It’s a big day today in documentary land as Michael Moore’s new film “Sicko” has opened and is playing multi-plexes around the country. Love him or hate him you must admit that it’s big news when Moore has a new film come out. The man is incapable of tackling any subject not steeped in controversy. And though it would be unfair of we here at DOC to take a side in the matter, I will say that I will most definitely be attending an opening night screening this evening and I relish the many heated water cooler discussions that I’ll have with the other folks I know that will be doing the same this weekend. We definitely want to hear your thoughts about this film too, gentle viewer. Really looking forward to hearing all the talkback.

This week I shot a documentary of sorts. I recorded my brother’s comedy routine at a rock club in Nashville using a Sony hand-held camera. I bought it six months ago from a friend for $350.

The stand-up performance lasted 28 minutes, and this camera records to 30-minute mini-DVDs, so it was a perfect fit. I didn’t worry about lighting. And I didn’t worry about the sound … the camera has a built-in microphone that doesn’t seem to disappoint.

The only things I did have to do: Get to the show early enough to get a seat in the front row; make sure my camera battery was charged; and have a disk ready to record. What did I capture on video? Plenty.

His performance that night is now on a small silver disc anyone can pop into a DVD player. Live video is much better than trying to remember, days and weeks later, which jokes were the best.

The footage is a little dark - especially when my brother jumped off stage to talk to people in the crowd - but it looks cool. You can’t tell what the club is really like, but that wraps the performance in mystique, the mystique that life on Planet Earth is layered with every second in every way.

Cameras make instant art out of life, and that’s thrilling to sit back and watch. But be careful. Recording life is work and it changes how you experience things. Watching a boxing match live in the front row with two free hands is much different than watching the match with tired arms and a camera smack in front of your face.

Chris here. Taking a few moments to say my weekly hello and drop a few none-too-subtle hints about our awesome new “SoundCheck” block, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like—a hand-picked group of some of the coolest music documentaries out there.
If you’ve followed this blog or been a regular visitor to documentarychannel.com, than you’ve likely noticed the frequent content we run about music documentaries. To me the music doc is an exhilarating thing. When they’re made well, they can capture the subject, their performances and their artistic eccentricities in a way that really makes the artist’s body of work come alive.
If I had some loose change for every time one of our music docs reminded me of a song I loved, I would have at least enough cash to purchase a value meal at any of the finer fast food restaurants located in the lovely downtown region of Nashville where DOC HQ has its home. But seriously, the arrival of SoundCheck marks something that we’re awfully proud of and we really want to know what you guys think of the films.
You’ll also see some short pieces contributed by yours truly, including one we did with Andrew Bird, and some of my antics during my visit to this year’s SXSW Festival. It’s all part of the magical mystery tour that will be Sound Check, so stayed tuned, peel your ears, pop some popcorn and know that it is completely acceptable to play air guitar along with anything you may see.

Hey gang! Chris here. As always, I’m writing from Doc Channel HQ in the heart of lovely downtown Nashville. Thought I would take a few moments to gush over a couple of docs I’ve had the opportunity to see here in the last little bit that captured my imagination and made my inner film nerd all giddy like.
It’s always a good feeling to see our favorite medium is still not only finding a home in the hearts and minds of even the most jaded film fans, it’s a rolling stone practically covered up with mossy goodness.
“Crazy Love,” the first flick I watched, came courtesy of the good folks at Magnolia. Magnolia has been making all sorts of great choices when it comes to distribution. In addition to releasing last year’s Oscar nominated “Jesus Camp” and giving one of my longtime indie film heroes, Hal Hartley, a home for his latest (the wondrous Fay Grim) and even taking time to please my fellow horror nerds with high quality foreign fare like “The Host” and “Severance.”
Yes, Magnolia has got some very cool things happening, and “Crazy Love” stands as solid proof that the folks over there most definitely know their stuff. We should have a feature piece up about “Crazy Love” here in the coming days, and I’ll drop another blog when the time comes to remind our readers to give it a gander.
Of equal note is the doc “Searching For Orson Welles,” which played the Nashville film fest a few weeks back and may soon find a home at a doc friendly art-house theatre near you. If you’re a fan of Orson’s, you’re going to love this film.
So there you have it. Maybe these recommendations will help you fill a couple of otherwise empty evenings with some high-class entertainment, or maybe this blog will just send you off with a strange compulsion to eat your weight in Zagnut bars. Either way, seems pretty win-win to me.
Hope all is well, and all of you stay tuned. Because this promises to be one hot summer. (And no, I don’t mean because of global warming).

The filmmaker who force fed himself McDonald’s for a month in order to blast a gunshot-sized hole in corporate world with the 2004’s “Super Size Me” is now busy documenting the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
“We’ve definitely got the holy grail,” Morgan Spurlock’s New York-based director of photography on the project, Daniel Marracino, told Variety magazine.
Spurlock plans to edit nearly 800 hours of digital footage into a feature-length documentary in time to screen at the Toronto Film Festival, an annual event held in September.
The Weinstein Co., set to release Michael Moore’s “SiCKO” in the U.S. at the end of this month, has also secured the North American rights to release Spurlock’s film about bin Laden, a terrorist who took credit for the 9/11 attacks.