Tonight, light this one

In a genre filled with idiosyncratic auteurs, I've seen few documentary filmmakers who bring their force of personality to bear so strongly on their work as Ross McElwee. Tonight, you're in for a treat as his celebrated film "Bright Leaves" airs on the PBS series "P.O.V."  As always, check your local listings.

Link: Kansas City Star | Barnhart | Real smoking satisfaction from ‘Bright Leaves’

As usual, P.O.V.'s got lots of extras on the film at its website.  And here's an audio clip from the movie that I think captures his unique first-person style perfectly. (0:55, MP3)

In other news:

• In today's TV Barn Radio segment of my KMOX show, Aaron Barnhart talks about HBO's new series, "Rome," which debuts Sunday night.  Then we talk about my earlier item about Bob Costas and Jack Cafferty, who both expressed their dissatisfaction with their employer, CNN, on the air last week over the network's obsession with the BTK killer and Natalee Holloway. (Harris Online)
• The "What They Should've Said!" contest is off to an inauspicious start.  I may have to go out and recruit celebrity contestants to play for charity if we can't get any snappier responses than the unidentified reader known as Jason, who had Bill Clinton calling Wolf Blitzer "Shep" (which is actually funny enough to win, if only Jason would tell me his email).