SXSW 2012, Day Two: Sinister Fog
Day two of SXSW, and I'm already exhausted. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels like the rain has sapped a lot of their energy. And the spring ahead to Daylight Savings Time certainly doesn't help.
Despite all that, I made it to five movies on Saturday. I didn't think I'd make it to Eating Alabama, but it seems every screening I went to was about a half-hour late starting. This very personal approach to the locavore phenomenon was an interesting meditation on the lost art of farming, even in a rural state. The documentary would make a great companion piece to King Korn.
Next up was the provocative and disturbing film Girl Model, but I have to disagree with co-director Dave Redmon, who said in the intro that the documentary wasn't an expose. I think it is, in the sense of holding back the curtain on something of which we're already aware: young girls are exploited in the model industry. But what Redmon and co-director Ashley Sabin do is make it personal, focusing on a young Siberian and her struggling family, and on the model scout (and former model) who discovers her. Girl Model is powerful stuff.
Next up was Tchoupitoulas, directed by Bill and Turner Ross (45365), which was too meditative for me, especially since the dialogue was hard to hear. Then it was over the Film Texas Reception at Iron Cactus. I saw many familiar faces, and a few new ones (to me, at least). I met Jenny Goddard and Enrique Garcia, two local filmmakers, among others.
But then I had to dash off to try to see Wonder Women: The Untold Story of American Superheroines, and dash I did. And then some. I should've double-checked the location of the Film Flyer shuttle stop at ACC as it's not the same as last year -- it's now outside of the registration area)\. Doh.
But I made it to Wonder Women with time to spare, especially since everything seemed to be running late. I enjoyed Wonder Women, although it lost its momentum toward the end. If you're interested in feminism and the evolution of female characters in comics (and the backlash to both), definitely check it out.
Just to keep my day from being a complete doc day, I checked out the feature Extracted. No, it's not The Cell 2. It's a similar project, equally ambitious, and is almost a great movie (it stumbles on some basic logic and logistics). Strong performances by Sasha Roiz (Grimm, Caprica) and Dominic Bogart. Speaking of Roiz, he gets serious kudos for not only mingling in the Alamo Drafthouse Lamar lobby before the film, he was also standing out in the rain chatting with some folks in line as well.
I was going to try to see the Not So Secret Super Secret Screening of Sinister (say that five times fast). But alas, no chance, especially since Extracted started late. But I can't complain too much, as it's great to see Austin film writer C. Robert Cargill have such strong support for his screenwriting debut (the queue cards ran out long before the seating began). I have to say for a film called Sinister, having it take place at midnight on a chill, foggy night is perfect. Other Slackerwood contributors did get in, so we'll have more details about the screening soon. I will console myself about missing it with the fact that the hour I lose this morning to the time change won't be not so painful. In the meantime, I'm too tired to figure out just what I'm doing tomorrow.
[Photo credit: Dominic Bogart, Nir Paniry, Sasha Roiz at SXSW 2012 for Extracted premiere, and Jenny Goddard and Enrique Garcia at Film Texas reception by Jennifer Brown. Used with permission.]