As Smart As They Are: The Author Project / 2005

A documentary film tracing the collaboration between One Ring Zero, the Brooklyn house-band for McSweeney's Publishing, and an ensemble cast of award-winning authors, each of whom contributed original lyrics. Author Myla Goldberg torments guest singer Syd Straw with tongue twisting, five star vocabulary words. Paul Auster riffs on the ills of Cincinatti and the Iraq war. The film's title, in fact, comes from the inspired dialogue of a talking cockroach.