On October 3rd, Sidetrack and Diesel threw the premiere for Kurt Cobain About a Son at The Anchor on Spring Street. With the film's NY run coming to an end this week, I felt it might be time to post some photo hilights. All photos by Jennifer Thomas.

The men behind the magic: director AJ Schnack and co-producer Michael Azerrad

indieWIRE's own Eugene Hernandez and Jonny Leahan were two early advocates of the film (and early arrivals at the party)

Jen and Leo Vladimirsky mingle with former Sidetracker Ben Taylor.

Submarine's Josh Braun who repped the film domestically with Arthouse Film's David Koh.

Doug Matejka from Sidetrack Films shares a drink with Orphansdirector Ry Russo-Young after he had to race back to the office because of a possible break in.

Rage Mountain DJ'd the party (here being visited by the lovely cocktail waitress). Mens.Style.com was quoted as saying, "The DJ's are straight Chillin'!"

Picturehouse's only Liz Brambilla and MaryAnn Hult kick off the dance party.

Poull Brien (who helped organize the party) and I try out the Fender before we give it away.

And here's the guitar with its actual winner - indieWIRE's Jimmy Israel! Word on the street is those Isreal brothers have a knack for winning free guitars.

Filmmaker Michael Tully wanted the guitar. Badly.

Reason Pictures' Bristol Baughan and Ben Goldhirsch flank Oscar Nominated Director Marshal Curry, who is working with them on his newest documentary.

Sylvain Tron and Ryan Kampe of Visit Films. You'll be able to find me hiding in their office at AFM.

I don't want to take sides in this debate, however I think it's worth noting that the list whether good or bad, fair or offensive, did get a lot of people talking about documentaries who might not otherwise be.... And while you have documentaries on your mind, you should go see Kurt Cobain About Son now playing in NY and LA.

Kurt Cobain About a Son opens wednesday in NY at the IFC Center before expanding to LA this weekend. Getting this film out in theaters has been an adventure, and it's so fantastic to finally unveil the film to mass audiences. Over a year ago we were trying to oversee our premiere at Toronto - figuring out ticket counts, organizing our entourage of guests and putting the finishing touch on our party at the Drake Hotel, not to mention all the press inquiries we were trying to put on hold for a release that at that time was purely a gleam in our minds eye. It's been a hell of a road to get from here to there, and I hope everyone will come out and support the film this weekend.

Tomorrow is Fair Use Day at the IFP Filmmaker Conference. Unlike the rest of the conference I believe it's free to all. Fair use is one of the hot button issues in the documentary world. Both content owners and filmmakers having incredibly valid arguments, and the matter is only further complicated by those company's who's sole purpose is to sue artists for uncleared use and larger corporations that aren't content owners but someday want to be. Documentarians young and old should definitely try to be there. You can find the schedule here.

The Kurt Cobain About a Son. soundtrack comes out today from Barsuk Records. Although it contains no Nirvana music, the soundtrack is a mixtape of songs that influenced and inspired Kurt along with an orginal score by Steve Fisk and Benjamin Gibbard. Adding to the experience are a number of audio excerpts where Kurt speaks about the music he loved.

Here's the track listing:

Steve Fisk & Benjamin Gibbard - Overture
"never intended" [interview excerpt]
Arlo Guthrie - Motorcycle Song
The Melvins - Eye Flys
"punk rock" [interview excerpt]
Bad Brains - Banned In D.C.
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Up Around The Bend
Half Japanese - Put Some Sugar On It
The Vaselines - Son Of A Gun
Butthole Surfers - Graveyard
"hardcore was dead" [interview excerpt]
Scratch Acid - Owner's Lament
Mudhoney - Touch Me I'm Sick
"car radio" [interview excerpt]
Iggy Pop - The Passenger
Lead Belly - The Bourgeois Blues
R.E.M. - New Orleans Instrumental No. 1
"the limelight" [interview excerpt]
David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World
Mark Lanegan - Museum
Benjamin Gibbard - Indian Summer

After a successful run on the festival circuit Kurt Cobain About a Son opened in Japan on Saturday in 3 theaters: the first commercial release of the picture. For those who can read Japanese (as if I have any readers who can read Japanese), Showgate's official website can be found at www.kurtaboutason.com. The soundtrack is being cross-promoted with the release and is a below is a picture of one of the displays from a Tower Records:

The film opens in NY on Oct 3 and the soundtrack is available on Sept 11.

WHAT: A special screening of Low and Behold followed by a Q & A with co-writer/director Zach Godshall and co-writer/producer/star Barlow Jacobs! Producer Brad Silberling moderates!

WHERE: UCLA, James Bridges Theater in Melnitz Hall!

WHEN: Tonight at 7:30 PM!

WHY: Filmed on location in New Orleans nine months after hurricane Katrina, Low and Behold was conceived by Zack Godshall (co-writer/director) a Lafayette, LA native, and New Orleans resident Barlow Jacobs (co-writer/producer/lead actor) as a celebration for the city and a requiem for the countless losses it endured. Jacobs found inspiration to write and later act in the film from his own life experience. After losing his New Orleans home to the disaster in August 2005, a broke Jacobs took a short-term job as an insurance claims adjuster. Immersed in the culture of the post-hurricane Coastal South he began work on the screenplay for Low and Behold, the production of which he would then finance with the money he earned as a claims adjuster.

The filmmakers assembled a cast and crew almost entirely made up of Louisiana natives, even filming non-actors in their actual storm damaged homes. “We knew that having a team that had felt the full impact of Katrina would help bring the story to life in the most authentic way possible,” says Jacobs. To all involved the film became more than a passion project; it became an outlet for relief and redemption.

“Being residents of Louisiana, Barlow and I wanted to do something that would openly address the situation for those who live in New Orleans and the surrounding areas,” says Godshall. “We worked intensely in what was left of Orleans and St. Bernard Parishes, and found that the actual environment offered more than we as writers could have ever dreamed. Our film is a comedy and a celebration, but also an elegy and a lament for all the losses that cannot be counted and the suffering that will not cease but can only be soothed. Even still, there is a spirit in this place that will not die, and I hope we’ve captured that in Low and Behold.”

I agree with Anthony Kaufman (Here and Here) that foreign cinema will get hit hard by the formation of Dream Machine. What I'm not sure about if this is anything new. Isn't it is just one more flare on the difficult road that both foreign cinema and American art films have been on for the past couple of years? A small, vocal audience certainly exists but the crossover that would otherwise make the economics work for a distributor doesn't seem to turn out all that much anymore. I guess the good news is that in a couple of years from now some entrepreneur will see an audience that is underserved and find an opportunity to make money by exploiting foreign cinema new and old.

Today would be the 40th birthday of Kurt Cobain. You can read Kurt Cobain About a Son director AJ Schnack's thoughts on this occasion on his blog here.

If this were the anniversary of his death I think the news would be blaring on Yahoo! Headlines or the like. I find that kind of sad. It's almost equally tragic; focusing on someone's death more than someone's life. By looking at someone through their death we look at them by not what they provided, but what they could have provided had fate gone another way. By celebrating someone's birth you remember what they achieved and celebrate that they were part of world, even if just briefly.

In case you didn't see the lineup announcement (and shame on you if you didn't) KURT COBAIN ABOUT A SON will be playing at the 2007 SxSW Film Festival. You can read more about the film at www.sidetrackfilms.com. And check out the full sxsw lineup here.

The Spirit Award Nominations came out today and low and behold the list of docs for the Truer than Fiction award:

Adele Horn - The Tailenders

Eric Daniel Metzgar - The Chances of the World Changing

AJ Schnack - Kurt Cobain About a Son

It's a wonderful surprise to see the film everyone worked so hard on to be recognized in this way!

Sidetrack Films' Kurt Cobain About a Son won The Maysales Brothers Award for Best Documentary at the Starz Denver Film Festival this weekend. A hearty congrats to AJ and the whole team. Since it's Toronto premiere the doc
The Hollywood Reporter called "a true gift to fans of this important musician" has been playing to sold out fest audiences both domestically and abroad. Next up IDFA on 11/26 and 11/27. Check it out if you are Amsterdam bound.

I'm back in NYC after one of those super quick, sickness inducing trips to LA to check in on the post-production of on Beautiful Losers (more on that film soon), and while I was airborne yesterday another one of Sidetrack's babies, Kurt Cobain About a Son was having its world premiere at Rome. Director AJ Schnack is blogging about his experiences at the Eternal Cities first international film festival. You can read it here.

Because no one demanded it! The pictures from Sidetrack and Tokion's Kurt Cobain About a Son party in Toronto:

The party kicked into gear early and stayed crowded until the Drake kicked us out at 4:30 in the morning.

Sidetrack's own Doug Matejka celebrates with Cobain director AJ Schnack.

Gerardo Naranjo, director of the great film Drama/Mex, which played at Cannes before coming to Toronto, came out to celebrate with friends.

Thank god he didn't bring Vanila Ice with him.

Peter Goldwyn of Samuel Goldwyn Films, his banker, David Jourdan of Katapult Films

You wouldn't know it, but she's pointing at Sidetrack's Rich Lim (also on the bar, although not pictured).

That great music she's dancing to? Courtesy of these two gents: Steve Fisk a legendary seattle producer and Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie fame. More importantly they both did an incredible original score for the film (I say that completely unbiased).

Tribeca's David Kwok and Seattle/Palm Springs Carl Spence bring a large sense of artistic integrity to the party.

Neil Block and Jeff Reichart of Magnolia and Emily Ziff of Cooper's Town. Although they kept threatening to leave to go to the Shortbus party, we somehow got them to stay...

It's not a party if there aren't two blod women aren't straddling each other on a couch. They're also vicious with a pocket square.

Regent's Brittany Ballard and MTV's Ryan Andolina, who both partied with us until the end.

Sidetrack Films' documentary KURT COBAIN ABOUT A SON will be having it's US premiere at the AFI Fest (shame on you if you missed the big announcement yesterday). And for those European readers of mine, you don't have to be quite so patient as the doc will be one of the few kicking of the inaugural Rome Festival. We're very excited about both fests as LA is director AJ Schnack's home town and we expect his many fans (and yes, there are many) to come out in force for the screening. And Rome, well, Kurt had a strong history with the eternal city, and we think it's the perfect place to kick off its international run.

Kurt Cobain About a Son now has a myspace page. Check it out at www.myspace.com/kurtcobainaboutason. For those of you not paying attention the film is a documentary on Kurt Cobain based on over 25 hours of never-before-heard audio interviews Kurt did with Michael Azerrad for his biography, and will be having it's world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.

Discriminating indieWIRE readers probably know about Kurt Cobain About a Son director AJ Schnack's blog All These Wonderful Things. AJ currently has an entry up detailing the history of the film's making, which is a great read for anyone interested in seeing the film in Toronto.

Sidetrack's first major production Kurt Cobain About a Son will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. The film, in which Kurt recounts his life in his own words, is the brainchild of director AJ Schnack and based on never before heard interviews Kurt did with Michael Azerrad for his book Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana. An intimate portrait, AJ filmed the actual places in Aberdeen, Olympia and Seattle where Kurt lived, worked, played and grew into an iconic rock star and combined that footage with Charles Peterson's photographs from the period. Throw in the music that influenced Kurt from Bowie to REM to The Butthole Surfers to Mudhoney, and you get a film that we at Sidetrack are incredibly proud of. You can read more about it here.