At the beginning of the year, the former New York Times film critic was showing up at film festivals and screening "The Black List: Volume One," a documentary he did with photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.

The film had Mitchell interviewing noted African-American personalities -- Chris Rock, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Toni Morrison and Colin Powell, to name a few -- on their experiences and perspectives living as a black person in America.

The film played at the Sundance and South By Southwest film festivals, which Mitchell and Greenfield-Sanders attended. It also played the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in April, but only Greenfield-Sanders and a couple of producers showed up for that one.

So where were you, playa?

"I think I was in Toronto," Mitchell explains over the phone. "I think it was a division of labor. I mean, we've been going to so many festivals with this thing, you know. Because we want people to see it, and theatrically, if we can."

So you weren't blowing us off, perhaps sensing that our festival isn't as cool and buzz-worthy as those other festivals you've attended?

"Oh come on -- no, no, no, no, no, no," he says. "Anyplace I can go and get some good food, believe me. So, don't even take it like that.

"My apologies to the people there. I apologize. I will get there -- and then, you can take me to get me barbecue. And I'll have a bone to pick with you, literally. We'll be picking bones together."

These days it appears that the 47-year-old Mitchell has so many projects on his plate, being everywhere at once almost seems like the goal.

People will be able to catch his work twice on the small screen this summer. "List" will begin airing on HBO next month. (An accompanying book will be released in September.) And now, Mitchell is the host of his own interview show, "Elvis Mitchell: Under the Influence," which will begin airing on Turner Classic Movies at 8 p.m. Monday.

The show will feature actors and filmmakers talking about the movies and performances that inspired them, and what inspires them in their work.

It's significant that the show is titled "Elvis Mitchell: Under the Influence" and not the more obvious "Under the Influence with Elvis Mitchell." Mitchell has been getting Hollywood's elite to be candid about what drives them as artists for years on his long-running radio show "The Treatment" (which can be heard on www.kcrw.com).

People who love movies

The title fits right from the opening credit sequence. A dapper Mitchell defiantly walks past lights and curtains before beaming a smile for the camera, letting it be known that he's the only dude who can get stars like these to open up on camera, and we're fortunate to witness it.

To paraphrase Oran "Juice" Jones, it's his world and we're all squirrels trying to get a nut.

"You went back to Oran 'Juice' Jones -- oh my God!" he says, laughing. "You're going back to 'The Rain?' That is the best one I've ever heard. Nobody's rolled like that with me. Congratulations, dude -- you're the cat."

Thanks. But, really, was it your intention to show how integral you are to the proceedings?

"Well, I hope so. The title and, you know, the grammar of the title is all on TCM. But, yeah, I like to think I'm integral to the whole thing in some way or another. Of course, many of us are replaceable, but I like to think that they came to me for the show."

TCM did approach Mitchell to do "Influence," looking to do a TV equivalent of his radio show. He traveled to L.A. and New York to interview his first two guests, men who just happened to have made recent, unfortunate headlines. In the series opener, Mitchell interviews actor-director Sydney Pollack, who died of cancer in May at the age of 73. In the second episode, which will air next week, he talks to Bill Murray, whose recent marital woes have been the subject of many tabloids and gossip Web sites.

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