Dig!, Ondi Timoner’s documentary about frenemy bands The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols, premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize. For its 20th anniversary, Timoner has updated the film, now titled DIG! XX, and it will premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, 20 years and one day after the original.
Filmed over seven years in the ’90s and early ’00s, Dig! follows the two bands, who began as partners in crime but ended up bitter rivals. Full of quotable exchanges, onstage meltdowns and fistfights, every kind of rock n’ roll excess imaginable, real life Spinal Tap moments, broken sitars, and great music, too, Dig! is a modern classic that is compelling even if you’ve never heard one note of either band. Gilmore Girls even paid homage to the film in a 2005 episode of the series that guest-starred mutton-chopped BJM tambourinist Joel Gion.
Both BMJ’s Anton Newcombe and Dandy Warhols’ Courtney Taylor-Taylor have contended since its release that the film was an inaccurate portrayal of those years, with more emphasis on fighting and “Jerry Springer moments” that the music, so maybe this new cut of Dig! will course correct. Courtney’s original narration has been replaced by Gion (who stole many scenes in the film) and includes “40 carefully selected additional minutes, bringing the story up to today.”
Both the Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols shared the DIG! XX announcement, so perhaps they are both happy with this new version of the film.
You can check out the DIG! XX poster and press release, and watch the original Dig! trailer, below.
The Brian Jonestown Massacre have gotten over their Dig!-era reputation for chaotic live shows in the last decade, but the old BJM reared its head as Newcombe and guitarist Ryan Van Kriedt got into an onstage brawl at a show in Melbourne, Australia.
DIG! XX is far from the only music documentary premiering at Sundance 2024.
