the principles Lincoln cherished.
Life as Lincoln explores the lives and ambitions of three of these presenters who live in the states that Lincoln called home: Larry Elliott in Kentucky, Murray Cox in Indiana, and Lonn Pressnall in Illinois. Each man shares the common responsibility of presenting Lincoln admiringly, yet honestly. But for each presenter, Lincoln has come to represent something different-a sensitive thinker who was simultaneously buffeted by emotion and rooted in reason, a judicious diplomat whose political and personal ethics intersected, and a deeply noble man who was guided by spiritual and familial devotion. The meaning each presenter has found in Lincoln defines both his presentations and the principles he carries throughout his own life.

Opening:                    February 12
Venue:                       IFC Center/New York
Film:                          Videocracy
Director:                    Erik Gandini
Distributor:                Lorber Films
http://www.lorberfilms.com/videocracy/videocracy/

How can you explain what has happened to Italy in the age of its current prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi? Videocracy is director Erik Gandini's critically-acclaimed inquiry into the mercenary underbelly of the high-glitz, low-politics, skin-baring media culture promulgated by Berlusconi's ownership of the majority of the country's television stations - a powerful tool in shaping public opinion to his financial and political benefit. Approaching the material as both insider and outsider, Gandini (Gitmo: The New Rules Of War) gains remarkable access to the opulent world of Berlusconi's associates and the armies of willing wannabes that swarm around them, examining the key players (and their conflicted interests) and unveiling a modern Italy as both comedy and tragedy.

Opening:                    February 19
Venue:                        W Scottsdale/Scottsdale, AZ
Film:                           Blood into Wine
Directors:                    Ryan Page, Christopher Pomerenke
Distributor:                 Self-distributed
http://www.bloodintowine.com/

Blood into Wine is the widely anticipated documentary that shares the story of Tool/A Perfect Circle/Puscifer frontman Maynard James Keenan and his mentor, Eric Glomski, as they pioneer winemaking in the hostile deserts of Arizona.
Maynard's various musical entities have sold over 30 million records worldwide. His band's have headlined the world's most prominent music festivals including Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo and Roskilde while the man himself has reveled in revealing little of his personal life.
On stage Maynard dresses in costume and stands in the shadows as an affront to typical rock star theatrics. He even bolted from Los Angeles just as his band began to pay off, leaving behind a potentially lavish lifestyle for the craggy rocks of Northern Arizona, settling into an area of 300 residents and a rumored ghost town.
Blood into Wine gives unprecedented insight into Maynard's world and his motivations for taking on the arduous task of bringing winemaking to the region's unforgiving landscape and how winemaking fits into his creative trajectory. 

October Country is a beautifully rendered portrait of an American family struggling for stability while haunted by the ghosts of war, teen pregnancy, foster care and child abuse. A collaboration between filmmaker Michael Palmieri and photographer and family member Donal Mosher, this vibrant and penetrating documentary examines the forces that unsettle the working poor and the violence that lurks beneath the surface of American life.
Every family has its ghosts. The Mosher family has more than most. Shot over a year from one Halloween to the next, the film creates a stunning cinematic portrait of a family who are unique but also sadly representative of the struggles of America's working class. The film was created to be both a universal story of family struggle and a socially conscious portrait of compelling, articulate individuals grappling with the forces that tear at their homes and relationships.
Combining the access only available to a family member with an intimate visual style of a filmmaker encountering the family's dynamics for the first time, the film gives a deeply personal voice to the national issues of economic instability, domestic abuse, war trauma, and sexual molestation. As the Moshers do their best to confront their ghosts, we confront the broader issues that haunt us all in the continued struggle for the American Dream.

Opening:                    February 19
Venue:                        Cinema Village/New York City
Film:                           Phyllis and Harold 
Director:                     Cyndi Kleine
Distributor:                Rainbow Releasing
http://www.phyllisandharold.com/

Phyllis and Harold is an astoundingly frank journey through a disastrous 59-year-old marriage. Drawing on a lifetime of her family's home movies and interviews made over 12 years, filmmaker Cindy Kleine mixes reportage, cinema verité and animation to uncover family secrets and tell a story that could not be shown publicly as long as her father was alive. Phyllis and Harold delves into the mystery of time passing, the nature of living a life, and the challenges of losing those we love.  But it is also a loving, funny expose on the sins of suburbia. Imagine Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage seen through the prism of I Love Lucy.

Opening:                    February 26
Venue:                        IFC Center/New York City
Film:                          The Art of the Steal 
Director:                     Don Argott
Distributor:                 Sundance Selects
http://www.sundanceselects.com/films/the-art-of-the-steal

In 1922, Dr. Albert C. Barnes created The Barnes Foundation in Lower Merion Pennsylvania, five miles outside of Philadelphia. He formed this remarkable collection of Post-Impressionist and early Modern art to serve as an educational institution. 
Dr. Barnes built his foundation away from the city and cultural elite who scorned his collection as "horrible, debased art," and set it on the grounds of his own home, an arboretum in the leafy suburbs. Tastes changed, and soon the very people who belittled Barnes wanted access to his collection.
When Dr. Barnes died in a car accident in 1951, he left control of his collection to Lincoln University, a small African-American college. His will contained strict instructions, stating the foundation shall always be an educational institution, and the paintings may never be removed. Such strict limitations made the collection safe from commercial exploitation. But was it really safe?
More than 50 years later, a powerful group of moneyed interests have gone to court to take the art--recently valued at more than $25 billion--and bring it to a new museum in Philadelphia. Standing in their way is a group of former students who are trying to block the move. Will the students succeed, or will a man's will be broken and one of America's greatest cultural monuments be destroyed?

Opening:                    February 26
Venue:                        Cinema Village/New York City
Film:                           Prodigal Sons 
Director:                     Kimberly Reed
Distributor:                 First Run Features
http://www.prodigalsonsfilm.com/

Returning home to a small town in Montana for her high school reunion, filmmaker Kimberly Reed hopes for reconciliation with her long-estranged adopted brother, Marc. But along the way she uncovers stunning revelations, including his blood relationship with Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth, intense sibling rivalries and unforeseeable twists of plot and gender that forces them to face challenges no one could imagine.
Winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, Best Documentary Jury Prize at NewFest, and Special Jury Prizes for Fearless Filmmaking at the Florida Film Festival and Bravery in Storytelling at the Nashville Film Festival, Prodigal Sons is a raw and provocative examination of one family's struggle to come to terms with its past and present.

After making a splash at Sundance, Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg's documentary Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work has been acquired by IFC Films. The reported mid-six-figure deal gives IFC Films North American rights, who is eyeing a summer release.

Filmmaker R.J. Cutler is set to expand beyond the documentary world thanks to a two-year, first-look deal with Fox Television Studios. It's reported that The September Issue filmmaker (and DocU participant) will focus on scripted programming under the new arrangement.

The 2010 SXSW lineup is announced. Get a peek at the competition categories and films.

Editor's Note: Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing's 12th & Delaware premieres August 2 on HBO. Here is a video interview by Tamara Krinsky with the filmmakers when they premiered the film at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Another experiment with video Doc Shots! I sat down with Rachel Grady & Heidi Ewing, co-directors of HBO Documentary Films "12th & Delaware," at the Bing Bar. It was quieter than some other locations - a plus - but not the greatest lighting. Luckily, Heidi and Rachel's energy is enough to cut through any sort of technical challenges! 

In Part 1, the vivacious duo talks about the making of their film. Check out Part 2 for their personal take on their lives & their work. Click play for our conversation about cranes, clinics, new music and the need for occasional silence...

THE DOC SHOT
Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady
Directors, 12th & Delaware
[Part 1: Your Film]

The Red Chapel and Restrepo won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema and US Documentary Competitions, respectively, as the 2010 Sundance Film Festival came to a resounding close. The Red Chapel, directed by Mads Brügger follows  "a journalist with no scruples and two Danish-Korean comedians as they travel to North Korea under the guise of a cultural exchange visit to challenge one of the world's most notorious regimes." Restropo follows directors Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington's yearlong tour of duty with the Second Platoon in one of Afghanistan's most strategically crucial-and dangerous-valleys. In presenting the award, juror Ondi Timoner  praised the film for being "raw, poetic and so fucking brave." For his part, Junger said, "If our movie can help our country understand how to move forward, we'll be incredibly honored."

The tragic death of editor Karen Schmeer Friday night cast a pall over the proceedings, for, in addition to having edited such films as The Fog of War, Fast, Cheap and Out of Control and The Same River Twice, she had won the Documentary Editing Award last year for Greg Barker's Sergio.  Barker, a juror this year, called her "a great editor and a great friend" and then presented this year's award to Penelope Falk for Joan Rivers-A Piece of Work.

Here's the complete list:

Grand Jury Prize: Documentary-Restropo (Dirs.: Sebatsina Junger, Tim Hetherington)

World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary-The Red Chapel (Dir.: Mads Brügger)

Audience Award: Documentary-Waiting for Superman (Dir.: Davis Guggenheim)

World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary-Wasteland (Dir.: Lucy Walker)

Directing Award: Documentary-Smash His Camera (Dir.: Leon Gast)

Documentary Editing Award: Joan Rivers-A Piece of Work (Editor: Penelope Falk)

World Cinema Documentary Editing Award: A Film Unfinished (Editor: Joelle Alexis)

Excellence in Cinematography Awards: Documentary-The Oath (Cinematographers: Kirsten Johnson, Laura Poitras)

World Cinema Cinematography Award: Documentary-His & Hers (Cinematographers: Kate McCullough, Michael Lavelle)

World Cinema Special Jury Prize: Documentary-Enemies of the People (Dirs.: Rob Lemkin, Thet Sambath)

Special Jury Prize: Documentary-Gasland (Dir.: Josh Fox)

As reported in The New York Times, Karen Schmeer, a documentary editor whose credits included several of Errol Morris's films, was killed Friday night in a hit-and-run incident in Manhattan. The driver, along with two cohorts, had been evading police after shoplifting from a drug store; the vehicle hit Ms. Schmeer as she was crossing the street at Broadway and 90^th.

Schmeer was born in Portland, Oregon, and graduated from Boston University with a degree in anthropology. It was there where she met Errol Morris and worked for him as a researcher. She edited his 1996 film Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.; the Academy Award-winning The Fog of War; and Standard Operating Procedure, on which she is credited as co-editor. Other documentaries that she edited included Robb Moss' The Same River Twice, Michael Camerini and Shari Robertson's Well-Founded Fear,. Luca Small's My Father, The Genius. She won the Documentary Editing Award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival for Greg Barker's Sergio. Barker, a juror at the 2010 Festival, paid tribute to Schmeer at the closing night awards ceremony, calling her "a great editor and a dear friend."

According to The New York Times, she was working on a documentary about the laet chessmaster Bobby Fischer at the time of her death.

Spent my last morning at Sundance clad in 3D glasses at the Eccles theater watching Mark Lewis's delightful Cane Toads: The Conquest. Nothin' like a toad hopping directly off the screen first thing in the a.m. to wake you up!

In his intro, Lewis was in good spirits. He riffed on the current popularity of 3D films, informing us that his film would now be known by its new title:  Ava-Toad. He also reminded audience members to return their Dolby glasses at the end of the movie, as there was no point in taking them home, "Because they don't make reality TV any better." 

Not sure why pics in 3D glasses are so much fun to take, but here are a few others who made the morning trek to the Eccles...

Thanks to my colleague and part-time condo-mate Tamara Krinsky for taking us this far. I arrived for the second half, hit the ground running, getting my press credz at Sundance HQ, hightailing it to the Sundance Channel party, where the passed hors d'oevres included s'mores, that summertime, sing-around-the-campfire treat. Spotted among the revelers were Sundance Channel's Sarah Eaton, BBC's Nick Fraser, TV-2 Denmark's Mette Hoffman-Meyer, Participant Media's Dianne Weyermann, and filmmaker/doc juror Ondi Timoner.

With some time to kill between the party and my first screening, I crossed the street to the New Frontier on Main, an always fascinating and bracing forum for cinematic experimentation and innovation. Two of the more remarkable video installations included Bordertown, from Oakland, California-based multimedia artist Tracey Snelling, which re-imagines a town on the Mexican-American border, in which the windows, doorways and apertures of seedy hotels, brothels, strip joints, liquor stores and food carts double as video screens depicting scenes from an ongoing binational/bicultural tale. And then there was Lobe of Lung (The Saliva Ooze Away to the Underground), from Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist, who invites audiences to lie on mattresses and immerse themselves in a kaleidoscopic journey of sound and vision, in which, on perpendicular walls, we behold an edenic wash of undulating and morphing images.

Where do you go from there? Well, I hit my first screening-Alex Gibney's Casino Jack and the United States of Money. En route to the Temple Theatre, I had a nice chat with one of the cameramen on the film, who was about to see it for the first time. The ever prolific Mr. Gibney is also working on docs about bicyclist Lance Armstrong's 2008 comeback bid and Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, as well as a piece in the omnibus Freakonomics project.

Gibney introduced the film as "a comedy, but the joke's on us." He has a flair for making hard-hitting journalism entertaining and darkly funny, and Casino Jack bears echoes of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, in underscoring the outrage-inducing absurdity of its subject. Gibney has always showed a flair for aural texture, and the song cues in Casino Jack could make this a musical comedy-perhaps along the lines of Sweeney Todd (I can here it now: Casino Jack: The Demon Lobbyist of K Street).

Abramoff does not appear in on-camera interviews-he's currently serving four years in prison-but Gibney and his team have ferreted out some fascinating footage, dating back to Abramaoff's days as a Young College Republican, which planted the seeds for a decades-long crusade for Right Wing supremacy. Inspired by the Reagan Revolution, Jack was a de facto soldier of fortune, taking cues from General Patton, supporting so-called freedom fighters around the world, and even dabbling in the movies, as a producer.

He carried his zealous fervor into lobbying, and commandeered oceans of money to maintain Republican preeminence-until hubris, that time-honored equalizer, razed the house that Jack built.

The film clocks in at a longish two hours, so could stand some judicious cutting. It opens this April through Magnolia Pictures and Participant Media.

When asked about the Supreme Court decision that opened the floodgates for corporate financing of the electoral process--and, let's face it, the legislative and judicial processes too--Gibney joked, "We've reached Tom Delay's paradise," but added "It makes this issue intensely important....It's time to mobilize popular anger. There's lots to be done, and if we don't get it done, we're done."

For Tamara Krinsky's Doc Shot with Gibney, click here.