As illustrated in the two photos of Mister Rogers and me, music was a core component to my relationship with PBS icon Mister Rogers. In the first, taken in his Nantucket living room, I am holding my guitar moments after playing "Summer's Gone" for him. In the second, we are in his Nantucket study in front of his piano where he'd just played me "It's A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood." For me, songwriting has always been a means of understanding that which Mister Rogers called "the essential invisible": sadness, fear, uncertainty, love, ...

The sunlight is creeping in through the window of the plane. In 30,000 feet more, LAX-JFK Flight #30 will be back home again. It's been an eleven year trip. See, Mister Rogers summered in a modest, gray, shake-shingled house on the edge of Nantucket. My mother rented a tiny cottage next door. So Mister Rogers really was my neighbor. Somehow, one brief but powerful conversation with the television icon on the afternoon of my 30th birthday way back in 2001 inspired me to write, produce and co-direct (with my brother who shot and edited) a ...

"Mister Rogers & Me" filmmakers Benjamin and Christofer Wagner will host a "Mister Rogers & Me" NYC Premiere Party, Soundtrack Release & Live-Stream Q&A at Rockwood Music Hall Thursday, March 22 7-9pm. The event is free, and will feature performances of songs from the "Mister Rogers & Me" soundtrack, clips from the film, and a Q&A. The evening will be live streamed on uStream. Questions for the filmmakers can be submitted via Twitter using the hashtag #AskMisterRogers. The soundtrack to "Mister Rogers & Me" will be available at the event, ...

Filmmakers Christofer and Benjamin Wagner will be joined by Found Magazine Creator and "This American Life" Contributor Davy Rothbart and "I'm Proud Of You: Life Lessons From My Friend Fred Rogers" Author, Tim Madigan for the Los Angeles premiere of "Mister Rogers & Me" Monday, March 19th at The Paley Center For Media. The event is free, and celebrates the March 20 release of "Mister Rogers & Me" on PBS Home Video in honor of America's Favorite Neighbor's 84th birthday. Paley Center attendees are encouraged to wear cardigans. Benjamin ...

Documentary filmmaker brothers Benjamin and Christofer Wagner will screen and discuss their new film, "Mister Rogers & Me" Sunday, March 18, 2012 at 2:00 PM at Washington, DC's Newseum. The 80-minute feature film explores the life and legacy of PBS icon Fred Rogers. A panel discussion featuring NPR Correspondent Susan Stamberg, "The Simple Faith Of Mister Rogers" Author Amy Hollingsworth, and Vanity Fair Correspondent Maureen Orth (was married to Tim Russert until his death in 2008) will follow the screening. The event is free with museum ...

In September, 2001, American Television Icon Mister Rogers told MTV-producer Benjamin Wagner to "Spread the message" that "deep and simple is far more essential than shallow and complex." On March 20, that message will be writ large. The feature-length documentary, "Mister Rogers & Me," will be released on PBS DVD and iTunes March 20, 2012, in honor of America's Favorite Neighbor's birthday. Copies of "Mister Rogers & Me" on DVD are available for pre-order now at ShopPBS.org. DVD Special features include a Paley Center For Media Q&A ...

Filmmakers Benjamin and Christofer Wagner will return to their adolescent stomping ground to screen their documentary, "Mister Rogers & Me," at The Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, Sunday, March 11 at 4:30p. A Q&A with the one-time residents will follow the screening. Both brothers attended nearby Tredyffrin-Easttown Middle and Conestoga Senior High Schools in the late-80s. Proceeds will benefit The Association for the Colonial Theatre. "Mister Rogers & Me" is a moving, feature-length documentary in which The Wagner ...

Filmmakers Christofer and Benjamin Wagner will present their feature-length documentary, "Mister Rogers & Me" at the Nantucket Atheneum on Saturday, March 3 at 7 p.m. The brothers will introduce the film and conduct a Q&A with the audience when it concludes. Admission to the Athenium screening is free. The screening marks the first time the brothers have returned to the island together since premiering the film at the Nantucket Film Festival in 2010. The two shot b-roll in Madaket, on Eel Point and in town over numerous summers, and ...

Last week, Chicago Reader reporter Mike Sula wrote a great blurb prior to our "Mister Rogers & Me" Gene Siskel Center premiere. He described the film simply and succinctly as "A road trip in which the video maker asks media types, activists, and religious figures (Tim Russert, Linda Ellerbee, Davy Rothbart) how Rogers's message of simplicity, self love, and neighborliness inspired their own work and worldview." "As someone who grew up watching Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and then met Fred Rogers in adulthood," he wrote, "I can tell you ...

"Mister Rogers & Me" will screen at Chicago's Gene Siskel Film Center on Sunday, February 12th at 3pm. Co-creator, director and editor Christofer Wagner will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A. Pre-sale tickets are available here. The screening will be a homecoming of sorts. The Wagner Brothers, Christofer and Benjamin, (who co-wrote, produced, and directed the 80-minute documentary) lived in nearby Oak Park, IL, as children. The two grew up watching a then nascent "At The Movies" (featuring Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert) -- one of ...