The Devil and Daniel Johnston

Daniel Johnston, from Texas, was a musician who filled cassettes in the eighties and handed them out in sleeves he drew himself. His songs reached a wide audience through names like Kurt Cobain. In the same period he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and his life split between hospitals and touring. Jeff Feuerzeig directed. The documentary's strength is its material: Johnston recorded most of his own life. There is an enormous archive of tapes, home video, phone calls and drawings, and the film rests almost entirely on it. It does not romanticise the illness. The family accounts are especially hard; his father describes directly the crash that followed his son switching off the ignition while they were flying a small plane. It won the documentary directing award at Sundance in 2005. Johnston's drawings and songs reached a far larger audience because of the film. Who it is for: viewers who like music documentaries and stories of artists left outside. Who it is not for: anyone troubled by mental illness shown directly.