Watch a good movie on TV tonight ... and see me, too

The KLRU-TV series SXSW Presents is airing the 2005 documentary The Dreams of Sparrows tonight at 9:30 pm. The documentary is shot in Iraq, but should not be dismissed as "yet another documentary about Iraq." A few amateur filmmakers bought a couple of DV cameras and decided to shoot all kinds of everyday scenes in various parts of Iraq -- artists, businessmen, hospitals, kids living in bombed-out buildings, more fortunate kids in private schools, and so forth. Some of the interview subjects are great fans of George Bush, others aren't happy about the U.S. invasion. It's a very different sort of look at contemporary Iraq. You can watch a trailer for the film on the SXSW Presents website.

And after the documentary ends, you can watch me discussing The Dreams of Sparrows with a group of other Austin film people. I haven't seen the finished interview yet, so I'll be watching too (and probably feeling really embarrassed). The interview will be posted to the SXSW Presents website after the show airs, so you can watch it there, but the main attraction is definitely the documentary. Set your TiVo, or VCR, or curl up on the couch tonight at 9:30.