SXSW Film 2009 Highlights - VIDEO
This post comes to us from Maria Diaz, who blogs at Bravo Fan. Maria attended this year’s SXSW festival and graciously agreed to write up a report for Film Gecko. Thank you, Maria! Read on for her inside scoop on the festival, and for more on SXSW, read Lindsay Long’s report here…
The South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas is just about wrapped up for the year. Eight days of parties, barbecue, queso and over 200 films screened! If you are a lover of unique, independent films, there is no better place to be in March than SXSW Film. Here are some highlights from this year’s festival:
I Love You, Man
The festival officially opened up with a screening of Paul Rudd’s new bro-tastic comedy I Love You, Man, about a man trying to find some male best friends after he realizes he has none. If you’re a fan of Knocked Up or 40 Year Old Virgin, this comedy is right up your alley. The festival was also lucky enough to get not only Rudd, but his co-stars Jason Segel and Rashida Jones at a panel describing the making of the film.
Watch a snippet of their panel after the jump…
MINE
Winner of best documentary feature at the SXSW Film Awards, this documentary features tales of what happened to all the abandoned animals after Hurricane Katrina. To promote the film’s screening, the filmmakers held a mobile adoption of shelter dogs right outside the convention center, which was unique and such a cute sight to see when walking in Monday morning.
A Conversation with Richard Linklater and Todd Haynes
Visionary directors Richard Linklater (Slacker, Before Sunrise, School of Rock) and Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven, Safe) chatted it up for an hour and we all got to watch. Haynes answered fascinating questions on AIDS activism in the 80s and how that affected his work. Both directors explained how the recession is affecting the film industry: Haynes says studio heads have to “actually read scripts now” and that movies can no longer be cast solely on big names. But, as Linklater points out, no matter what is going on with our world, filmmakers and artists always feel a need to react. Just as fascinating was a conversation with director Robert Rodriguez and animator Henry Selick (of Coraline and Nightmare Before Christmas). You can watch a snippet of the discussion on the SXSW YouTube channel.
We Live In Public
After winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance this year, SXSW hosted a special screening of documentary filmmaker Ondi Timoner’s We Live In Public, a film on Josh Harris, the biggest “Internet pioneer you’ve never heard of.” Harris was one of the first people to cash in on the dot com boom by starting a data mining company and running the first Internet only television station, Pseudo.Com. Harris predicted that one day we would all live in public on the Internet, which he himself did with an art project in New York called “Quiet” and later on, with his webcam site “We Live In Public.” Piecing together interviews with former Pseudo employees, colleagues and family members, we get a fascinating, stunning look into the mind of a disturbed genius, as well as extremely relevant commentary on the increasingly public nature of our lives.
Entre Lineas
One of the best parts of the festival is the number of shorts screened. I was charmed by this narrative short directed by UT Austin MFA graduate Maru Buendia-Senties, about two friends who live across the border from each other in Jaurez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas. Filmed almost entirely in Spanish, the movie shows how two people from the same place can be from completely different worlds. It culminates in an amazing scene filmed at the border crossing between Mexico and the USA, a scene which was a year in the making, according to the director.
As my first ever film festival, the SXSW experience was definitely overwhelming (there is so much I didn’t get to see!), but I loved it all and am already counting down for next year’s festival.
Image: SXSW
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1 opinion for SXSW Film 2009 Highlights - VIDEO
Gretchen Rossi Has The World’s Worst Taste In Men ["Real Housewives of Orange County"]
Mar 23, 2009 at 1:55 pm
[...] Hey y’all! I’m back from Austin, Texas and am already counting the days till I can go back for next year’s SXSW. If you’re a film fan, check out my small wrap up of the SXSW Film festival at fellow b5blog Film Gecko. [...]
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