SXSW 2010 Day 8: Five in One Day, and a Revisit to Mars
This is it folks. One day left. Friday was quite a full day for me. I don't know about you, but I'm kinda looking forward to it ending and not just the fact that means the music people will leave. But it also means the films are coming to a close, too.
Today was my first five-film day of SXSW 2010. And what a group of films. I started off with brunch at the Ritz for All My Friends are Funeral Singers with a live score performed by Califone. As it turns out, the music came first, then the film, with the intent of a live score version as the final part of the trilogy, and the director is in the band.
Next, I dodged many already tipsy wristbanders to get over to Thunder Soul. This is going to be the standout film of SXSW 2010 and while I normally don't participate in awards forecasting, I bet that it will at least get an Oscar nod. A friend had recommended it, and she mentioned she knew about "Kashmere" and well, I'm not big on the music docs. But like many people, did I get my eyes opened. Kashmere is not a band per se, but a groundbreaking 1970s high school stage band in Houston that shook up the music world, focusing on their band director, Conrad O. Johnson.
Two of his former students who organized and performed a reunion concert as a tribute to the man who changed their lives. Step aside, fictional Mr. Holland. Conrad Johnson's Opus is the many lives he touched, and through him, many more. During the Q&A everyone had to comment how much they loved the movie and two people mentioned they were inspired to pick up their instruments again. It's now by far my favorite movie of SXSW 2010. And now I know that Waterloo records has the double disc re-release of the Kashmere Stage Band recordings ...
Then I made it back over the Ritz for Dogtooth, a surreal narrative on overprotecting one's children far beyond childhood years. It's one of those films people will try not to talk about lest they spoil it, so I'll stop right there (at least about Dogtooth, not the rest of the day).
Next it was a run over to Alamo on Lamar for Weird World of Blowfly, about Clarence "Blowfly" Reid, one of the original (dirty) rappers and his attempt to make a come back decades later. Disappointing and disturbing, his new "partner" is borderline exploitive in trying to get Blowfly back into bigger venues. Apparently his partner is also the charmer who tried to heckle a well respected film critic's use of the word "bellicose" earlier in the festival, too. I didn't stay for the very end, having had more than enough after getting the dinner check. I did try to check in on the third Red White & Blue screening's Q&A to see if the drama continued, but alas, the filmmakers were going to enjoy some of the music fest and did an extended intro instead. Wonder if Simon Rumley will be around for the "Taste of SXSW" screening?
But before I suffered through that, I ran into Geoff Marslett waiting for the Q&A of the third and final sold-out screening of his feature debut Mars. Afterwards, Marslett was generous enough to pose for pictures. Marslett is certainly keeping it weird, having decided to wear Charlie Brownsville's twanged-out jumpsuit to the Q&A, pictured above. I'm really loving the Alamo sign and the star-bright floodlight above his head, as well as his friend's expression. I also have a picture of him with co-star Paul Gordon.
So what was film five for the day? The scattershot Higanjima, a Japanese vampire island flick that wasted character introductions and threw in everything but the kitchen sink and did throw in a gargoyle. Really. If you've seen the Twitter feed, that dead silence at the end isn't exaggerated.
So now I'm only hours away from the end of SXSW 2010. I haven't decided what I'm doing yet, but this is the perfect time to point out some changes to the TBD schedule. Tiny Furniture is now the GTech (ACC) screening at 11:30 am with the Lamar screenings Marwencol at 5 pm, Winter's Bone at 7:30 pm, and Elektra Luxx at 10 pm.