EVENTS: Both Open House NY and The New Yorker Festival are upon us. You can check out more of OHNY's event here, and The New Yorker Festival here. Some picks: The New Yorker Festival hosts a conversation with Errol Morris tonight. He'll be talking with staff writer Philip Gourevitch about Abu Ghraib, with clips shown from Standard Operating Procedure -- his new film is a study of the prison-abuse scandal. Friday // 8pm // Directors......

Herzog [Non] Fiction Film Forum Madman. Genius Auteur. Whether you think German director Werner Herzog falls into the camp of the former, the later or a mix of the two, the next three weeks at Film Forum will be a great chance to get better acquainted with this fascinating, prolific filmmaker's documentary works. Renowned for bringing his camera to inhospitable locales in search of the unfilmable and profiling the penultimate fringe characters, Herzog's most recent......

It's that time of the year again: When Hollywood honors its moviemaking the way it knows (and not always in equitable ways, given that Alfred Hitchcock nor Robert Altman, to name a few, have never won Directing Oscars) and America gets to watch hours of pre-show hosted by idiots. Giving commentary for Gothamist this year, Karen Wilson, Margaret Harper, and Jen Chung. 7:06PM First thoughts: Gael Garcia Bernal is so cute. Ryan Seacrest is an......

The hate crime trial of Nicholas Minucci, aka Big Nick, began yesterday at the State Supreme Court in Queens. The Queens DA's opening statment argued that Minucci and his friends wanted to intimidate and injure Glenn Moore because he was black, while Minucci's defense lawyer Albert Gaudelli said their dispute was "minor dustup between six young men," especially since Moore and a friend were in the neighborhood to steal. Gaudelli also called the 19 count......

Last week we lost a dear friend and old contributor at Gothamist, Ben Chappel. We wanted to take a moment to remember the work he did and the wonderful person he was. When Ben first started here, he interviewed Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls. After he got back from their meeting, he sent us a photo of him and her and explained that there would be no interview. The two became friends instead. That's......

After all the blizzardy snow, Gothamist was wondering what would happen to Christo and Jeanne-Claude's The Gates in The Central Park. Would they be completely covered, necessitating some serious heat waves to melt the snow? Or would The Gates be imperceptible to the elements? Luckily, Tien answered those questions with a visit to the park: The gates are visible and they are being using as fire hydrants by dogs (we hope). High-falutin art concepts, begone,......

- Is NY safer? Some people's actions say otherwise. - Subway's big birthday and a new Ms. Subways, amidst the realities of a fare hike - It is so - Joe's Pizza will close - What happens when you call the President's comment line from Washington Square Park - Cheap NYC eats - Smoking ban killing trial begins - People love to debate video stores - Plum wine suggestions - BoSox win...NEXT - Sets and......

Conversation And Call To Action With Errol Morris...

In time for the Oscars this Sunday, greg.org has a great interview with Errol Morris about making The Fog of War, one of the best movies Gothamist has seen this year. greg.org captures the cadence of Morris, one of the most influential filmmakers today, in the way he spaces the interview. For example, when greg.org asks how Morris made the film and he responds: Very, very few people ever ask me about the film as......

Gothamist is not the biggest fan of Chris Matthews and Hardball (we may be used to shouting, but Hardball makes our ears bleed), but we do recommend watching it tonight for Matthews's exclusive interview with former Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara. McNamara, who served under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and was involved with the Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam War, is the subject of the new documentary, Fog of War, by Errol Morris. Gothamist saw......

If it's fall, it must be time for the New York Film Festival. This year, the opening night film is Mystic River, the ensemble drama directed by Clint Eastwood. The cast is ridiculously loaded with great actors: Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins, Laura Linney, Marcia Gay Harden, and Laurence Fishburne. The story is dark, eliciting comparisons to Eastwood's tour de force western, Unforgiven, but its present day setting makes it more wrenching. Sean......

This is Hamilton Morris, Ellen "Beep Beep Beep" Feiss's friend, also son of Errol Morris, documentarian and the director behind the Switch ads. Apple - Switch - Ads - Hamilton Morris......