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An evening with Kiefer Sutherland

I can now comfortably stop being jealous of my friends and fellow Dittos down at SXSW right now. I could not possibly have gone to Austin this year, you see, because I had a prior meeting with Jack Bauer (photo) right here in DC, minutes from my apartment, at the DC Independent Film Festival. (Thanks to Catherine for the tip and Ginny for accompanying.) For the closing film, they screened I Trust You To Kill Me, a rockumentary about Kiefer and Rocco Deluca and the Burden, one of the first bands that his music label signed. Somewhat surprisingly for a music documentary, it was only half about the music. The other half was a very up-close and intimate look at Kiefer's off-screen life (as well as Rocco's) and his attempt at being tour manager for this [then] upstart band. In short, the film was awesome. It had all the ingredients of awesome-filmness:

1. Band on tour
2. Globetrotting to European and Scandinavian cities
3. 'Live' rock and roll (accompanied by edgy music-video inspired scene transitions)
4. Gratuitous behind-the-scenes shots of CTU and the 24 set. And Audrey Raines!
5. Rock star and celebrity actor's intertwined personal quests for meaning and fulfillment (you can go either way on this one, but the film definitely benefited from this)
6. Adventure

The movie was great, but the real take-away for me is that Kiefer now earns top placement on my coveted list of people I'd most like to party with. (Sorry, Clinton, but you're now #2.) This guy is funny, knows how to have a good time, and is definitely not the ass you'd expect him to be. He also seems sort of lonely and empty inside, but that's neither here nor there. After the movie, the two filmmakers came out with Sutherland for a discussion with the audience. And no, the 14 and 15 year old girls who ran up to ask if they could visit him in LA or get a hug right there did not once make me question my intentions for showing up. I'm a true supporter of independent film regardless of any coincidental appearances by the most badass dude from the best show on TV. After the discussion, they pulled back the curtain and Rocco and his band actually played a short set, which was pretty cool for a Sunday night in Van Ness. Or any Sunday night. Turns out they're much better live in real life than 'live' in a movie -- check out the tracks on their first album.