by CHRIS BARRY

Damn, these rock 'n' roll documentaries keep getting better all the time. With Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones, Mayor of the Sunset Strip, 2004 was already poised to be remembered as the year of the awesome rock docs. But with the release of DIG!, Ondi Timoner's superlative study of two "up and coming" alt-rock bands, the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre, I'd argue said title is virtually assured.

Yup, DIG! is that good - regardless of whether or not you could care less about either group. Culled from 1,500 hours of footage and shot over the course of seven long years, DIG! harkens back to the halcyon days of rock cinéma vérité - Gimme Shelter and Don't Look Back, as opposed to VH1's Behind the Music - to document the very different experiences of these two alt-rock acts.

The Dandy Warhols, a comparatively well-adjusted and arguably class act, opted to take the major label route to the toppermost of the poppermost. The Brian Jonestown Massacre, on the other hand, are an almost unbelievable ensemble of way dysfunctional, yet thoroughly engaging, characters - led by the violent, strung-out sociopath Anton Newcombe, an exceptional talent whose ambition to create a musical "revolution" is consistently thwarted by his overwhelming tendency to self-destruct.

"My original idea for this film was to look at 10 [up and coming] bands with the purpose of trying to communicate what happens when art meets industry," explains Timoner. "But I wound up focusing on the Dandys and BJM because they were both so extremely who they were - these unabashed characters who had these relationships with each other and who were all just so over the top. Within the first two weeks of filming, the BJM had already attacked each other on the Viper Room stage, you know? They just had such a great story."

Though Timoner holds back very little in the telling of it, she admits that trying to present the narcissistic Newcombe as a sympathetic character presented something of a challenge.

"My idea was to film every aspect of life so thoroughly that I could actually re-create it for people," says Timoner. "But when I showed [an early edit of] the film to five of my confidantes they all said, ‘You've got to do something. Your story's great but we simply can't stand your protagonist.'

"So I went back to edit in what I felt made him special. I pulled out one or two scenes of him punching out his band and happily threw in scenes where people were calling him a genius. But truth is, I just did what I could to make the narrative work. It certainly wasn't to protect Anton."

Massacre online

Judging by the invective he's unleashed upon her on his Web site and to the media in general since the film's release, this is a statement that Newcombe no doubt agrees with. According to Newcombe, DIG!'s representation of his character simply doesn't cut the mustard in any way, shape, or form, describing the final edit of the film as a "Jerry Springer-esque vilification of [his] nature" and "an inappropriate, mis contextualized [sic] and exploitative use of [Timoner's] footage."

"Look," responds Timoner, "he wouldn't be Anton if he didn't pooh-pooh the film. I know he's an exceptionally talented artist and an inspiration to many people. But he's a very questionable human being in the way that he treats people.

"The saddest part of making this film was watching other people's dreams go down with him. Anton's lucky I made this film how I made it. All it's done is benefit him."

DIG! opens at Cinéma du Parc, Friday, Jan. 7

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