Playing Monday, March 27 at 9:30 PM at Enzian - Purchase tickets

THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON
USA, 2005, 110 MIN
DIRECTED BY JEFF FEUERZEIG
SOUTHEAST PREMIERE
Genius or lunatic . . . or both? Contrasts go hand in hand with Daniel Johnston, an outsider musician and artist tormented by manic depression and fueled by a desire to be bigger than the Beatles. Briefly, in the late 1980s, it looked like Johnston might crack the big time. He'd hijacked an MTV special about Austin's music scene, his homemade cassettes (recorded on a $59 boombox) were underground best sellers, and his job at McDonalds kept him well fed. But inner demons surfaced, and his mental state fluctuated wildly, leading to moments of brilliance (recording vocals for Speeding Motorcycle on the phone from a mental hospital) and terror (shrieking "We're all going to die!" at a chilling SXSW performance in 1997). Through it all, the naked honesty of his childlike songs and visual art attracted legions of fans ranging from Nirvana's Kurt Cobain to Simpson's creator Matt Groening. Director Jeff Feuerzeig's film—winner of the Sundance Documentary Directing Award—artfully blends new footage with vintage performances and home movies, all linked with an internal monologue created from hundreds of audio-verité cassettes Johnston recorded of his entire life—from childhood fights with Mom to surreptitious recordings of crushed out college romances. It's a poetic and stunning portrait of a genius who nearly slipped away.