Video

This intimate and eloquent documentary traces the unorthodox path of Daniel Smith -- eccentric musician, visual artist and devout Christian -- as he creates a musical phenomenon with siblings and friends under the name Danielson Famile, eventually struggling to realize his own identity as an artist once the family members begin their own adult lives. Along the way he mentors an unknown singer-songwriter named Sufjan Stevens, whose subsequent success stands in contrast to the music world's uneasy reception of Danielson just a few years earlier. Combining hybrid storytelling, essential live performances, animated sequences and a dollop of Danielson archives, director JL Aronson offers a provocative yet subtle look at a complex life outside the mainstream.