We should confess that, before seeing the Sundance award-winning documentary this Sunday for the second weekend of IndieFest, we didn't know very much about the eponymous singer-songwriter -- we liked that charmingly-naive "Speeding Motorcycle" song, remembered vaguely that Kurt Cobain had worn a Johnston shirt at the MTV Video Music Awards one year, and oh yeah, wasn't Johnston mentally ill, but not the guy who did that "Alanis Morrisette" song?

Forty-four-year-old Daniel Johnston's life is sort of an outsider artist indie rock legend -- he drifted into Austin, Texas in the mid-80s, after dropping out of the circus (no, really!). He wandered around town, giving out copies of his album Hi How Are You, which he had recorded himself on a Sony boom box. People found the songs compelling, and when MTV swung into town for their show "The Cutting Edge," they thought Johnston's crazy antics would make for good TV. Unfortunately, the crazy antics were probably also a sign that Johnston was becoming increasingly bipolar.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston documents Johnston's life, music, and mental illness, through interviews with family members, friends, and Johnston's own archives. Johnston, a profilic artist, had been making biographical films and cassettes since he was a child and sending tape-recorded letters to his friends, and granted the filmmakers access to the material. It's really an amazing and thought-provoking film.

Art by Daniel Johnston

The Devil and Daniel Johnston