SXSW

Here at Slackerwood, the focus is on Austin-related film, and Artois the Goat is about as local as it gets. Directors Cliff and Kyle Bogart are graduates of UT Austin, found their cast at University of Texas MFA acting program, and shot on location around central Texas‎. If you want to see just how local it is, you can go to the Artois the Goat website.

The story is simple. Virgil (Mark Scheibmeir) and Angie (Sydney Andrews) are in love, and like to picnic with exotic cheeses. When Angie takes a job out of state, Virgil's thrown into a tailspin. With a vintage cheesemaker's book to guide him, he's off on a quest to make the winning cheese at a competition to win her back.

One of the more memorable films of SXSW 2008 was The Toe Tactic, which filmmaker (and animator) Emily Hubley is bringing back to Austin for a series of special screenings cosponsored by Austin Film Society.

It's a little film that takes a low concept and does it very, very well, mixing live action and animation, personal myth and emotion. The story is simple; Mona is mourning her father, and trying to find her lost wallet. Anyone who's ever felt there are forces meddling in their lives will sympathize, as Mona has a bunch of poker playing cartoon dogs meddling in her life.

It's a very poetic story; one friend disliked it for that reason, but that's what made me really enjoy this film last year. I highly recommend checking it out, as director Emily Hubley will be in attendance at the 4/5 and 4/6 screenings; it will also screen on 4/13. More information at the Austin Film Society website.

The documentary The Least of These had its world premiere at SXSW in March. This film is about the Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas, where undocumented immigrant families are detained -- sometimes for months -- before the government decides whether they can enter the country or must be deported. In 2006, when the center opened, many critics thought it looked like a jail and the families have complained that they were treated like prison inmates. Lawyers and activists stepped in to try to make changes, if not close the center outright.

This is a compelling film that I'd really recommend watching. You can read Jenn Brown's drive-by review too. Fortunately, you don't have to wait for the next film festival or wonder when The Least of These will get a distribution deal. SnagFilms, a website where you can view full-length documentaries for free, premiered the film online right after its first screening at SXSW. This means that all you have to do to watch The Least of These is to go to the bottom of this article (after the jump) and click.

I've got plenty of SXSW 2009 photos to share, but one of my favorites is from the Best Worst Movie screening on Friday night. Best Worst Movie is a documentary about the weird cult phenomenon of the film listed as the worst on IMDb, Troll 2. I should have known that the movie would have an Austin connection, namely Alamo Drafthouse. One of the Troll 2 events shown in the film took place at the old Alamo on Colorado. It was nice to see the old place again. In addition, Austin-turned-L.A. filmmaker Nick Robinson was interviewed at the Alamo screening, and Rolling Roadshow did a big event where Troll 2 was shot, so we also saw Tim League and Zack Carlson.

Zack was at the Q&A Friday night along with the Best Worst Movie filmmakers and some of the original Troll 2 cast. And in the documentary, you see that he is such a big fan of the film that he got a tattoo to commemorate it. So naturally, during the Q&A, everyone started chanting for him to take off his shirt and show off the tattoo. Thus, the above photo. But wait, there's more.

It's over, at least the film festival is. Post-fest depression is already setting in. New friends made, old friends well met, and everyone's exhausted after gorging on the cinematic smorgasbord. I managed to see 34 films (not including 1 short), and explode my Twitter list.

I was actually able to get five films in today, and the best one of the day has local connections. My Suicide has the kinetic, unconventional immediacy of Four Eyed Monsters, a previous hit at SXSW, with the ironic insight of a Juno or Chumscrubber. Shot with a variety of cameras and emphasizing subjective shots, it's a causticly funny dissection of and by the YouTube generation. As we increasingly editorialize our experiences as they happen, we become further dislocated from our lives, and 17-year-old Archie (Gabriel Sunday) can't take it anymore. When he declares his video project will be on his own suicide, he upsets the status quo, frequently quoting and recreating famous movie scenes. If I heard right, director David Lee Miller mentions that the sound editor and one of the graphics team are Austinites in the Q&A. As it doesn't have distribution yet, I'll be following up on it to get more details on that Austin connection.

Only one more day to go, and I'm ready for SXSW to be over. It's not the quality of the films, but the lack of quality sleep that makes me appreciate the fact that film festivals do end.

Yesterday, due to a miscommunication, I headed downtown pointlessly on a #3 bus to meet a friend, and it was insanely packed with people and cars. I quickly came back to my home theater, the South Lamar Alamo.

I only caught a few films on Friday, and the stand out was Berlin Calling, a very long but good electronica music video good enough to convert the uninitiated to DJ Paul Kalkbrenner. Karlbrenner stars in the movie about a Berlin DJ whose overuse of recreational drugs induces a psychotic break. As director Hannes Stohr says, it's a story told a thousand times. With the music mirroring and forecasting the emotional ups and downs, it's worth a watch as much as a listen. It made me want to buy the soundtrack, and now I understand why some friends follow DJs.

With the film conference over, and the music conference and festival well underway, attendance is dropping for the screenings, but not nearly as much as in recent years. From what I understand, attendance is up overall, but this is a very positive sign for the festival and for Janet Pierson's first year as the producer. Succession is not an easy thing, and Matt Dentler certainly left his stamp on SXSW, but I have to say it's been a solid program, and the SXSW team should be proud.

I had the day planned out, I was going to make it to five screenings, but first I got up later than expected, and then the music festival hit. I'm not a big fan of the Sixth Street insanity at the best of times, and the cacophony of very loud music from every possible angle, just made it impossible for me to keep my sanity and stay at the Ritz as planned. So after just one screening, I was back at the South Lamar Alamo, which is my home theater. I ended up skipping my last screening there, not because the buzz was bad (just the opposite), but because I'm getting movied out. I'm so movied out, I haven't done the snippet reviews of what I watched yesterday.

Updated 3/22: SXSW Film badgeholders get in free; anyone else should buy a ticket through Alamo.

If you haven't been able to watch any SXSW films this week, you've got a second chance. Alamo Ritz will show four SXSW films on Sunday as part of a "Taste of SXSW" series that I hope continues in upcoming weeks/months. Even if you've been at SXSW Film Festival, you may have missed one of these. These screenings aren't part of SXSW, so you need to buy tickets through Alamo Drafthouse.

• Beeswax -- Plays at 1:45 pm. I can recommend this one, which I reviewed for Cinematical. Beeswax was shot in Austin and half the filmmakers in town have minor roles.
• Anvil! The Story of Anvil -- Plays at 4:30 pm. I missed this movie last night because I was too chicken to deal with downtown parking. But on the Sunday after SXSW, parking shouldn't be a problem. It's a documentary about a heavy metal band that's been touring on and off for 30 years now.
• Adventureland -- Plays at 7:30 pm. This is the latest film from the director of Superbad and stars Jesse Eisenberg and Kristin Stewart.
• Ong Bak 2 -- Plays at 10:10 pm. Tony Jaa's martial-arts sequel played only at midnight during SXSW, so if you're a little more of an early bird, you can see this Sunday night.

I've commented on the sense of community I see at SXSW, and today proved it. I caught up with some friends I've made at Austin fests like SXSW and Fantastic Fest, and made some new ones, including a relatively random one who gave me a ride home after my last film, not to mention getting into datapop party, which was very fun.

The Least of These (Lone Star States)
Directors: Jesse Lyda, Clark Lyda
I knew very little about the T. Don Hutto family detention center in Taylor, Texas in Williamson County, but now that I do, I'm quite disturbed that it even exists. The privatization of the penal system bled into illegal alien detention, including children who's only crime is having parents who wanted better lives for their children. The cavalier corporate attitude towards detention is challenged by civil rights activists and media outlets alike. This deserves a much longer review, which we'll do later. In the meantime, it's playing again at 11 am on Friday at the Paramount, so if you're in town, go see it.

I saw The Overbrook Brothers on Monday night (it was Monday, wasn't it? the days are starting to fuzz together). This is the first feature film from Austin filmmaker John Bryant. If you saw his short Momma's Boy, this film is actually an expansion.

The photo is from the Q&A afterwards. That's producer Chris Ohlson, John Bryant, and actors Nathan Harlan and Mark Reeb. The high point of the Q&A -- or low point, if you like your humor refined -- was a discussion about an intimate prosthetic that Reeb had to wear in one scene. Other cast members who weren't at the screening but might look familiar to you are Cyndi Williams (Room) and Steve Zissis (Baghead, Momma's Boy).

The Overbrook Brothers was funny and over the top, and it's playing once more during SXSW. You can catch it Saturday night at 10 pm at the Paramount.