SXSW so far...

[squints]

i missed it, it only played once and i wasn't here yet. What's the best GB? The refugee all stars was awesome

[Ultrahip]

so A Praire Home Companion was absolutely the greatest thing at the fest, no surprise there, but did anyone else see The Oh in Ohio? not because it was that good or anything, even though it was pretty funny at times, but because of the music in a certain scene. I know another xixaxer must have noticed this scene, because when it came, i had been mildly enjoying the film, only slightly involved in any of the characters, then all of a sudden: i was swooning!

i was getting goose-bumps and had a base of the spine reaction saying this is amazing! what a romantic scene! then the high wore off and i figured out why i'd randomly felt this way...the music in this scene with parker posey and danny devito by the pool was fucking ripped straight from Punch-Drunk Love! Like copyright infringement rip off. Perhaps two or three notes were changed, maybe the scale tipped the other way somewhere in the middle or the end of the melody...but otherwise it was the same fucking harmonium and strings that play, among other times, when sandler is running down the hallway trying to find lena's room. who else saw this oh in ohio and got pissed off? because they raped a jon brion song. so you should be pissed off.

[squints]

Didn't see the Oh in Ohio but this is what i did see:

Cocaine Angel
Al Franken: God Spoke
Shadow Company
The Cassidy Kids
loudQUIETloud
Reel Shorts 2
a/k/a Tommy Chong
The Refugee All-Stars
Inner Circle Line
Maxed Out
A Scanner Darkly
Awesome: I fuckin Shot That!
Summercamp!
Live Free or Die
A Prairie Home Companion
American Dreamz

Inner Circle Line was my favorite narrative (not counting PHC or American Dreamz)/ Maxed Out my favorite doc. All of the movies were pretty impressive the filmmakers were very cool and Austin is a great town (except when the music festival started, jesus christ!)

[Ghostboy]

I saw:

Old Joy
A Prairie Home Companion
My Country, My Country
Eve And The Fire Horse
TV Junkie
Gretchen
Fired!
The Cassidy Kids
The Lost
Live Free Or Die
Darkon
LOL
Punk Like Me
51 Birch Street
Cruel And Unusual
S&Man
Before The Music Dies
Letters From The Other Side
Summercamp!
Jumping Off Bridges
Motorcycle
Brothers Of The Head
Fuck
The Last Romantic
Cocaine Angel
loudQUIETloud: The Pixies
2AM

And about 40 shorts.

LOL was my favorite, followed by Old Joy, Prairie Home, Motorcycle and probably a few others that my brain is too fried to remember completely at the moment. I need to take at least two days off from movies.

[RegularKarate]

I didn't get to see as movies this year because I had a shit load of other stuff to do (including a wedding, seeing some bands, seeing Patton Oswalt twice, and a shit load of panels).

overall, this festival wasn't nearly as good as the past few years.  Not because of the attendance being so big, but because the films just weren't as good.

I saw:

A Prairie Home Companion
Al Franken: God Spoke
Danny Roane: First Time Director
Midnight Shorts
Gretchen
Bee and a Cigarette
Fired
The Cassidy Kids
The Lost
LOL
AKA Tommy Chong
Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas
Maxed Out
A Scanner Darkly
Animated Shorts
V for Vendetta

LOL, Prairie Home Companion, and Maxed Out were probably my favorites and Bickford Shmeckler was the worst (seriously, it's an abomination).
In retrospect, Scanner is growing on me, but I need to see t again.

[squints]

seeing Patton Oswalt twice

Hey! i saw him twice too. Once at Emo's and again on Friday at the Cap City Comedy Club. He was fucking terrific and meeting him made it that much cooler. I know he played a lot of dates, where'd you see him?

[RegularKarate]

seeing Patton Oswalt twice

Hey! i saw him twice too. Once at Emo's and again on Friday at the Cap City Comedy Club. He was fucking terrific and meeting him made it that much cooler. I know he played a lot of dates, where'd you see him?

I saw him Friday too... the 10:30 show... is that the show you saw?  Were you the ones from Oklahoma or were you the filmmaker that said you wanted to make his rapestove movie?  My wife and I were having drinks with him that night so we met a lot of the walk-ups.

[squints]

seeing Patton Oswalt twice

Hey! i saw him twice too. Once at Emo's and again on Friday at the Cap City Comedy Club. He was fucking terrific and meeting him made it that much cooler. I know he played a lot of dates, where'd you see him?

I saw him Friday too... the 10:30 show... is that the show you saw?  Were you the ones from Oklahoma or were you the filmmaker that said you wanted to make his rapestove movie?  My wife and I were having drinks with him that night so we met a lot of the walk-ups.

I was there with two fellas who had never heard of him before, after the show i was like the second person to walk up to him and say hello then i went outside for a smoke. The guys i was with were probably the guys from Oklahoma, one had a faux hawk and the other was a douche bag i just met who got an undeserving picture with Patton. the bastard! either way it was a great show.

[RegularKarate]

From http://www.indiewire.com/ots/2007/02/61_world_premie.html:

SXSW '07 | 61 World Premieres Set for 2007 Fest in Austin; Frank's "The Lookout" Opens March Event


by Brian Brooks (February 6, 2007)
The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival unveiled the feature lineup for its upcoming 14th edition, with 110 films slated for the fest's diverse sections over nine days. The increasingly important U.S. film festival and conference precedes the popular SXSW Music gathering in Austin, but continues throughout the music industry event. This year's film roster includes 61 world, nine North American and seven U.S. premieres screening at the fest, taking place March 9 - 17 in Austin, Texas. As previously announced, SXSW's film event will open with the world debut of Scott Frank's "The Lookout."

The 2007 SXSW "Spotlight Premieres" sections includes Judd Apatow's "Knocked Up," Katy Chevigny's "Election Day," 2006 Toronto International Film Festival feature "All The Boys Love Mandy Lane" by Jonathan Levine, Mike Mills' "Does Your Soul Have a Cold?" Michele Ohayon's "Steal a Pencil For Me," Doug Pray's "Big Rig," and Sundance '07 film, "The Ten" by David Wain.

In the Narrative Feature Competition, "But I'm a Cheerleader" director Jamie Babbitt will screen "Itty Bitty Titty Committee," while "Madness and Genius" director Ryan Eslinger will be in Austin with "When a Man Falls in the Forest," and "Heathers" director Michael Lehmann will screen "Flakes" in the section. In the doc competition, Macky Alston ("Questioning Faith: Confessions of a Seminarian") will screen "Hard Road Home" and Marlo Poras will join the fest with "Run Granny Run."

"This year, we received a record number of submissions and thankfully that also means the quality was higher than ever," said SXSW Film Festival Producer Matt Dentler in a statement about this year's approximately 3,100 submissions. "People will probably look for themes in the program, but no theme rings more true than just a great batch of films we're eager to screen for our audiences. It's going to be a fun ride."



See the full article for an expanded list, but here it is without the descriptions:

SPOTLIGHT PREMIERES

638 Ways to Kill Castro
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
Bella
Big Rig
Doubletime
Election Day
Elvis and Anabelle
Everything's Gone Green
Exiled
Does Your Soul Have a Cold?
Eagle Vs. Shark
Hannah Takes the Stairs
He Was a Quiet Man
Hell on Wheels
Knocked Up
Kurt Cobain About a Son
The Lookout
Manufacturing Dissent
The Prisoner, or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair
Running With Arnold
Sisters
Smiley Face
Steal a Pencil for Me
Suffering Man's Charity
The Ten
What Would Jesus Buy?

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION

Audience of One
Billy the Kid
Campaign
Cat Dancers
Greensboro: Closer to the Truth
Hard Road Home
Run Granny Run
When Adnan Comes Home

NARRATIVE FEATURES COMPETITION

Blackbird
Flakes
Frownland
Itty Bitty Titty Committee
Orphans
Pretty in the Face
Skills Like This
When a Man Falls in the Forest

EMERGING VISIONS

American Zombie
Arranged
August the First
Confessions of a Superhero
Fall from Grace
Fish Kill Flea
Great World of Sound
Helvetica
Kamp Katrina
King Corn
Lost in Woonsocket
Monkey Warfare
The Price of Sugar
Quiet City
Scrambled Beer
Trigger Man
Twisted: a Ballonamentary

24 BEATS PER SECOND

1 More Hit
Companeras
Dirty Country
The Gits
James Blunt: Return to Kosovo
The Last Days of Left Eye
Robyn Hitchcock: Sex, Food, Death, and Insects
Scott Walker: 30 Century Man
Silver Jew
Wetlands Preserved: the Story of an Activist Rock Club

'ROUND MIDNIGHT

Black Sheep
Borderland
The Devil Dared Me To
Fido
Grimm Love
Kenny
Mulberry Street
Murder Party
Severance
The Signal
Them
Undead or Alive: a Zombedy

LONE STAR STATES

Forfeit
Inside the Circle
Love and Mary
Third Ward, Tx
The Unforeseen
Weaving Worlds

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

After the Wedding
August Evening
Blindsight
Call of the Hummingbird
Cashback
Cherry Valley
The Devil Came on Horseback
Diggers
Electric Apricot: the Quest for Festeroo
Everything's Cool
Imprint
The King of Kong
The Lather Effect
Truth in Terms of Beauty
Who Loves the Sun
Zoo

[Pubrick]

so many great titles, they can't all be good.

[pete]

go see exiled.  go go go.

[RegularKarate]

Okay, I'm just copying all this from my blog... this is what I saw..not nearly as much as I've been able to in the past, unfortunately...

Friday:

Suffering Man's Charity: This is Alan Cumming's latest directorial effort.  He also stars alongside David Boreanaz (from Angel).  Cumming introduced the movie and I really wanted to like it because he's a really charismatic and funny guy, but this thing just fell really flat.  There were a few chuckles, but it just didn't quite get off the ground.  Also, David Boreanaz is a snooze

The Lookout: Okay, I don't really get to say anything about this because I left halfway through, but I look forward to watching it all the way through because I really liked the first half, but I had to get over to Emo's to see Todd Barry.

Saturday:

The Ten: Sweet mother of crap, what a funny damn movie.  This is from David Wain (Stella, The State, Wet Hot American Summer, etc...), the best solo filmmaker from the bunch it seems.  It's basically a compilation of ten different short films each loosely based on a different commandment.  Paul Rudd (who was in at LEAST three movies at the festival) narrates while he deals with personal issues that eventually take over the movie.  There are a lot of cameos and while not all of the shorts are equally funny, it's solidly hilarious.  I can't wait to see it again.

Skills Like This: PeeeeYoooo!  What a boring, predictable, formulaic mess of mediocrity.  I kept thinking about how I wrote dialogue like that when I first started writing and knew back then it wasn't worth being filmed and it just embarrassed me while I watched.  I left so maybe my opinion doesn't count.  This movie went on to win the audience award, but I heard there may have been some cheating involved.  Seems like there would have to have been.

Manufacturing Dissent:   Every SXSW, there's a film that everyone argues about before it even screens, this was that film this year.  The Canadian filmmakers set out to make a documentary on Michael Moore because of how impressed they were with him and wanted to find out more and ended up questioning his methods.  Nothing all that new was discovered, we already know he manipulates his footage and kind of distorts the truth, he's always admitted this (though I didn't know that he actually shot stuff in a studio and edited it with live footage to make it look like he was at places he wasn't in Roger and Me), but it took an interesting enough look at the big picture to keep me watching.  During the Q&A, a good deal of the audience was divided on why they hated the film.  One third were Michael Moore defenders who were pissed that the filmmakers would even question their hero and another third of the audience were avid Moore haters who were upset that the film was made by liberals and didn't completely rip Moore to shreds.  The last third of the audience didn't really take part in the Q&A, we just sat and enjoyed the fight.


SUNDAY:

Hanna Takes The Stairs:   This is one of my favorite films this year.  Joe Swanberg (who did the fantastic SXSW trailers this year) released LOL, my favorite film at last year's festival and then quickly followed it with this, which was made in the same fashion (almost entirely improvised on a very minimal budget).  This one was even better.  There are so many things I like about these films (this one especially).  It shows that you can really do something like this... you can actually get a handful of actors, a camera, simple lighting and sound equipment, and just lock yourselves up for a couple of months and shoot a great film.  Most filmmakers would do this and it would turn into a lame pile of pretentious slobber, but these guys (and gals) seem to pull it off. 
It also feels so warm... you feel like these are people you know up on screen (granted I've met a good deal of the people involved).
There's another element that I can't quite put my finger on as well.  Something that just strikes a chord that just gets me so inspired, it makes me want to drop everything I'm doing and start making films. 
I wish Swanberg (who I drunkenly embarrassed myself in front of at the after party) success, mostly for selfish reasons... mostly so he'll keep making films.


Monday:

Audience of One:   This is Similar to American Movie, but with less dumb and more crazy.  It's about a Pentecostal church pastor who after seeing his first movie at age 40, is told by God that he needs to make a $200 million budget Sci-Fi Epic. 
Armed with a small initial budget (which seems outrageously large considering he has NO experience at all), a crew and cast made almost entirely out of other religious kooks, and a VERY expensive and unnecessarily large camera, he heads out to Italy to begin shooting.  They bumble the entire shoot and end up spending a huge amount of money on something like two shots of the film before they have to go back to the states to try to finish (and get the rest of the budget to finish). 
We were laughing throughout the entire movie at how ridiculous and clueless this guy was then for the Q&A, we find out that he was in fact sitting in the back row of the theater the entire time, watching the movie with us.   Yikes!
It took the audience a while to get used to that awkward feeling, but eventually someone just confronted him with the fact that we had just laughed at him and his answer made me understand his crazy a little better... I'm paraphrasing, but he basically said "Of course I'm embarrassed, you think I'm not embarrassed to have you all see me up on screen talking about...." (he talked about something so incredibly nuts that I don't want to spoil it) "Of course it's embarrassing, but what if I'm right?  What if God really wants me to do all these thing?  This is just a document of my commitment to him... it's now recorded what I was willing to do for God".

He's nuts, but I guess if you can get over the fact that he believes God would actually tell him to do something like this, you can kind of understand his reason for doing everything else he did.

Frownland:    Similar to what Ghostboy told me he felt about the film: I didn't LIKE this movie.  It was excruciating to watch and part of me wanted to walk out on it, but I really admire it and I'm glad it won a special jury award.  It's about a man who has the wires between his brain and his mouth crossed.  Everything he says is a stuttering soup of bits and pieces of real thoughts.  The movie pulls you into his world and it's miserable in there. 

Knocked Up:   This was my second time seeing Judd Apatow's latest film and it was even more enjoyable the second time around.  There was about twenty minutes cut out and it really focused the film (though I pray the deleted scenes are included on the DVD) and made it more solidly hilarious.  It's much better than 40 Year Old Virgin and I think it's really going to catch on and hopefully make Seth Rogan a bigger star.

Smiley Face:  I was assigned to tape the intro and Q&A for Greg Araki's newest film about a stoner who gets into some kind of goofy trouble.  They told me when they were assigning me to it that the easiest thing would be for me to set my camera up, shoot the intro, pack up my camera, watch the movie, then set back up for the Q&A... I didn't make it past 20 minutes into this pile of garbage.  The jokes were all the most stereotypical and predictable stoner jokes and the acting was as if no one involved in the film had ever even been around a stoned person.  The worst thing about it though was that the audience was eating it up... they were bursting with laughter... there's nothing that irritates me more than people laughing at the utterly unfunny.  It burns a hole in my stomach.
So I left... I went to a party (which I was supposed to get some footage of anyway) then came back in time for the Q&A.

Tuesday:

The Devil Came on Horseback:  This is a very disturbing a pretty powerful documentary on the genocide in Darfur.  An ex-soldier was assigned to "monitor the ceasefire" in that area and when he started seeing burned bodies of children tied together, he began taking pictures and was surprised to find how little was done once these pictures surfaced.
I made the mistake of ordering food during this... I didn't finish the pizza.

The Signal:  This is a horror movie divided into three parts, each directed by a different director about a television signal that causes people to turn into crazy zombies.  Not unlike Stephen King's Cell.  The first part was okay, the second was really good, and the third was pretty awful.  I hadn't realized while I was watching it that each part was a different director and found myself wondering why it got so crappy so quickly.  I got my answer during the credits.

Wednesday:

Big Rig:   This was a fun documentary about Truckers that I'm torn about my disappointment in.  The director set out to kind of explore the "Convoy" side of truckers... CB lingo, hookers, drugs, etc..., but of course, he found a more human side, but part of me really wanted to see the more superficial, stereotypical side of it.  The movie opens with really fun country music played over truckers speaking over the CB... that's what I got sucked into and I had to kind of adjust once the pace slowed to examine the lives of the truckers, who for the most part were really interesting and real people who are having to deal with a gas price crisis (getting paid $800 for a job, but it costs $300 to fill their tank).
Overall, it was a good movie, I was just surprised that I found myself wanting something more shallow.

Silver Jew:  This was a very short documentary about the Silver Jews and thier first live tour ever, which included going to Israel and rediscovering religion.  It was definitely worth watching and had some pretty decent music (silver jews, of course).

Thursday:

Kurt Cobain: About a Son:  When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with Nirvana and the day it came out, I went and bought Michael Azerrad's book Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana.  This shaped my teenage life.  I, like thousands of other teenagers at that time felt so close to Kurt Cobain.  A year after that book came out, Cobain committed suicide and that became the single thing almost anyone ever associated Nirvana with from that point forward.
My life has obviously changed a lot since and I rarely listen to Nirvana anymore, but seeing this film reminded me why I did.  This wasn't because of the nostalgia of hearing Nirvana again because this film doesn't feature one Nirvana song... another thing it doesn't feature is a single on-camera interview nor any voice other than Kurt Cobain's.  What this film does (it's not a documentary really) is play the interview tapes Azerrad recorded with Cobain a year before his death over some great footage that matches the mood or subject that's being discussed by Cobain.
After the film, I was able to talk to Azerrad and tell him how much his book shaped my life as a teenager and he was extremely nice despite the fact that he probably hears that sort of thing all the time.

Friday:

Zoo:  This is what I've been referring to as "the horse fucker movie".  The film is about Mr. Hands, the gentleman who became an internet hot-topic after his zoophilia related death.  The great thing about this movie is that as shocking as the subject matter is, the film is very slow paced and tastefully handled.  The true shock that drives the film lies in how much you feel for the people involved... people who literally love animals, both emotionally and sexually. 
There is only one scene that really dives into the bizarre and frightful nature of this man's death and it really is quite jarring, but outside of that one scene, the film is almost dream-like in it's pace, tone, and cinematography.
My only real complaint about this film was that it was almost TOO much like an Erol Morris documentary.  Narration and haunting music played over reenactments of an event.


Well, I only got to see 16 movies during this festival, but that's because I got to see a SHIT load of comedy, which made me pretty happy.
The comics I got to see included: Aziz Anzari, Todd Barry, Jon Benjamin, Jonathan Glaser, David Cross, Zach Galifinakis, Leo Allen, Eugen Mirman, Tim and Eric, Human Giant, Brian Posehn, and Hard n Phirm.

I also got to see some music including Andrew Bird, Okkervil River, Les Savy Fav, The Good the Bad and the Queen (booooooring), RJD2, and Apples in Stereo.

go see exiled.  go go go.

I really wanted to, just couldn't make it.

[squints]

So sad I didn't make it this year

The Devil Came on Horseback:  This is a very disturbing a pretty powerful documentary on the genocide in Darfur.  An ex-soldier was assigned to "monitor the ceasefire" in that area and when he started seeing burned bodies of children tied together, he began taking pictures and was surprised to find how little was done once these pictures surfaced.

This sounds awesome. My wife-to-be is the statewide coordinator of Amnesty International and I think we're going to try to schedule a screening of this on campus here.

Silver Jew:  This was a very short documentary about the Silver Jews and thier first live tour ever, which included going to Israel and rediscovering religion.  It was definitely worth watching and had some pretty decent music (silver jews, of course).

This was directed by a guy named Mike Tully. Last year we ran into him a lot and hung out a few times. He was promoting his first director's credit and one of my favorites from last year Cocaine Angel, which is making its way on dvd soon.

Well, I only got to see 16 movies during this festival, but that's because I got to see a SHIT load of comedy, which made me pretty happy.
The comics I got to see included: Aziz Anzari, Todd Barry, Jon Benjamin, Jonathan Glaser, David Cross, Zach Galifinakis, Leo Allen, Eugen Mirman, Tim and Eric, Human Giant, Brian Posehn, and Hard n Phirm.

No Patton this year?

[RegularKarate]

No Patton this year?

Patton had to cancel this year unfortunately.

[Gamblour.]

I really enjoyed reading that RK. And thanks for introducing me to Joe Swanberg. Seems like a guy to keep an eye on.