This coming Saturday, I depart for Amsterdam, Holland where IDFA (the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) is held annually. This year, the festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary. I’ve been obsessed with going for a while, and it’s sort of miraculous that I’m going this particular year, but I am.

from Kara Herold’s short Bachelorette, 34, USA, 2007

One of the largest and most important documentary markets and festivals in the world, IDFA’s program is the standard bearer of what will play at a lot of domestic festivals in ‘08. Scrolling through the film program, there seems to be quite a few older films and not as many premieres as they’ve had in the past, and the opening nighter, Richard Robbins’ Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience is a film that’s already had its television broadcast. I don’t know if they’re trying to mix it up because of the anniversary thing, or if there just weren’t more compelling films to show that were made in the past year. However, IDFA, because of where it falls in the calendar year, is usually showing what we might see at, say, Sundance early next year. In the States, the Utah fest, for a lot of folks, is the true commencement of a festival season.

This will be the first time I attend a major festival outside my own country and I’m anxious to see what the differences will be, if any, particularly in terms of what will be talked about at panels and other events and discussions that they have on tap. I feel certain topics at this point have been beaten to death. There is also an Online Docs and Cross Media section which will include mashups, vlogger videos and online premieres of films screened at past IDFAs.

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Paul Lovelace and Sam Wainwright Douglas’ new documentary, The Holy Modal Rounders. . .Bound to Lose, is opening in New York at the Anthology Film Archives down in the East Village for one week starting December 7. Each of the seven nights will bring a unique event with special guests and related films. The Holy Modal Rounders were a 1960s Greenwich Village psychedelic folk duo. Sounds interesting already, huh?

Featured in the film are Dennis Hopper, former Modals drummer, now famous playwright/director/writer/actor Sam Shepherd, Peter Tork of The Monkees (like most, I had the biggest crush on Davey, but always thought Peter was really cute), Wavy Gravy, The Fugs, Loudon Wainwright III and other various and sundry celebs, burnouts, music lovers and friends of fiddler, Peter Stampfel and guitarist Steve Weber (whose resemblance to a giant muppet is uncanny). In a lot of ways, it’s a familiar music story where we see the young, idealistic goof-offs get together when they’re in their 20s and full of beans and storytell about the trajectory of their careers (in this case, it’s usually straight ahead or torked a bit down most of the time; success eludes these men like the plague). And the reasons success eluded these men brings up the usual suspects of drugs, alcohol, and living a life of unrestricted mayhem 24/7 for years on end. The gray matter takes a beating.

The co-directors are going the self-distribution route (yay) and have booked week-long runs and one-off screenings across the country. Lots of work–let’s see if it pays off for them. This film is a bit of East Village, New York history and they gather some really striking, very gritty black and white archival footage of the city in the 60s and 70s, well before Times Square was Disney-fied and when you could still go home, after being in a bar all night, smelling like a cigarette butt.

As part of their “hey, we’re playing in your hometown soon!” approach, the myspace page is in place and a crack team of dedicated friends and supporters are on board the train. They are presenting each night as a special curated event with other films, musical guests and some really interesting moderator/special guests like Nick Tosches and Lenny Kaye introducing films. They are also showcasing the theatrical premiere run of their film here with Michelangelo Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point, co-written by Sam Shepard while the band was recording its psychedelic landmark album The Holy Modal Rounders Eat the Moray Eels. Now that’s a fab film-geek factoid, ain’t it?

Contact Anthology Film Archives and get your tickets to one of these fun evenings. (Drugs not included.)