AFF 2011 Interview: Brandon Dickerson, 'Sironia'

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The 18th Austin Film Festival is almost here. To help celebrate all the locally connected movies at this year's fest, we've reached out to a number of filmmakers to find out about their Austin and Texas-tied films screening at AFF, and to hear about what they're looking forward to doing during the festival.

Austin-based filmmaker Brandon Dickerson's feature film debut Sironia features music by Texas singer-songwriter Wes Cunningham, who also co-wrote the script with Dickerson and Thomas Ward. Dickerson, pictured above on the right with actress Amy Acker and Wes Cunningham, shares some very personal stories about how the story and the film began. Audiences may not recognize all the names of cast and crew, but may notice a lot of familiar faces onscreen. The cast includes Jeremy Sisto, Carrie Preston and Ryan Cartwright, not to mention Dallas-born actress Acker.

Slackerwood: Describe your film for us, in a quick and dirty paragraph.

Brandon Dickerson: I've had some folks describe Sironia as "Once meets Away We Go," which I'm cool with. Music plus love story. In simplest terms ... the film is inspired by the music of singer-songwriter Wes Cunningham.

Sironia is the story of a talented musician who has been chewed up and spit out by the Hollywood music machine. Frustrated by his broken career, Thomas Fisher and his wife Molly impulsively pack up and move to small-town Sironia, Texas to live a more authentic life and raise their first child near Molly's brother and his family. Despite the change of scenery, Thomas's deep resentment over his lost dreams gets the best of him as he struggles to find peace with his stalled career, until he remembers what he loved about music -- and Molly -- in the first place.

Tell us one thing about this movie that is going to make it impossible for people to resist seeing it at AFF?

The timing of the film has been interesting as people are connecting with the idea of having to deal with their hopes and dreams not working out -- whether that is their art or just not finding a job. The search for contentment outside of your circumstances seems to be a journey that resonates. Beyond that, I think it's impossible for people to resist the music! You can listen and download for free at the Sironia website by the way.

How long have you been working on Sironia?

Two years total from page one of the script to Austin Film Festival premiere.

Are there any recognizable locations in Texas?

We shot in Waco and Los Angeles. Tons of great Waco spots like Common Grounds and Skateworld and of course the Alico Building, which I was surprised to also see in Tree of Life. I thought for sure we'd have a corner on that building being in a movie this year.

A very long story short -- I was a director in LA when my wife's mother was diagnosed with Stage 4 Cancer, given six months to live. We immediately moved to Waco to care for her and as a result I reconnected with my friend/musician Wes Cunningham. He introduced me to a friend of his, Thomas Ward, and we all decided it would be fun to craft a script around Wes's songs, which we loved.

Basically, I lived in LA for years and years directing commercials and music videos trying to get a feature off the ground. Moved to Texas and was filming Sironia within a year.

After my wife's mom passed away and we wrapped filming, we decided to relocate our family to Austin. Been living here for a year and absolutely love living in ATX. Our kids love it and I find the creative community here incredibly inspiring. This is home.

What are your future plans for Sironia?

I'm inspired by what a lot of films are doing with creative independent releases. Love the idea of doing shows plus concerts with Wes playing before the film. We are doing free concerts with Wes during AFF at Progress Coffee and The Highball on Friday and Monday evenings [details below]. Focus now is on AFF and we'll decide afterward what's next.

What one place to visit/eat/drink would you recommend to out-of-towners here for AFF?

I spend most days and my dollars at Progress where my Spiral Films office is, but I'm a sucker for Austin trailers so I would say folks would need to check out either The Vegan Yacht or G'Raj Mahal or any epic taco truck. The queso at Torchy's is pretty life-changing and we have a nod to queso in Sironia as it's such a Texas dish.

What are you looking forward to doing during AFF?

This is my first feature and I was that kid who wanted to be a feature director since he was eight years old, so I think our first screening is going to be a highlight for me. There are a lot of panels and films I want to see. I'm a huge fan of Lawrence Kasdan and look forward to hearing Chuck Palahniuk speak.

My wife has a funny story of me trying to meet Mira Sorvino crashing a party in NYC ... so we will be all smiles at the Union Square screening.

Sironia plays Austin Film Festival on plays Austin Film Festival on Friday, October 21, at 9:30 pm at the Rollins Theater in the Long Center, and encores Wednesday, October 26, at 6 pm at Rollins. There are also free musical performances by Wes Cunningham on Friday, October 21, at 6pm at Progress Coffee (free beer during that performance) and The Highball on Monday, October 24, at 7 pm.