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
