SXSW 2012: A Look at the AFS ShortCase Filmmakers

Many members of the local film community converged during SXSW at the Austin Film Society (AFS) ShortCase screening on Saturday, March 10. Seen above are several of the AFS filmmakers in attendance including (clockwise from lower left): Chithra Jeyaram (Mijo), Nicholas Cormier III (Smile), James and Ryan Barlow (Huntered), Bob Ray (Sacked), Allison R. Smith and Justin Corsbie (Hot Dogs & Hand Grenades), Stephen Gamache (Mustachio), Joshua Flanagan (Mustachio), Will Shipley (Mentiroso), Brady Dial (Apogee of Fear proxy for Richard Garriott de Cayeux).

As one of the curators for the SXSW Community Screenings: AFS ShortCase program I was pleased to hear the audience reactions to all the selections. Afterwards, the filmmakers offered their advice during the Q&A session, ranging from the advantages and disadvantages of filming in a remote location to the challenges of animation.

Check out more photos from this special screening:

Here's Mijo (My Son) director Chithra Jeyaram outside the Canon Theater at the Long Center with Ciara Regimbal-Walsh and documentary subject lead Sharon Marroquin -- this was the first time Marroquin had seen the movie. In the film, Regimbal-Walsh and Marroquin are seen rehearsing "The Materiality of Impermanence," a dance performance based on one woman’s journey as a breast cancer survivor. This weekend marks the debut of this artistic performance at the Rollins Studio Theater with four shows.

Smile writer, director and co-star Nicholas Cormier III -- seen above with editor Vladyslav C. Alexander -- brings a personal touch to the fictional story of a homeless Vietnam veteran attacked by two young thugs. Cormier himself is a war veteran, and Alexander is currently in pre-production of a short documentary on World War II veterans to be filmed in Ukraine during the upcoming summer. The film will serve as a research material for a feature film about one family's survival in the Nazi occupied Ukraine during 1943-1944.

Producer Allison Smith of Hot Dog & Hand Grenades is pictured above with supporting members of the cast. Kyle Hudnall portrayed a son reluctant at his first bovine shoot, and his mother Gigi Parker (at right) portrayed a member of the hippie protestors "Friends of Cows."

[Photo credits: all photos by Debbie Cerda, available for use with permission.]