Local Indies

Sam Eidson is a comedic savant who moved to Austin after attending Savannah College of Art & Design. In addition to a hilarious appearance in Emily Hagins' 2011 feature film My Sucky Teen Romance, Eidson has appeared in a number of locally produced shorts, as well as stage productions presented by his collaborative company The Old Murder House Theatre. (Read J.C.'s interview for last year's Murder House production, Jurassic Live!)

Eidson's first lead film role is in the Austin-shot movie Zero Charisma, which is premiering at SXSW on Monday at 7:15 pm at the Rollins Theatre at the Long Center. But you might also see him onscreen during SXSW in Grow Up, Tony Phillips and the short Hell No. I conducted the following interview with him via email over the course of a few days.

Slackerwood: What can you tell us about your role in Zero Charisma?

Sam Eidson: I play a D&D Dungeon Master (we call them Game Masters in the movie for legalities) who finds his whole life turned around when a hipster comes in and takes over his game. He's a firecracker who's not afraid to get in your face.

Don't forget the shorts programs at SXSW this year. There are a number of great shorts at the fest. Some are from filmmakers you haven't heard of yet -- some feature well-known faces. We were able to get our hands on a few of the shorts before the fest, and here's a rundown on them.

If you're headed to SXSW, remember that in addition to the many world-premiere features there are also really great shorts programs where you can view short films from filmmakers and stars that you may never have another chance to see. Here is a run-down of the ones we were able to screen before the festival.

#PostModem (Shorts Program 1)
According to the filmmakers: "#PostModem is a comedic, satirical sci-fi musical based on the theories of Ray Kurzweil and other futurists. It's the story of two Miami girls and how they deal with the technological singularity, as told through a series of cinematic tweets."

The latest film from Austin director Geoff Marslett, Loves Her Gun, has its world premiere at SXSW, screening tomorrow (Saturday) at 10:30 pm at Violet Crown (screening info). Actress Trieste Kelly Dunn stars as Allie, a troubled woman who heads to Austin after surviving an attack in NYC. 

Dunn herself is a native of Utah, attended North Carolina School for the Arts and is now a resident of Brooklyn.  Before the rush of the film festival starts, she talked with us via email about getting to play a female character who isn't reasonable, going tubing in Texas, and more.

Slackerwood: What was your casting experience like for Loves Her Gun? How did you hear about the film?

Trieste Kelly Dunn: Geoff sent me a Facebook message about it. It sounded really exciting. Then he sent me an outline and I got even more excited. Then he said he wanted to improvise the dialogue and I got terrified.

Austin filmmaker James Christopher is directing Twitchy Dolphin Flix's new mockumentary-style features The XXXX Saga: Rise of the Beaver Slayer and The Porn Movie Massacre (no, they're not pornos). Check Slackerwood for his updates as the production continues.

We jumped into the production with both feet ... and arms and other appendages. It is a mockumentary about the adult film industry, after all! I was tickled at how well oiled the crew already is. While we have been together for a long time, there is normally some period of adjustment that is needed to get cracking.

We jumped in and Elena Weinberg was our first actress playing both Daisy and Serenity. I can't thank her enough for taking on both parts. It's a huge strain on her and a huge relief for me to have a talented and a true professional taking on that double duty. Vanessa Perry and Terissa Kelton made their returns to the Twitchy screen as Miss Prissy and Ginger Snap, respectively. Vanessa plays a struggling teacher trying to make ends meet while Terissa struggles with the dual roles of mom and adult film star.

This year's SXSW Community Screening: Austin Film Society ShortCase will be held Sunday, March 10 at 4 pm in Boyd Vance Theater at the Carver Museum, and will feature short films by Central Texas filmmakers ranging from science fiction to history, comedy to documentary. The screening is open to the general public (and free), but seating is limited so I suggest arriving early.

This year over 65 entries were submitted by AFS filmmakers. AFS Program and Operations Manager Ryan Long, AFS Marketing and Events Coordinator Austin Culp and I worked together to select the seven best films to fill the 90-minute screening time. We saw a lot of creative content representing the talent of AFS filmmakers, and we hope the SXSW audience will enjoy these films as much as we do.

For filmmakers who didn't make the cut, we hope that you'll submit films for future ShortCase events and take advantage of the programs available to the AFS filmmaker members.

Without further ado, here are this year's SXSW ShortCase films:

Austin filmmaker James Christopher is directing Twitchy Dolphin Flix's new mockumentary-style features The XXXX Saga: Rise of the Beaver Slayer and The Porn Movie Massacre (no, they're not pornos). Check Slackerwood for his updates as the production continues.

Tomorrow, I'll sit at the director's chair for my ninth and tenth features for Twitchy Dolphin (Littlefield was distributed by Twitchy, but shot before it existed). I'm trying to find some calm before the storm that will inevitably set in on my life. Shooting a movie is tough personally and on my wife, who must live with me being very distracted.

So what is The XXXX Saga? It's two movies at once ... both mockumentaries (think Spinal Tap and Best in Show) follow an adult film company. Both films will be shot at the same time, the second of which (The Porn Movie Massacre) adds the element of a slasher movie to the mix. The pre-production for these projects has been tough. A huge cast begets its own problems, the logistics of two very different setups has been tough to balance, and trying to juggle other commitments has left me feeling like I'm two steps behind. Thank God for the production staff!

So why keep doing it? We've done eight feature films on budgets that don't add up to one budget of some of the films we compete against. Why go through the headache? All I can say is, its worth it. It's worth it to create something totally unique that isn't tainted or watered down by a studio process. It's worth it to put something out there that is wholly yours. And the experience of going to battle alongside like-minded individuals is completely worth it. For as much as the lack of money really pains us at times (and it does) at least we're out there, doing our own thing. That freedom is priceless.

So, the question begs ... why this film? Why a film about porn stars? Again, it goes back to having a question to answer -- this one dealing with freedom of speech, and much like we did with Abram's Hand, we want to be as upfront as we could when asking this question. And it's been an interesting experiment. Our Indiegogo fundraiser has been a huge success -- we're past our goal with 17 days left. And we've had a lot of people wondering if we're making porn (we're not.) We've had actors leave the project due to familial pressure. But the ones who have stayed with us have reveled in the chance to do the film because they believe in the script and what it says about freedom, expression and society.

Sean Gallagher's full-length feature directing debut, Good Night, is premiering at SXSW on Monday, March 11 at the Rollins Theatre (screening info). This intimate drama depicts a dinner party in which the young hostess reveals some difficult news to her friends. The cast includes local actors Adriene Mishler, Jonny Mars, Chris Doubek and sometimes-Austinite Alex Karpovsky, as well as University of Texas alum Todd Berger.

Gallagher lives in Austin, and not only directed this film (which he shot here), but wrote and produced it as well. He's written and directed two shorts as well, Fuck and Out of Water. During his time at UT, he was the first recipient of the Samuel Fuller Award for Cinematic Intransigence.

He answered a few questions (via email) about his new film, improvisation and inspirations.

Slackerwood: What was the filmmaking process like for Good Night? How long were you working on it (conception to final edit)?

Sean Gallagher: There are two different types of pieces within Good Night -- there is a party, which is the bulk of it, and there are several, what I call, movements. The party was shot in two weeks in the middle of the summer. The movements were shot in short increments over the course of two years.

Bryan Poyser isn't exactly a new face on the Austin film scene, but we realized that we hadn't yet interviewed him on this site (although he has been mentioned in a Holiday Favorites post)! Thankfully we were able to rectify this, as he answered my questions via email about his latest film, The Bounceback (pictured at top). This comedy follows two former couples as they fight (and make up?) amongst Austin's nightlife. The film will have its world premiere at SXSW on Saturday, March 9 at 2 pm (screening info).

Poyser's other film work includes Dear Pillow and Lovers of Hate. He's been nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards for these films. The writer/director formerly worked as Director of Artist Services at the Austin Film Society, and now serves on the AFS Board of Directors.

Slackerwood: How are you feeling about the upcoming premiere of The Bounceback (at the Paramount during SXSW)?

Bryan Poyser: I really can't wait. I know I'm gonna be gut-wrenchingly nervous right before the show, but I'm so happy that so many of our out-of-town cast members are going to be there for it. They're all really proud of the movie, as are the folks behind the camera, and so I think we're all just really excited to finally share it with an audience.

Reunite with Simone, Tony, Cynthia, Jodi, Mitch, Benny, Darla, Sabrina, Cynthia and Tommy for a beer-buzzed existential walk down memory lane. Select Dazed and Confused cast members and writer/director Richard Linklater will celebrate the film's 20th anniversary with two screenings and a Q&A with the cast and crew on Wednesday, March 6 at 7 pm and 9:30 pm at The Marchesa Hall & Theatre (6226 Middle Fiskville Rd) in Austin. General admission and VIP tickets go on sale at noon on Friday for Austin Film Society members, and to the public on Thursday, Feb. 21. VIP tickets include access to a party with the film's stars and preferred seating for the screening with the Q&A. 

The film's anniversary screening and party kicks off the celebration: Linklater and a number of the movie's cast members will accept the Star of Texas award for Dazed and Confused at this year's Texas Film Hall of Fame awards gala the day after the anniversary party (Thursday, March 7).

Dazed and Confused takes place during a time when you could haze and humiliate people without the threat of a lawsuit. Bongs blazed, joints were passed and the keg never seemed to run dry. The times they were a'changin' in 1976, and the characters in Linklater's film weren't immune. Their crazy hijinks and adventures of a group of seniors-to-be and incoming high-school freshman on their last day of school is chronicled in this 1993 retrospective. 

Not since American Graffiti has a coming-of-age comedy had such a unique cast of former nobodies, some of whom will be in attendance at the anniversary screening and party. See you at the moontower. 

In 1957, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment, but segregationists in the Texas Legislature deemed it legal to threaten to withhold state funding from a public university for casting an African-American female opposite a fellow Caucasian male student. The 1950s was a decade that opened the door to equal and fair education for all Americans, but continued to be slammed in the faces of some, like University of Texas at Austin distinguished alumna Barbara Smith Conrad, the subject of the 2010 film When I Rise.

Conrad, a mezzo-soprano from Center Point, Texas, was cast as Dido in Henry Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas. However, she was soon replaced by a Caucasian student. The casting move made headlines nationwide, gaining the attention of the King of Calypso himself, Harry Belafonte, who offered Conrad a deal she did refuse: He would pay for her music education anywhere in the world if she chose to leave the university. But despite being spat on by another student while walking through campus, she graduated from UT in 1959.

Don Carleton, executive director of UT's Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, and his team came up with the idea for When I Rise after Conrad, who now lives on the Upper West Side in New York, was the subject of an oral history project at the center in 2006. The award-winning film premiered at SXSW 2010 and screened on the PBS series Independent Lens a year later. It's since been picked up by the international distributor Mercury Media, based in London.

Those closer to Texas can see When I Rise as it continues its 13-city tour with the Texas Independent Film Network this month. Here in Austin, the documentary will screen on Monday night at Violet Crown Cinema, and tickets are still available.