Anthology Film Archives

Film Screenings / Programs / Series

DANIEL JOHNSTON

September 20 – September 22

September 20-22, 2025

Songwriter, musician, and artist Daniel Johnston passed away in 2019, but both his music and artwork continue to attract rapturous attention. Johnston is certainly best known as a stunningly prolific songwriter, whose unique, deeply personal, vulnerable, and unapologetically lo-fi songs – most of them initially recorded and distributed on cassette tape – attracted legions of fans despite, or because of, their unpolished textures and their disarming reflections of the mental illness with which he struggled throughout his life. Celebrated both by critics and fellow musicians (most famously Kurt Cobain, but also Jad Fair, Tom Waits, Jeff Tweedy, and many others), Johnston’s music was only one manifestation of his creativity. He was an equally prolific artist, compulsively producing countless drawings that reflected – perhaps even more than his music – his singular preoccupations, highly distinctive set of characters and symbols, and his unique view of the world.

In collaboration with Johnston’s sister, Marjory Johnston, as well as gallerist Deborah Colton, Anthology presents a weekend of screenings of some of the films and videos that have documented Johnston’s life and work, including the acclaimed documentary THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON (2005), the concert film THE ANGEL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON: LIVE AT THE UNION CHAPEL (2008), and a brand-new work, FLAT TIRE DOWN MEMORY LANE (2025), in which filmmaker Avalon Stevens provides a fascinating glimpse of Johnston’s artwork and the collections that he assembled and among which he lived in his home in Waller, Texas, in his final years.

Marjory Johnston will be here in person to present the screenings!

Special thanks to Marjory Johnston, Deborah Colton, and Avalon Stevens.

Upcoming Screenings

< Back to Series