Stranger Than Fiction's Spring Season Begins April 6

The wonderful Stranger Than Fiction Documentary Series' Spring 2010 season kicks off on Apr. 6 with a screening of And Everything is Going Fine, Steven Soderbergh's documentary about actor and author Spalding Gray. Soderbergh, who collaborated with Gray on Gray's Anatomy (the famed monologist's 1996 film, not the TV show), uses rare and previously unseen archival footage of Gray and his intimates to create what is a compelling portrait and moving tribute. The screening will be followed by a Q and A session with Soderbergh.

Screenings in the eleven film series continue through June 8, with showings of the following documentaries:

• Horses - Director Liz Merman documents a year in the lives of three extraordinary Irish race horses, each with a unique character and distinctive talents. The subject is reminiscent of First Saturday in May, and if you like horses -- on or off the track -- you'll find this a fascinating film. Horses is screening on April 13
• Family Affair - Filmmaker Chico Colvard was removed from his family at age 10, after he shot his sister in the leg. The incident unleashed exposure of harrowing family secrets. Thirty years later he returns to his family to probe the past and the disturbing truths about his father's abuse of his three sisters. Family Affair screens on April 14, as a bonus Wednesday Night Special.
• The Kids Grow Up - Doug Block follows up on his previous documentary, 51 Birch Street, in which he showed his parents' marriage to be an archetypal American post-WWII couple, with this very personal film about his relationship to his daughter, Lucy, whose life he's documented since her birth. The Kids Grow Up screens on April 20.
• Cleanflix - Andrew James and Joshua Ligairi chronicle cinema's 'clean movement,' in which Mormons and other religious groups began to re-edit popular movies, removing nudity, violence and R-rated content, to satisfy their moral dictates -- until noted filmmakers objected to both artistic and copyright violations. The film debates tough social questions, like who gets to determine cultural values and standards. Cleanflix screens on April 27.
• Pin Gods - Larry Locke tracks three young professional bowlers who set out on the pro bowling tour, competing against each other and against the record-breaking reigning champ, Walter Ray Williams, Jr., with the goal of taking the trophy when they get to the finals in Erie, PA. Pin Gods screens on May 4.
• Life 2.0 - Director Jason Spingarn-Koff takes on an alternative persona in the form on an avatar to take a look at Second Life, the virtual online world and lifestyle that's enjoyed by millions of participants from around the globe. The subject is reminiscent of Molotov Alva and his Search For The Creator: A Second Life Odyssey, Doug Gayeton's 2008 virtual documentary, and if you like that film, you should sign up for this one. Life 2.0 screens on May 11.
• My Perestroika - Robin Hessman worked for five years on this post-Soviet documentary in which she interweaves vintage propaganda films, highly personal home movies and interviews with five young Russians to produce a moving profile of how Russia's newly realized middle class enjoys lifestyles they couldn't have had under the old regime. My Peristroika airs on May 18.
• Man With A Movie Camera - Originally released in 1929, before the prevalence of talkies, this classic silent documentary by Dziga Vertov, the Soviet director whose work paved the way to the Cinéma vérité style, is shown with a modern score by filmmaker/sound editor John Walter. Man with A Camera screens on May 25.
• Haynesville: The Nation's Hunt for Energy - Director Gregory Kallenberg tracks America's quest for energy sources to the Louisiana backwoods, and the discovery of the largest natural gas field in the United States, and then focuses on the effects the discover has on a single mom who is concerned with environmental protections, an African American preacher who wants some of the riches to build a Christian school and a self-described "country boy" who finds himself torn between holding on to his family land and cashing in on the oil company's offer to buy it. Haynesville screens on June 1/
• TBA - No that's not the title of a film! But, as usual, Stranger Than Fiction presents the final documentary of each season as a surprise. And, it's always a good one. So, stay tuned.

The Stranger Than Fiction Series is presented at NYC's IFC Center. All screenings are on Tuesday nights, unless otherwise noted. Stranger Than Fiction Season Passes cost $85, per person, and cover admission to the screenings and post-screening Q and As with directors, as well as free popcorn. You can also buy individual tickets for screenings, when they're not sold out to season pass holders.

Stranger Than Fiction is such an important theatrical venue for documentary films, it's too bad the series is available only in New York. Perhaps organizers Thom Powers and his colleagues and sponsors could investigate the idea of concurrent digital screenings that would provide access for audiences outside of New York. Of course, it's so much better to see films in theaters, but it's important for these films to be widely seen, and it's possible the only way to achieve that is with digital screenings, following the model newly established by the Tribeca Film Festival with it's Tribeca Film Festival Virtual series.