Quick Snaps: Surrounded by Mumblecore

It was Saturday night and I was at Austin Convention Center, looking for an empty table where I could sit down and maybe do a bit of work (hah) before catching the documentary about Harlan Ellison, Dreams with Sharp Teeth. I finally found an empty spot in a corner, where I could also see the line for the film so I could pack up and duck in if it got too long. I sat down and started to unpack my laptop.

I looked up and realized that I recognized one of the guys at the table next to me, the only person at the table facing me. It was Kent Osborne, and if you've seen any films at SXSW this year, you've seen him in the Burger Hut house ads. I remembered meeting him briefly at SXSW 2007 when he was here as part of the Hannah Takes the Stairs cast. I thought it would be cool to get a random snapshot of him at the convention center. So I walked up, introduced myself, and asked if I could take some photos.

I looked at his friends and suddenly this bearded guy next to him is greeting me warmly: "Jette! How ya doin." I realize that under the beard, it's filmmaker Mark Duplass, whom I interviewed via e-mail a week or so ago. The woman next to him is Lynn Shelton, whose film My Effortless Brilliance is screening at SXSW this year, and whom I'd corresponded with a bit through e-mail last month. And the guy on the other side of Kent is Ross Partridge, whom I didn't know at all but would end up seeing as one of the main characters in Baghead the next night. It was like a little mumblecore (or is that Dumbledore?) gang right there next to me, and here's a photo to remember it by. So the moral is not to be afraid to just walk up fearlessly to people and ask to take their picture, because you never know who you might end up seeing (or shooting).