Local Indies

I attended my first SXSW Music festival in 1994 but began volunteering in 2000. I've been a web competition preliminary judge, crew chief for the trade shows and information booth, and a SXSW Interactive panels liaison. However, the most memorable time has been spent in the trenches of the SXSW Music Festival with Special Venues, handling line management and crowd control at film premieres and music showcases. Even now I am still awed by the sheer number of venues, bands, and attendees that seem to double every year.

Despite my involvement with SXSW, it wasn't until I watched Outside Industry: The Story of SXSW that I truly understood the birth and evolution of the largest music industry event in the world. This documentary from the Austin film, video, animation and documentary company Arts+Labor offers an intimate perspective on how four guys living on next to nothing -- Roland Swenson, Louis Black, Louis Jay Meyers and Nick Barbaro -- created a benchmark for alternative culture.

I met and spoke recently with Arts + Labor co-founder and president Alan Berg, who directed Outside Industry: The Story of SXSW. See what he had to say about the movie after the jump.

Deciding which movies to see at film festivals can be a crap shoot. Some incessantly hyped films with great pedigrees can be enormously disappointing. On the other hand, some largely unpublicized films don't come across well in trailers and synopses, so you skip them, only to hear later that you missed a truly great time at the movies. Still others seem worth a look, so you give them a chance and discover that they are, well, worth a look, but not memorable.

And then there are rare indie gems like Five Time Champion that remind you why you go to film festivals.

Be prepared for a gushing review of this stellar film, one of the best I've seen in ages. Oh, if only all movies were such a pleasure to review; the greatest challenge in reviewing Five Time Champion, which had its world premiere at the Paramount on March 12, may be finding enough superlatives to describe its many charms without being repetitive.

Set and filmed in Austin and Smithville, Texas, Five Time Champion is equal parts teen romance, coming of age story and commentary about the complicated nature of relationships at every stage in life. The protagonist is 13-ish Julius (Ryan Akin), a smart, scientifically gifted kid who's in the awkward throes of sexual exploration with his girlfriend, Shiley (Noell Coet). Complicating matters are the obvious charms of his classmate Teena (Gabi Walker), who's ready to take Shiley's place at the first available opportunity. Further complicating matters is Julius's general ambivalence toward sex; he wonders if he's gay, especially since his long-gone father, Harold (Robert Longstreet), is rumored to have left his mother for another man. Julius's confusion about his own sexual orientation leads to horrifying self-destructive behavior.

We interrupt this festival coverage to rave about the tremendously positive reception of Austinite Emily Hagins' third feature film, My Sucky Teen Romance.

Sure, we're totally biased -- at least I am, and I'm not the only Slackerwood contributor who is. I contributed to the crowdfunding, and I know many people who worked on the movie, including Emily. Our Mike Saulters was an extra. But I'm very pleased to report that the Paramount had to open up the balcony for the world premiere of My Sucky Teen Romance.  It didn't quite fill the theater to capacity, but the lower balcony had a big lively crowd, which is always a great thing for filmmakers, especially once the SXSW music festival starts. Emily is one of our own, and she's done us proud, just like we knew she would.

My experience this year at SXSW has been fairly relaxed as I decided to take time off from the red-carpet frenzy for a more unstructured approach. Being without a firm schedule was a little unnerving at first, but I've discovered that it's a great way to let SXSW serendipity lend a hand to great experiences.

One of those moments happened yesterday when I skipped the AFF Hair of the Dog Brunch to attend an early screening of Natural Selection at the newly renovated State Theatre. Despite the time change, a good crowd turned out for this narrative competition film. I was not disappointed, as I was thoroughly entertained and touched by the story and characters of Natural Selection -- check back this week for my review.

After the screening, I was invited to the premiere party for Natural Selection, which included a modest gathering of the cast and crew with family, friends and supporters. We were pleasantly surprised when actor/musician John Corbett (Sex and the City, Serendipity) showed up with a couple of his bandmates -- turns out that he and Natural Selection supporting actor Jon Gries (Napoleon Dynamite, Men in Black) -- seen above with Corbett and Tara Novick -- are longtime friends. Check out more photos after the jump:

Right now I'm finally giving my iPad its first real workout and I'm glad I already know I'm a lousy typist because I seem to be unable to not hit the "a" key.  I started off the day by checking out the SXSW panel for beginners that Jette was on, and now I'm the unofficial Cap Metro expert for SXSW Film. I also finally got to meet Agnes Varnum from AFS, who moderated the panel.  Took me along enough eh?

I dragged Jette over to Parkside for dinner and we both ended up having three courses; it was all I could do not to wave around our spiffy dining guide that SXSW printed up (which should be available at the various venues). I shouldn't tell you it was delicious because then y'all will be eating there and I won't get a seat when I go for an early and delicious dinner. But the price of fine dining was missing the first round of screenings, so I wandered around a bit and ended up by the  Paramount just as Jake Gyllenhaal arrived for the opening-night film Source Code, much to the glee of screaming fans (my ears are still ringing).

Anywhere else but Austin, the idea of an 18-year-old veteran filmmaker would seem odd. Still months away from her high school graduation, Emily Hagins is the envy of many filmmakers with her third feature, My Sucky Teen Romance, world premiering at SXSW at the fest's biggest and most coveted venue, the Paramount.

If you’ve been living under a rock, or somewhere besides Austin, Hagins began her film career at the tender age of 11 or so when she penned her first script, for a zombie movie called Pathogen. That production ended up being the inspiration for the documentary Zombie Girl. Pathogen may not be available on Netflix, but it put Hagins on the radar of local film fans and the indie scene as someone to watch. She completed her second feature, The Retelling, in 2009.

Hagins met me for brunch at Olivia in South Austin, and with the gorgeous weather we were having, we enjoyed the meal outside in the sunshine. I have sunburn already; just because it's March in Austin doesn't mean you can go SPF-free, and I was reminded (ow). I was also reminded why Hagins is a talent to watch in the future. Read more and you'll probably end up agreeing with me.

I mentioned this as my Movies This Week pick, but it's too good not to repeat. Tomorrow night, I hope you'll head over to Alamo Drafthouse at the Village for a special screening of Dig, a suspenseful and fascinating drama shot in Austin and South Texas. The screening is part of Austin Film Society's new Best of the Fests series -- Dig won the audience award at Austin Film Festival last year. It also screened at AFS in 2009 as a narrative in progress.

I will be moderating the Q&A after the movie with local filmmaker/instructor Stephen Belyeu. I hear that some other cast and crew members will be at the screening too, so it should be pretty lively.

You can buy tickets online through Austin Film Society for the Wednesday night screening and Q&A. I hope you'll come out ... and not heckle. Or ask what Belyeu's budget was. I know Slackerwood readers are highly intelligent people so I'd like you to see the movie and ask thoughtful questions. Check out the trailer after the jump, visit the official movie website, and I'll see you tomorrow evening.

I mentioned the production of When Angels Sing a few weeks ago: Tim McCanlies (Secondhand Lions) is directing this adaptation of a Turk Pipkin story, and it's produced by Elizabeth Avellan. The cast includes many familiar faces from the music industry: Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Lyle Lovett, Sara Hickman and Harry Connick, Jr., plus Connie Britton.

When Angels Sing was recently shooting over in Northwest Park by Shoal Creek Blvd. in the Allandale neighborhood. I found some photos on Flickr from the shoot. Jim Lallen, who lives in Allandale, graciously gave me permission to publish some of his photos here. He was only able to take a few before someone on the production shooed him away.

In the above photo ("Action"), you can see Kris Kristofferson preparing to shoot a scene with a younger actor, barely visible -- I am wondering if this is Houston actor Chandler Canterbury, credited on IMDb as being in the cast. Kristofferson plays a character listed on IMDb as "The Colonel." I've got another photo after the jump ("The Crew") that includes a glimpse of director Tim McCanlies (in a cap and striped shirt in the background).

While visiting the set of The Man Who Never Cried last fall, I was amused by the t-shirt worn by director Bradley Jackson (above on the right, with lead Keir O'Donnell, left). The phrase across his chest read "Please Lord, Let me Prove to You That Winning The Lottery Won't Spoil Me."

Jackson will have to do just that, with the recent announcement that the $100,000 grand prize for the Doorpost Film Project went to The Man Who Never Cried. The local film that received tips and script edits from the likes of Austin filmmaker Richard Linklater and other industry veterans. In addition to winning first place, the film took several other awards at last week's awards ceremony, including the Audience Choice Award. Find out what other honors the local independent film received are after the jump:

The SXSW Film Festival always has a great showing of documentaries and narrative shorts and features from Austin filmmakers. A number of films are also shot in the Central Texas area. It's starting to feel like it wouldn't really be SXSW without a shot of the Frost Bank Building in at least one movie. Austin films aren't merely limited to the Lone Star States category, either -- you can find them in many of the fest's offerings.

Here's the best list we've been able to compile of Austin connections in SXSW films this year. If we missed your film, please let us know in the comments. We will update the list if needed when the SXFantastic and Midnighters films are announced this week. We'll also do a separate article for short films after they are announced.

A note to filmmakers: If your movie has some link to Austin, we would love to interview you about it and see the film. Please drop us a line ASAP so we can set something up before the fest begins.