SXSW

SXSW Interview: Tommy Pallotta, 'American Prince'

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I emailed Tommy Pallotta a couple of weeks ago and asked him about doing an interview via email for his documentary American Prince, which is premiering at SXSW 2009. The former Austin resident is living in Amsterdam these days, so email seemed like the easiest way to communicate. Pallotta sent me what's essentially a very cool short article about the film. He told me to feel free to put it in interview format, but I love the story that this article tells and I don't want to break it up with questions and extra formatting.

American Prince is about Martin Scorsese's hard-to-find documentary American Boy and the man Scorsese profiled 30 years ago, Steven Prince. The two films will screen together during SXSW at Alamo South Lamar: on Saturday, March 14 at 7:30 pm, and again on Tuesday, March 17 at 11 am.

Check out some clips from the documentary and a very cool poster from the film over at Cinematical. And although this has nothing to do with American Prince per se, I recommend reading the Filmmaker Magazine interview with Pallotta about why he no longer uses Facebook or other social media.

Saucy and Slackery SXSW Tidbits

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SXSW FilmOnly a few days before SXSW Film starts, and I still am not entirely sure which movies I'm going to see. I always end up changing my schedule at the last minute, anyway.

Slackerwood still has interviews, helpful guides, and other SXSW-related info that will be appearing this week, so keep checking your RSS feed, or bookmark, or whatever you use. (We may even have non-SXSW news, amazingly.) Here are some bits of news and information that you surely want to know before Friday:

  • B-Side SXSW 2009 Festival Genius -- Have you tried this yet? It's lots of fun and also can be very useful. Check out B-Side's handy video overview and tutorial. You plug in the titles of the films you want to see at SXSW this year, and Festival Genius makes you a tidy little schedule with no overlaps. The only drawback is that Festival Genius doesn't care if you have to run back and forth three times from Alamo South to Paramount, but maybe you don't care either, if the films are good enough.
  • SXSW Advance Tickets -- If you're a SXSW Film badgeholder, watch the linked video for info about the new Advance Ticket system, which ensures you get into the movies you want to see most.

SXSW Interview: David Lowery, 'St. Nick'

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One of the most intriguing trailers I've seen for SXSW this year has been for St. Nick, the feature from writer-director David Lowery that will premiere at the festival. I've attached the trailer after the jump so you can see for yourself.

David has a great blog called Drifting: A Director's Log where he often writes about the projects he's working on. His short films have screened at Slamdance, SXSW, and Austin Film Festival.

I recently conducted the following email interview with Lowery about St. Nick. If you're a vegetarian, you especially want to read to the end of this interview (why? you'll find out). St. Nick is playing during SXSW three times, each time at Alamo Ritz: Sunday, March 15 at noon, Tuesday, March 17 at 2:30 pm, and Friday, March 20 at 12:30 pm.

SXSW Film Lineup Adds Raimi and Demme

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Real quick, because I just got back from Watchmen and it's my bedtime, but I have to pass on the news that SXSW Film is adding two more events to its schedule, with two very interesting filmmakers:

Sam Raimi will be at the Paramount on Sunday, March 15 at midnight to present a work-in-progress version of his latest film, the horror movie Drag Me to Hell. And here I was saying I wasn't planning to see any midnight movies this year ...

Jonathan Demme will also be in Austin to show us his latest film, the music documentary Neil Young Trunk Show, on Saturday, March 21, the last night of the film festival. And here I was saying I wanted to spend the last two days of the film fest away from downtown ...

The SXSW website has more details here.

Extra: SXSW Film Tips for Non-Badgeholders

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SXSW 2008, by MoxyJane

Update: A SXSW 2011 guide for non-badgeholders is now available.

Several commenters on the SXSW 2009 Guide to Film Fest Venues asked about the best way to enjoy the festival if they are using film passes instead of badges, or if they want to buy individual tickets for a few movies.

The SXSW film pass is the film-fest equivalent of the Music fest wristband. You're in a second-tier line, and are admitted into a screening after the badgeholders line has been let into the theater, if space permits. Passes for 2009 are $70 and are now available at Waterloo Records or any Austin-area Alamo Drafthouse. Someone asked me whether they'll be able to buy film passes halfway through the festival -- I don't know if there's a limited number and if they ever sell out. Anyone?

SXSW 2009 Guide to Film Festival Venues

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 Alamo Ritz

Note: A 2010 guide to SXSW Film Fest venues is now available.

Update, March 4: Another cool and helpful video from SXSW. This one explains the tiers of admission for SXSW movies, including the new "advance ticket" system that badgeholders can use.

Update, March 2: Check out our extra guide for locals who plan to buy film passes or tickets this year.

Update #2, March 2: SXSW has created a fun video guide to the film-fest venues on YouTube. The video includes some excellent visuals, so be sure to check it out.

Welcome to the third annual Slackerwood guide to SXSW film-festival theaters and venues. These guidelines are intended to help you get the most out of your filmgoing experience during the festival: the best seats, the least crowded theaters, and decent meals and wireless access between or even during the movies.

A few significant changes have occurred since the 2008 guide. The biggest and best change is that SXSW will run a shuttle for SXSW Film badgeholders and passholders from Friday 3/13 through Tuesday 3/17, 10 am to 2 am, that stops at Austin Convention Center (ACC), the Paramount, and Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar. This will make it so much easier for out-of-towners to get to Alamo South, at least during the first part of the fest.

The other big change is that Dobie Theatre is no longer a SXSW venue, which may disappoint locals who liked the ease of parking and the lack of downtown crowds. Instead, SXSW will be using three screens at Alamo South, which will consolidate the venue choices and make it easier to move between theaters.

Share Your SXSW Film Venue Advice

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This week, I've been working on updating the annual Slackerwood Guide to SXSW Film Festival Venues for 2009. It's a fun project -- trying to figure out where the best free wireless might be near Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar (nothing nearer than Flipnotics), where to eat non-fast-food near the Paramount (the Driskill 1880 cafe has a good soup and salad), and so forth. The guide has been surprisingly popular in the past couple of years so I want to make it as helpful as possible.

This year, I'm asking for help ahead of time, so I don't miss anything. Check out the 2008 venue guide. What's missing? What's changed? Please post your advice in the comments section.

I already know about two big changes SXSW has made this year -- one happy, one somewhat sad. The happy news: SXSW will provide a shuttle service during the first part of the film festival (the conference dates) that badgeholders can use to get from ACC and the Paramount to Alamo South. So I don't feel as compelled to do my yearly "Please don't try to walk from ACC to Alamo South!" plea. (Every year, someone finds me and tells me that I was right.) SXSW will be using three screens at Alamo South this year, so it'll be hard to avoid the venue, not that you'd want to.

The kind-of-sad news: Dobie Theater is no longer a SXSW venue. This makes sense, because it's not downtown and it's a smaller theater. And I can't say I'll miss it too much, because I'm short and it's difficult to find a seat where I can see the screen properly in the Egyptian theater (shown above) without twisting my neck. On the other hand, parking was available and I do love the theater decor. Dobie and the Arbor used to be the theaters where you'd find a lot of Austinites during SXSW, and had a better chance of getting a seat if you had a film pass instead of a badge. Instead, I wonder if the locals will prefer Alamo South, which has free parking and is far away from the SXSW Music crowds.

The 'Office Space' Anniversary at the Paramount

On Sunday night, SXSW and Fantastic Fest teamed up to host a 10th anniversary screening and cast reunion at the Paramount for Office Space, which Mike Judge filmed in Austin (okay, and a couple of scenes in Dallas) in 1999. The Paramount was completely sold out, which means that we saw Office Space with 1,200 people. That's an experience I highly recommend.

I wrote about the event for Cinematical, but I thought I'd include more photos here. The above photo is a shot of the red carpet ... yes, that's a "Jump to Conclusions" mat, just like the one in the movie.

The evening started with a red carpet, and writer/director Mike Judge showed up first with his daughters. The young women looked very happy to be the center of photographic attention:

SXSW 2009 Features: The Austin Films

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SXSW Film at ACC

Updated Feb. 3 with more local films.

The SXSW 2009 feature-film lineup was announced late last night. You can check out all the films here. And of course there are lots of big-name films and actors: you can see Paul Rudd in I Love You, Man, or Seth Rogen in Observe and Report; Spike Lee's documentary Passing Strange and Kathryn Bigelow's drama The Hurt Locker. But I know that you're all really interested in seeing the films that are coming out of Austin, right? So that's what I'm listing here.

I don't have a comprehensive list of every film playing SXSW that was shot in Austin or involves Austin cast or crew. And I may have some details wrong here -- this list involved a lot of guesswork. Here's what I've got so far:

  • The Overbrook Brothers -- The feature-film debut of local filmmaker John Bryant, whose twisted sensibility has brought us such hilarious short films as Momma's Boy and Oh My God.
  • The Two Bobs -- Local writer-director Tim McCanlies (Smallville, The Iron Giant) shot this comedy in Austin (some of it not far from my house, as I recall). I suspect the cast and crew are mostly local too -- I recognized the cinematographer, P.J. Raval (Trinidad, Trouble the Water).
  • Beeswax -- Andrew Bujalski's latest film was also shot here. The cast includes local filmmakers David and Nathan Zellner, Kyle Henry, and Bryan Poyser.

Quick Snaps: Pre-'Humpday' at SXSW 2008

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Congratulations to Lynn Shelton, director of Humpday, which has been generating all kinds of good buzz at Sundance this week. Everyone seems to be talking (okay, blogging or Twittering) about the movie, starring Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard as best-friend straight guys who ponder whether to have sex with one another as part of making a porno film. (Comparisons to Zack and Miri seem to be inevitable.)

Variety's film-fest blog The Circuit just reported that Magnolia Pictures has bought the worldwide distribution rights for Humpday, and plans to release the film in U.S. theaters starting in August. Unless Magnolia has some weird release strategy that will keep the film out of more festivals, my guess would be that we'll get the chance to see this movie at SXSW in a couple of months. Or so I hope.

The above photo is from last year's SXSW festival. Mark Duplass, on the far right, was there with Baghead; Shelton, next to him, premiered her film My Effortless Brilliance. I felt very lucky when I took this photo back in 2008; I feel especially fortunate that I can share it again now that Humpday is gathering so much attention.

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