Oct. 20: Alan Zweig

Zweig winning his Tiffy.

We've got a legit film maker on the show this week. Alan Zweig recently took home the Tiffy (I don't know if there's an actual name for the award but there should be) for Best Canadian Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival for his documentary When Jews Were Funny. That's how good it was – a documentary won for best feature, not best documentary. I haven't seen it yet but it will apparently be playing the Jewish Film Fest here in Vancouver in November. I have seen three of Zweig's other docs and I recommend each one highly: Vinyl, I, Curmudgeon, and Lovable.

When Zweig was in town for the Vancouver International Film Festival a couple weeks back, I sat down and talked over an hour with him about all his films, including his most recent one and what it's like to interview old Jewish comedians. If you haven't seen any of his highly personal docs, you've got to check them out. Here's your homework leading up to the show Sunday night: Watch Vinyl (from 2000). You won't be able to stop and you'll wish there was more. It's ostensibly about fanatic record collectors but really about Zweig. You don't even have to go looking for it; I've embedded it below for your viewing pleasure. Of course, you don't need to have seen it to enjoy our talk. Tune in at 11 pm PT to CFRO 100.5 FM in Vancouver or livestream it at coopradio.org. And if those don't work for you, you can always wait about a week until it's released in podcast form.