Already on VOD and coming to the IFC Center as part of New York Super Week this Friday, October 10 and Saturday, October 11: HARMONTOWN
Neil Berkeley’s portrait of an unlikely celebrity writer/showrunner debuted at SXSW earlier this year. It went on to screen at Los Angeles, deadCENTER, Hot Docs, and Napa Valley, as well as at numerous special screenings this Fall. The film came to iTunes, Amazon Video, Google Play, Xbox/Playstation, and other VOD platforms last Friday.
Dan Harmon has attracted a cult following as the creator and showrunner of NBC’s COMMUNITY, a quirky and creative comedy with critical acclaim and a rabid fanbase that responded to the show’s focus on outsiders. A self-proclaimed nerd with self-destructive tendencies, Harmon found himself regularly embroiled in spats with executives and the show’s cast, leading to him famously being fired. Berkeley’s film follows the self-deprecating writer, reeling from this development, as he takes his popular (to those in the know) podcast/talk show on a tour across America. While the show itself is only occasionally amusing, what’s far more intriguing is the self-awareness that Harmon demonstrates about his uncomfortable relationship to celebrity and fan adulation, and his candidness about being, at times, a truly unlikeable person – most notably in a scene in which he and his girlfriend hash out an argument during the course of the show. His realization that, despite being an unabashed exercise in self-promotion, the tour, and this film as a result, is instead revealing him not as a hero, but as a villain, feels organic and refreshing, with Harmon and Berkeley offering quiet fan-turned-tour member Spencer, the D&D dungeonmaster, as a sweet, alternate protagonist in a film that speaks affectingly to the need for (self) acceptance and community within fandom.
what (not) to doc 