Steve Dorst

Yesterday, I watched a doc while riding my bike trainer inside. As both a piano player and a filmmaker, I have to admit that “Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037” is the kind of doc I wish I’d made myself!

It’s been sitting in my Netflix queue for a few years. Why did I wait? The film traces the year-long “birth” of a concert Steinway through a long line of skilled craftsmen who follow incredibly precise methods until the piano is complete.

The film, by Ben Niles, makes a strong case for the tradition of hand-made pianos. The sound is better, has more character, more soul. It’s a temptation to modernize some of the process, says one guy. Most piano manufacturers have.

One thread follows an elite French pianist selecting the appropriate grand for a big concert he’s doing in Manhattan. He plays piano after piano after piano like a kid in a candy store (really, Steinway’s basement), but none are up to snuff. Soon, his protestations are annoying. But the nerdy, passionate delight he takes in describing infinitesimally subtle details of tone, feel, and dynamics . . . you forgive him. He is deep in his art, at the pinnacle of his craft.

By contrast, one segment shows a teenage boy piano shopping with his Orthodox family. Back home playing the piano for the first time, the boy’s grandparents begin to cry. It’s a poignant scene: even the amateur interpretations of this young man can transport people. Music is a mainline to emotion, memory, and perhaps liberation.

Everybody knows Hulu’s popular shows: much of the best that networks and cable have on offer. For the price of a burger per month, I could settle down this winter to catch up on 152 episodes of Family Guy, 212 episodes of Dancing with the Stars, or 152 episodes of The Office.

And since my Blu-Ray player has the Hulu Plus app, I’m not watching this on my computer. I’m sitting on my couch, watching the big-screen TV, eating popcorn . . .

But today I discovered Hulu’s world of documentaries . . . I was excited to see something like 400 docs in the list.

Classics like Grey Gardens, Harlan County USA, and Hoop Dreams.

Recent award-winners like The Corporation, Exit Through the Gift Shop, and Super Size Me.

Films made by friends of mine, like Bedford: The Town They Left Behind, and Trembling Before G-d.

And LOTS of films that I’ve been meaning to see: Beer Wars, God Grew Tired of Us, and The End of Poverty. And more and more and more.

So if Netflix is $10/month and Hulu+ is $8/month, why am I still paying $125/month for cable?

So I watched Jesus Camp tonight. Pretty amazing documentary. It is strongest when it simply allows the children to live and voice their beliefs, and their parents and mentors to preach to them. It is perhaps weakest when it tries to weave in a parallel story of a talk-show host and the theme about Supreme Court Justice Alito. But this is solid filmmaking. Great job.

I went to see Shut Up & Sing by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple tonight at a slam-packed Avalon Theater. The film was entertaining. Most impressive was the lead singer, Natalie Maines. I couldn’t have named one Dixie Chicks song earlier today, but this lead singer is a force of nature. In a good way. The film could have been better had the filmmaker been permitted more access or perhaps had the main characters been more forthcoming or less guarded; also, the decision to wrap production a few months before the Dixie Chicks won a bunch of Grammy’s probably sold the film short. Nonetheless, very good film. My favorite moment of the entire evening was more symbolic of Kopple’s iconic stature among American documentarians. During the Q&A, a woman asked Ms. Kopple about a character in her 1976 classic, Harlan County USA. Tonight, more than a generation removed, in front of hundreds of film lovers — some born since the film was made — Kopple answered.

PS. Go to the The Avalon Theatre. It rocks.

What better time to inaugurate this commentary at the crossroads of documentary film and international relations than the day after the Oscars. And finally a documentary that moved people as much or more than the feature category. Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, directed by Davis Guggenheim, won best doc feature: a great follow-up for this third-highest grossing documentary of all time. Even the Washington Post got in the act, spreading the love the “Goracle’s” way! And why not? After a bitter 2000, Gore could’ve gone a lot of directions. He took the high road. And at least in Washington DC where I live, the film’s message has become doctrine. Nobody’s disputing it. I just hope the film’s success helps pave the way for increasing American leadership in innovative climate policy. There’s a lot of great programs out there. We need to get moving on a number of them. And as for Al Gore: thanks, man, for sticking with it. We Americans love second acts.