'Anvil!': Rock Doc Film Gods

It came as little surprise that the Rock Doc Anvil! The Story of Anvil took home the Music Documentary Award at the 2009 International Documentary Association's Documentary Awards Friday night.

The shock of the evening came when the little documentary that could beat out potential Oscar contenders Food, Inc., Mugabe and the White African, and Afghan Star to also snag the IDA Feature Documentary Award.

Anvil, which follows two shambling, leather clad, spandex aficionados as they stumble on their post-pubescent pursuit of rock stardom has undoubtedly struck a power chord in audiences' hearts.

In a taped intro The Office star, and Anvil fan, Rainn Wilson extolled the virtues of the documentary, calling it a "heavy metal hymn to the human spirit."Host Ira Glass, himself invoking the spirits of rock gods past, welcomed director Sacha Gervasi and Anvil members "Lips" Kudlow, and Robb Reiner to the stage for a second time by urging the audience to "love them two times." The stunned Gervasi, who ran away from home at the age of 15 to be a roadie for the band, proved to be decidedly less eloquent. "F*cking hell," he mumbled into the microphone, "I'm completely in shock ... F*ck."Apparently overcome by emotion, Gervasi, who said he found the band's relentless pursuit of an improbable dream to be both "completely crazy, and wonderfully inspiring," recovered in time to add, "It's a beautiful thing. The message here is that film doesn't always have to be serious to be profound." The 2009 IDA awards show, which was held Dec. 4 at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles, was a celebration of the oft overlooked cinematic tradition of the narrative. From the big to the small, from the low budget to the multi-million dollar, from the light-hearted to the issue-oriented, those who were honored as nominees or simply guests refreshingly eschewed the spirit of competition for one of collegiality. "It's a way that we can all come together and celebrate each other," Louie Psihoyos, director of The Cove, tells Tonic, "Everyone in this room is on the same team in terms of trying to make the world a better place. We're united, not just by film, but be this higher goal, and if your movie is ten bucks and a box of popcorn, then you're competing for butts and seats, but that's not what we're about."And though her film Afghan Star may have lost out to Anvil in the Feature Documentary category, director Havana Marking took the phrase, "It's an honor just to be nominated" one step further, telling Tonic, "It's very exciting to have documentaries recognized at all."

Marking then captured the essence of the evening by adding, "Sometimes you feel that documentaries are forgotten about amongst the glitz and glamour out here, but ultimately real stories and real people are always going to be more interesting than actors and actresses."

Career Achievement Award

Errol Morris

Pioneer Award

Nicolas Noxon

Amicus Award

Michael Donaldson

Continuing Series Award

POV

Executive Director: Simon Kilmurry, ?Vice President: Cynthia López

American Documentary, Inc.; PBS

Limited Series Award

Architecture School

Director/Executive Producer/Original Concept: Michael Selditch?

IDA Music Documentary Award

Anvil! The Story of Anvil

Director: Sacha Gervasi

IDA/Humanias Award

Garbage Dreams

Director/Producer/Cinematographer/Writer: Mai Iskander

IDA/Pare Lorentz Award

The Final Inch

Director/Producer: Irene Taylor Brodsky

IDA/ABCNEWS Videosource Award

Wounded Knee

Director/Producer: Stanley Nelson

IDA/David L. Wolper Student Documentary Achievement Award

The First Kid to Learn English from Mexico

Director/Producer: Peter Jordan

(Front photo of Anvil! by Brent J. Craig via anvilthemovie.com. Photos of Anvil! and Havana Marking at IDA Awards by Michael Kovac/FilmMagic.)