South By Southwest Film Conference and Festival (SXSW)

Cannes Interview: David Lowery Talks 'Ain't Them Bodies Saints' (EXCLUSIVE VIDEO)

Anne Thompson — Sat, 18 May 2013 00:07:35 GMT

Writer-director David Lowery has been putting in his 10,000 hours over the past few years, working as an editor and cinematographer on many of his friends' micro-budget projects, as part of the growing multi-tasking barter indie culture. He's helped many of the geographically disparate friends he's met on the festival circuit with their films; he edited with director Shane Carruth the much-talked-about "Upstream Color," now in limited release. SXSW has championed the Texas filmmaker, playing his shorts and features; "Saint Nick" showed promise on a meager $12,000 budget.

Lowery's 2011 Sundance short "Pioneer" was a ramp-up to his exquisitely crafted neo-noir western, "Ain't Them Bodies Saints," which was picked up by IFC Films after its rapturous reception at Sundance, and is playing Saturday during the Cannes Film Festival's Critics Week. IFC will release the film in August. See my video interview with Lowery below.

What's more -- the filmmaker is now attached to direct "The Old Man and the Gun," starring Robert Redford, and has been tapped by Disney to write the remake of "Pete's Dragon."

Lowery's rising star is the result of "Ain't Them Bodies Saints." The title was a misreading of an old American folk song that captured the right "classical, regional" feel, he said at the Sundance premiere press conference.

While it's easy to compare this movie to Terrence Malick's "Badlands," from its magic hour photography to its content, which Lowery considers an antecedent to his two young bank robbers trying to grab happiness as their future disappears, the filmmaker puts his own stamp on this familiar material. He places his actors, led by hapless robber Casey Affleck and his wife Rooney Mara, who has his child while he is serving time in prison, inside a timeless sepia universe of ramshackle houses and wind-blown grasses. (The film was shot around Shreveport, Louisiana.) "I wanted it to feel old in the best sense of the word," he said.

The supporting actors are all spot on as well: Keith Carradine, Ben Foster and Nate Parker. And the country-tinged music (long-time collaborator Daniel Hart) and percussive sound also serve to modernize this film, keeping it simultaneously in the past and present. "It's western and not western" said Hart, who used clapping and folk instruments in what he called "new ways."

Lowery is a precise filmmaker of many gifts who likes to "see moments in between the big moments," he said, "spaces between the silences when people are talking." He likes to leave room for the audience's imagination to get full range.

Lowery has a strong sense of what he wants to accomplish. "The films I love are very precise and every shot means something, every shot should convey something new," he says. "When you cut from a long shot to a close shot you're doing it for a reason, or if you let something stay in long shot for a long take. On the short films I was teaching myself how to express something personal cinematically, how to use the language of film the best I could."

He preps for every eventuality, and then lets it ride on set. "I love films that are more random and chaotic, finding moments and capturing them," he says. "I wanted to make a film in this case when everything counted. On set I can get carried away, it's so chaotic, if you don't remember, you have to trust your gut: when I was planning this, there was probably a good reason to go with that. Usually you are right, but sometimes you have to have the wherewithal to recognize that the camera's not in the right place, or realize you don't need something."

He carries the film in his head, he says: "Often you need to shoot out of order, you get scene two on day 14 which is going to have an effect on scene three, which will be shot in two weeks, knowing how every little piece fits with what's before. Or you have an idea: how is everything going to come together? Or you make mistakes. There are moments of wonderful surprise in the editing room, as well as 'why did I do that?'"

The film's sepia-tinged look was artfully created. "For one thing we didn't use any fluorescent lighting, but older equipment, none of the current modern lighting technology," he says. "We used an Arri 35 mm camera with Cooke lenses; we wanted it to be as old-fashioned as possible. Bradford Young and I spent weeks in prep going through old photographs, narrowing down to 6 or 7 the images that represented each stage of the movie, to know the palate we needed for every location. For the daylight, we made the movie look like we shot it through a burlap bag."

The movie is often pitch dark. "We spent time on how we wanted the nights to look," he says. "We wanted the night scenes to be really dark, but still clear so you could see things. We looked at James Gray and Harris Savides' 'The Yard,' which had a wide range of exposure but was perfectly dark."

If the light was old-fashioned the sound design was the opposite. "Technology allows us to use sound with that degree of precision now," he says. "Audiences can interpret it in a way, they're attuned to how to process that information. It's one of the most important tools filmmakers have in their toolbox now."

Composer Daniel Hart, who did some music for "St. Nick" and "Pioneer," this time after visiting the set and seeing some footage, sent Lowery a track featuring hand claps. "He gets what we're after," says Lowery. "We have a wonderful psychic connection."

The director never does more than ten takes. He usually does four or five, and figures out the rhythm of each actor as he goes along. "Sometimes they're great on the first take and wind down, other times they build up to it." When Affleck and Mara did their scenes together--of which there aren't many-- "they always get better and better; they have a great rapport. Watching them build off and expand on what's on the page was fun to see. "Casey is very playful, he loves to try things out, try something new. He has great ideas, but wouldn't tell me what they are. A lot of that wound up in the movie."

The key scene was the one where the young couple are arrested. "We knew that would be a pivotal image for the film," he says. "From that moment on until the last scene they are separated for the whole film. We knew what it would be, silent, no dialogue, surrealistic to the degree that the other officers are not talking. They have a mournful funeral procession march down this hill. The direction I gave them was, 'you know this is your last time to be together, try to be together.' And to the police officers: 'try to keep them apart.' Four or five takes of that was heartbreaking every time. You needed to feel that the separation was strong, we had to sustain it for the rest of the movie, that sense of them wanting to get back together, to make sure their separation was a punch in the gut."

The movie does a push-pull as Mara's Ruth is attracted to two very different men: her husband the outlaw (Affleck) and a protective local policeman (Ben Foster). "They're both great choices," says Lowery. "She has a child, which changes things. Who's to say which is the better choice? One is riskier, represents the grand romantic passionate side, the other has responsiblity and security. I wanted there to never be a moment where we felt one was better than the other, aside from the fact that she had a daughter."

Lowery admits that the renegade maverick and the responsible honest pragmatic guy are "both sides of my personality. I vassilate between both all the time."

You need both to be filmmaker? "You do, for myriad reasons, and I'm always bouncing back and forth between the two. In the film they both represent something that Ruth needs. I wanted there to never to be a moment where you felt she was definitely going one way or the other. She makes a decision: to protect her child."

CineCoup's Cannes Agenda with Brad Pelman

Sydney Levine — Fri, 10 May 2013 17:30:01 GMT

CINECOUP ACCELERATES CANADIAN INDIE FILMMAKERS TO CANNES

For the independent filmmaker, it’s hard enough to secure production financing, let alone make the right connections with international buyers that can unlock audiences around the world. Enter The CineCoup Film Accelerator, a disruptive new platform, piloted in Canada this year, that offers filmmakers the chance at $1M in production financing and a guaranteed release in Cineplex theatres.

THE CINECOUP MODEL

Founded by media entrepreneur, J. Joly, CineCoup is designed to help independent filmmakers develop, market, and finance feature films.

CineCoup works through a gamified selection funnel: teams of three enter the program with a two-minute trailer, and each week they complete missions aimed at packaging their projects and building a fanbase through social media.

Fans play an important role by providing valuable audience feedback and supporting their favourite projects during the Top 60, Top 40 and Top 15 voting rounds.

CINECOUP AT CANNES

Brad Pelman, CineCoup's newly appointed President, Distribution and Sales is headed to Cannes later this month to secure international pre-sale agreements for the Top 10 projects and license the CineCoup model in other markets.

Pelman, who recently departed Alliance Films as Executive VP, Distribution, will be leveraging his international contacts while abroad, including sales agents at Cinetic Media, WME, CAA, UTA, ICM and Submarine. He will be seeking deals in the $1M range and is hopeful some buyers will pick up multiple projects.

Pelman is already in talks with several interested U.S. parties and is hopeful that CineCoup USA will launch at Sundance or SXSW 2014. He will also be meeting with agents from the U.K. and Australia to discuss CineCoup as a format following the USA launch. CineCoup will retain its Canadian rights.

Telefilm is lending its support by offering CineCoup a place in the Canadian Pavilion at Cannes, a great opportunity to find out more for anyone interested in learning more about this innovative model.

CineCoup will announce the Top 10 projects chosen to launch publicly on May 13. All ten projects will be optioned for development. The Top 5 will pitch their projects at the Banff World Media Festival on June 10, where the top project will be announced.

For more information, and to check out the film projects, visit: www.cinecoup.com

LatinoBuzz: WTF is Latino at the 2013 LA Film Festival?

Christine Davila — Wed, 01 May 2013 17:30:00 GMT

The summertime, downtown set, glitzy yet ‘cashz’ LA Film Festival, presented by Film Independent has announced their film lineup today. The verdict on the Latino rep? Compared to the last three festivals I’ve examined this year, Sundance, SXSW and Tribeca, LA Film Festival comes through with arguably the most valuable representation; there are three films representing American Latino in the narrative competition and one in documentary competition.

The lineup consists of a handful of new American indies mixed in with many favorited international films from last year’s Toronto, Venice, London and Berlin film festivals, and seven Sundance films screening out of competition including Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, which won both the Audience and Jury Awards in Park City. Starring Boricua Melonie Diaz as Oakland police murder victim Oscar Grant’s girlfriend, Fruitvale will be given the gala treatment (like last year’s Sundance awarded, Black film, Middle of Nowhere), alongside the direct-from-Cannes, Only God Forgives, the reteaming of director Nicolas Winding Refyn and GQ sensitive alpha hero Ryan Gosling (Drive).

But I’m not here to comb and recycle through the ‘high profile’ films that come armed with buzz. As always I’m spotlighting U.S. films in which the writer/director/cast are native born whose ethnic/cultural roots originates from Mexico, Central or South America. In addition, films by filmmakers who may not be Latino, but whose narratives explore and relate to the relevant bi-cultural experience/subjects. And finally I also like to mention the Latin films (international).

While I’m happy to acknowledge and give it up for LA, it’s still painful for this blogger/programmer to know there are so many more fresh American Latino films out there ready to be discovered. Game-changing films offering such fresh and original perspectives, which have by and large been dismissed by most of the major US Film Festivals. With the futures of the two highest profile Latino niche festivals in limbo, The Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival and HBO’s NY International Latino Film Festival, it’s especially crushing to know that these films might also be robbed of their only community platform. It’s cause for alarm and high time to address this void. But wait, lets save that for another post. For now, lets get back to the Latino stories coming at you at this year’s LA Film Festival. For official synopsis and pics check the Film Guide here.

NARRATIVE COMPETITION – Notably 9 of the 12 are US, hopefully giving the scrappy indies a better chance to compete and win the cash prize against the healthy subsidized production value of foreign movies. Five are first features and only one female narrative director.

40 YEARS FROM YESTERDAY written and directed by Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck and Robert Machoian

This is the first feature from the writing/directing team who got a lot of attention with their 2010 short Charlie and The Rabbit. Ojeda-Beck (whose parents are from Peru) and Machoian who is from the heavily Mexican populated King City, met at Cal State, Monterey Bay where they forged a tight artistic collaboration. Forty Years from Yesterday is described as Machoian’s imagination of how his mother’s death would unfold for his own family, capturing the loss his siblings would feel in losing a parent and his father’s pain in facing the death of his partner.

The duo have their way with documentary, fiction and experimental form, instilling an aura of temporality in an anchored realism. This unique evocative alchemy is found in Machoian’s doc short, Movies Made from Home #16, a 4 minute existential moment which screened at Sundance this year. The cosmic life themes they tend to broach are treated in such a down to earth and sensitive way, which is further made relatable by the natural non-pro performances they employ. Robert’s father, Bill Graham has starred in a few of his films and in Forty Years from Yesterday, both Robert’s parents and siblings play themselves. See this endearing behind the scenes clip of the making of the film:

THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT written by Joseph B. Vasquez and directed by Henry Barrial

Written by the late Joseph B. Vasquez (d 1995) whose 1991 movie, Hanging with the Homeboys, was a groundbreaking urban comedy when it came out, now very much a classic albeit sadly forgotten gem. The only one of Vasquez’s five movies that was distributed (by New Line), Hanging with the Homeboys was shot in the South Bronx where he was born and raised. About four homeys, two Puerto Rican (one of them played by a baby-faced Johnny Leguizamo) and two Black, the movie, available on dvd from Amazon (or, I found it in 6 parts on Youtube) screened at the Sundance Film Festival at its indie darling peak. Its good-natured humor is derived from neighborhood beefs, trying to rap to ladies, and the racial tensions of the day delivered with unapologetic commentary. An overall glimpse into a day in the barrio slice life, the film is clearly an early influence for the Ice Cube Friday series.

The House that Jack Built similarly has that raw and authentic Nuyorican energy but pushed into a rollercoaster of a dysfunctional family drama with warmth, affection and intensity. The director, born from Cuban parents and raised in Washington Heights, Henry Barrial, is also an alumni of Sundance (Somebody 2001). The film stars E.J. Bonilla as the hot-blooded self-imposed king of his family who buys an apartment building to keep his family close, only to start dictating everybody’s life since he’s letting them live rent free. Bonilla is a fiercely charismatic up and coming actor who was last at the festival with the film Mamitas in 2011 and was also in Don’t Let Me Drown (Sundance 2010). An uproarious and high-edged Harlem set chamber piece, the heavy conflict of gravity that besets Jack is from being pulled in opposite directions by his street values on one side and deeply rooted family values on the other. See the trailer on their Kickstarter page.

MY SISTER’S QUINCEANERA written and directed by Aaron Douglas Johnston

This was reportedly one of the most talked about American films in the experimental leaning Rotterdam Film Festival this year. The filmmaker who was born and raised in Iowa, Aaron Douglas Johnston, has an impressive academic pedigree having attended world prestigious universities, Oxford and Yale. His first feature, the small town, gay life set, Bumblefuck, USA screened at Outfest 2011. In My Sister’s Quinceanera, he uses the local Mexican-American Iowa residents as his non-pro actors with whom he collaborated with on the story. It’s a gentle and earnest portrayal of a young man named Silas who is convinced he has to leave town to become independent and start his life but must first see his sister’s Quinceanera take place.

WORKERS written and directed by Jose Luis Valle (Mexico/Germany) - A quietly simmering artful drama about a retiring factory worker and housemaid in Tijuana circumstantially reunited and trying to compensate for their spent lives. An accomplished and arresting feature debut, the film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section and won Best Mexican Film at the Guadalajara film Festival. A full investment into the contemplative tone and rhythm yields an appreciation for the film’s visceral and dry humor undertones. Born in El Salvador, Jose Luis Valle previously made a documentary short called Milagro del Papa.

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION: 7 out 10 are US, 4 first features, six female directors (incl. 2 co-directors)

TAPIA directed by Eddie Alcazar

The 5 time world boxing champion and emotionally damaged blue-eyed Chicano from the 505, Johnny Lee Tapia, survived a series of near deaths before his turbulent life ended at the young age of 45 last year. The sheer volume of tragedy and coping afflictions Johnny endured in his Vida Loca, as he openly shares in his autobiography, includes the scarring experience of seeing his mother’s kidnapping and violent murder at the tender age of eight. Tapia funneled his heartbreaking life to fuel a successful professional boxing career. Tapia’s confrontation to such tumult is so impressive, it’s no wonder that former EA video game designer Eddie Alcazar decided to both dramatize and document his harrowing real life story. Originally announced as a biopic, subsequently the documentary was born of it, in which Eddie captures final interviews and archival footage with the haunted boxer. Remarkably, watching the clip below, a slight zeal and spirit, however low key and worn, emanates from the towering rumble of his battered lifetime – unquestionably his refusal to be knocked out. This is actually the first feature out of the gate for filmmaker Eddie Alcazar whose radical sci-fi film 0000 has been curiously tracked as in production for a couple years now. The ambitious looking trailer only piqued mad interest when it was released last year.

PURGATORIO directed by Rodrigo Reyes (Mexico) - An elegiac and cinematically shot poem filled with emotional narration and iconography, this border film is told by way of a tapestry of stories that culminates into a strong cry for human compassion. Imagining the border as if purgatory, where migrants must suffer in order to get through to the other side, the dangerous plight in crossing the US/Mexico border is viewed outside political context but rather a metaphysical prism. This is the fourth film from Reyes, a talented young documentarian from Mexico.

INTERNATIONAL SHOWCASE

EUROPA REPORT directed by Sebastian Cordero and written by Philip Gelatt - From award winning Ecuador born filmmaker Sebastian Cordero (Rabia, Cronicas, Pescador) Europa Report marks his first film in English. Somewhat shrouded in mystery, the story is written by Philip Gelatt, an adult comic book author, and is set aboard the first manned mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa. The genre bending sounding sci-fi thriller was recently picked up by Magnolia’s Magnet division and will go straight to VOD on June 27 after its LA Film Festival premiere. Cordero, who is a UCLA grad, has a well-controlled gritty realism to his aesthetic, which might inhabit and distinguish this deep space thriller among the genre’s canon.

CRYSTAL FAIRY written and directed by Sebastian Silva (Chile) - From the crafty young Chilean filmmaker whose first first film, The Maid put him on the international map, this is one of two films he screened at Sundance this year. A road trip of self-discovery featuring the charming free spirited Gaby Hoffman pitted against a smarmy American tourist Michael Cera in the long and vast Chilean coast side, the film explores their unusual and fluid character dynamic and opposing auras.

THE WOMEN AND THE PASSENGER directed by Valentina Mac-Pherson, Patricia Correra (Chile) - A 45 minute version of this screened at the prestigious documentary film festival in Amsterdam IDFA. An unobtrusive camera follows four maids as they clean the rooms of one of those clandestine by-the-hour motels. Amid the moans behind doors and bed aftermaths of torrid love affairs, the women reveal their own perspectives about life, love and sex in some kind of visual love letter to the special place. I don’t believe the title is translated to interpret its full meaning, its more like, “The Transients’ women”.

SHORTS

I WAS BORN IN MEXICO BUT…. written and directed by Corey OHama - 12min (US) - Per the IMDB description, “using found footage to tell the story of an undocumented young woman who grew up thinking she was American, only to find out as a teenager that she didn’t have papers because she was brought to the U.S. as a young child. “ Sounds like the thousands of Dreamers plights whose stories are being suppressed.

MISTERIO written and directed by Chema Garcia Ibarra (Spain) 12min - So even though this is from Spain (not the Americas), I mention it if because I’m a huge fan of Chema’s shorts, Protoparticles and The Attack of the Robots from Nebula-5. I have no doubt this will share that similar strange, whimsical vibe.

AL LADO DE NORMA written and directed by Camila Luna, Gabriela Maturana 14min (Chile) - 49 year-old Jorge is a silent, tired man, whose life seems to revolve around Norma, his elderly mother who has Alzheimer’s. But Antonio, who rents a small room in their home, will provide him with the chance to examine himself and question his monotonous life, which might just make for a radical change.

PAPEL PICADO – written and directed by Javier Barboza - From a 2007 Cal Arts Alumnus, and independent animation teacher and filmmaker, this looks wild! Check out his vimeo works here.

SAINT JOHN, THE LONGEST NIGHT, written and directed by Claudia Huaiquimilla (Chile) 18 min - The filmmaker is of the indigenous Mapuche tribe of Southern Chile. Set amid the happy Saints celebration of June 24, a young boy must wrestle with the reappearance of his violent father.

TOO MUCH WATER (DEMASIADA AGUA) written and directed by Nicolas Botana, Gonzalo Torrens (Uruguay) 14 min - A young woman fills her backyard pool every night and finds it empty in the morning. Strange neighbors and even stranger circumstances stir her paranoia.

Lastly, I have to mention dance beat rapper Kid Cudi’s feature film acting debut in GOODBYE WORLD directed by Denis Hennelly (Rock the Bells doc about Wu Tang Clan) and written by Sarah Adina Smith. Essentially, the film is about a group of friends hanging out when some kind of apocalypse hits. Hijinks ensue. (There’s a trend here after It’s A Disaster and the upcoming “look-we’re-so-cool-celebs partying of This is The End). Although it’s a small role, it is the first of a number of films Kid Cudi is in that are coming through the pipelines. Born Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi in Cleveland Ohio, he is a beautiful brown blend of African American on his mother’s side and Native/Mexican mix on his father’s side.

The LA Film Festival kicks off with Pedro Almodovar’s, I’m So Excited on June 13 and runs until the 23. Tickets and info here.

Beatles Documentary 'Good ol' Freda' Acquired by Magnolia Pictures

Ryan Lattanzio — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 18:44:51 GMT

Magnolia Pictures has snagged North American distribution rights to Ryan White's "Good ol' Freda," a documentary that tells the unsung story of Freda Kelly, The Beatles' secretary. Magnolia plans to release the film theatrically later this year.

A teenaged typist in Liverpool, Kelly was approached by Beatles' manager Brian Epstein and hired as a secretary for what was then an up-and-coming boy band. In "Good ol' Freda," she opens up about working for the Fab Four, and also about how that legacy continues to follow her even since the Beatles officially called it quits.

The film premiered last month at SXSW (read Indiewire's review here) and was initially funded by Kickstarter. Watch Ryan White's campaign trailer below.

Listen to Film Critics Take on the World at a Panel from SXSW

Matt Singer — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:02:03 GMT

Even though I was the moderator of this panel from last month's South by Southwest Film Festival about the state of film criticism, I'm looking forward to listening to it again. That's because I don't remember it -- or much of anything from that part of SXSW -- very well. Halfway through this year's festival, I came down with an absolutely brutal flu bug. And I mean brutal: if DayQuil posts a big Q1 sales spike this year, I expect a kickback and a beautifully calligraphed thank you note. I was sucking those things down like Tic Tacs.

Thankfully, even though I was not at the top of my game, the panelists for this discussion were. Our "Criticwire Presents: Film Critics Versus the World," featured Scott Weinberg from Twitch and Movies.com and Melissa Hanson from Cinemit, plus PMKBNC Executive Vice President of Film Marketing and Distribution Marian Koltai-Levine and "You're Next" screenwriter Simon Barrett batting around some of the big film crit issues of our time. Through my acetaminophen, dextromethorphan, and phenylephrine-induced fog, I recall some really interesting comments from Scott about the relationship between filmmakers and journalists (particularly at film festivals like SXSW), and from Marian about why, even in her line of work, bad reviews are important. And we also had some great questions from the audience at the end of the panel as well.

Beyond that, yeah, it's a little dim. Lucky for you (and me), the lovely South By staff recorded the whole thing, and uploaded the full 60 minute conversation to Soundcloud for us all to enjoy. They did a great job, too; this thing sounds terrific. You can hear every individual molecule of phlegm in my throat as I croak my way through. Enjoy.

LatinoBuzz: Our Top Picks From Festival Flicks! You're Welcome!

Juan Caceres — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 17:30:00 GMT

This year started off with a Bang (with a capital 'B') for Latino film festivals. Although Latino representation at Miami is a given, it wasn't as obvious at Sundance as in previous years and is a ghost town at Tribeca leaving SXSW, as always, to pick up the slack for the “mainstream” festivals. But, it was the Latino film festivals that really pushed the rainbow of Latino cinema upon the festival landscape. San Diego Latino (SDLFF) had, in my opinion, its strongest lineup in many years. They celebrated their 20th anniversary by showcasing classics that SDLFF had screened over the years, giving the audience a chance to fall in love with them on the big screen all over again. CineFestival in Tejas, who has always played by the beat of their own drum, dropped the mic on everyone by announcing the Latino Writers Project Lab, a collaboration with Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program, which will give filmmakers telling 'American Latino' stories a venue to have their projects mentored. Next up we have three diverse festivals with the Chicago Latino Film Festival celebrating its 29th year, Cine Las Americas in Austin, TX who very much embody their local community with an 'Hecho en Texas' and Youth specific programs, and then there's a new kid on the block in Philly, the Filadelfia Latin American Film Festival. In only its 2nd year, they have put together a two day event to bring Latino films to an underserved vibrant city. LatinoBuzz painstakingly selected our personal top picks that we think are a “must-see.” But don't just take our word for it, check out their websites for full listings and see for yourself how fly Latino cinema really is!

CHICAGO LATINO FILM FESTIVAL

The Precocious and Brief Life of Sabina Rivas (La Vida Precoz y Breve de Sabina Rivas) – Mexico

Dir. Luis Mandoki

Honduran teenager Sabina Rivas intends to get to the United States, harboring dreams of becoming a famous singer and distancing herself from her former young lover, Jovany, now a vicious gang member.

The Wild Ones (Los niños salvajes) – Spain

Dir. Patricia Ferreira

Alex, Oky and Gabi are three angry, misunderstood teens from Barcelona who have to deal with parents who have completely forgotten that they too were once teens; parents who, on most occasions, blame their children for their unfulfilled dreams. The trio has dreams and ambitions of their own and they love to test the limits imposed by society. But push comes to shove and Oky commits an unforgivable act that will leave many in shock in this thoughtful and sober drama.

Nevertheless (Y Sin Embargo) - Cuba
Dir. Rudy Mora

Lapatun is late for his math exam at a music school; to justify his tardiness he invents a wild story about having seen a UFO and spoken with its crew. The school is turned upside down by Lapatun’s claims; with some students demanding his expulsion and some teachers questioning the role creativity plays in a child’s education.

CINE LAS AMERICAS

Dust (Polvo) – Guatemala
Dir. Julio Hernández Cordón

In a small Guatemalan village where many were "disappeared" during the country's civil war, a troubled young man struggles with the memory of his murdered father — and the nearby presence of the man who turned his father in.

From Tuesday To Sunday (De Jueves A Domingo) – Chile
Dir. Dominga Sotomayor

Two children travel with their parents from Santiago Chile to the north of Chile for a family holiday. The landscape's loneliness and the car's confinement help bring out the couple's troubles and the children learn that this might turn out to be their father's farewell and their last family vacation.

Delusions of Grandeur – USA
Dir. Iris Almaraz, Gustavo Ramos

In the mid-1990s a medicated grungy girl stopped taking her medication (Prozac), crossed over a rainbow, and became a woman in a crazy, wonderful place called San Francisco. Lulu, Rocio, and Illusion are struggling with the sexuality and gender roles that we all play. It is said that there is someone for everyone, and the heroines in this story put that theory to the test in a city with a history of love at its core - but will they respect themselves in the morning?

FILADELFIA LATIN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL

Violeta Went to Heaven (Violeta Se Fue A Los Cielos) – Chile
Dir. Andres Wood

Violeta Went To Heaven tells the story of the iconic Chilean singer and folklorist Violeta Parra, tracing her evolution from impoverished child to international sensation and Chile's national hero, while capturing the swirling intensity of her inner contradictions, fallibilities, and passions.

Lemon – USA
Dir. Laura Brownson, Beth Levison

Three-time felon. One-time Tony award winner. Lemon Andersen is a pioneering poet whose words speak for a generation. But Lemon has landed back in the 'hood, living in the projects with thirteen family members and desperate for a way out. So he turns to the only thing he has left, his pen and his past

7 Boxes (7 Cajas) – Paraguay
Dir. Juan Carlos Maneglia, Tana Schémbor

Víctor receives an unusual proposal, to carry 7 boxes of unknown content through the Market Number 4 but things get complicated along the way.

Written by Juan Caceres and Vanessa Erazo, LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow @LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook.

SXSW Interview with Hannah Fidell, Lindsay Burdge and Kim Sherman of A Teacher

Kerensa Cadenas — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 18:00:04 GMT

A Teacher is a tense, unflinching piece of film that gets under your skin and refuses to let go. It's the tightly drawn portrait of Diana (Lindsay Burdge), a young high school teacher who is having an illicit affair with her all-too-appealing student Eric (Will Brittain).

We are dropped into the affair without knowledge of its origins. Automatically, the stakes and the tension of the situation are apparent, as we watch Diana try to balance her day to day life--teaching, running, interacting with her roommate and being set up with terrible guys her own age. Her interactions with Eric amount to secret rendezvous in the backseat of cars, homes where roommates or relatives are absent, and the urgency between the two is palpable. Inevitably, the relationship -- and Diana -- fall apart. Written and directed by Hannah Fidell, the film is sexy, scary and heart-grippingly tense. She masterfully navigates the unraveling of a woman weighted down by her choices, yet she does not does judge those choices.

I spoke with director/writer Hannah Fidell, star Lindsay Burdge and producer Kim Sherman about the film, women on the verge and their inspirations.

Women and Hollywood: You mentioned in the post-film Q&A is that you wanted to do a portrait of a woman on the verge. What attracted all of you to that?

Hannah Fidell: I realized that the films I enjoyed watching were films like that. Opening Night by Cassavetes, The Piano Teacher by Michael Haneke and other films of that nature. So, I thought why not make a movie that I would want to watch.

Lindsay Burdge: I'm drawn to movies with strong female characters. She's not strong, she's kind of falling apart, but it was great to hone in on one character and her head. For me that's a gratifying film experience. So, when Hannah told me about it, I was interested. It's hard to find roles where you can throw yourself into it.

Kim Sherman: Specifically, I felt like Hannah did a really great job in taking something that we had seen a million times in different films, and could be sensationalized in the wrong hands. I loved the way the story was structured. The beginning point, after the romance had already begun, and we were really dealing with the psychology of what was happening. And that specific woman rather than the overall taboo of the relationship. I felt like that was a lot more relatable and an almost experimental way to tell the story.

WaH: Kim, how did you come to be involved in the project?

KS: I came to the project through friends who had worked with Hannah on her short film A Gathering Squall. They were actually my Missouri-based collaborators. They mentioned that Hannah was looking for production help with A Teacher because she was the main producer as well as the writer and director and she wanted to take the producing hat off for a while. We started working together in pre-production and it went really well, so she asked me to stay on as a main producer with her through the project.

WaH: Women on the verge stories tend to have a weird built-in judgment of the character. The way that you told the story, we understand that Diana's choices are obviously not great, but you left the audience to come to their own conclusions.

HF: That was very much on purpose. I think I came to that in two ways. First, I wrote this story from the perspective of what would have to happen for me to find myself in the situation that Diana finds herself in. And, also, looking at the films I enjoy, not to reference Haneke too much, but the way that he draws in viewers and in a way forces them to identify with the protagonist no matter what they are doing interests me because it's different. That style of film-making and storytelling breaks convention. I think it also creates a non-passive viewing experience when you find yourself so actively, not necessarily relating to the character, but being in the character's head.

WaH: Lindsay talk about how you came at the character.

LB: Hannah and I did research and read some case studies so we did get into the psychology a bit. When Hannah told me the idea, I could imagine that happening. Also, I feel like a lot of the emotions that Diana goes through are very relatable. It's what's so brilliant about what Hannah did. It's this topic that is kind of a hot button, but the journey, the emotions I feel are relatable.

WaH: Do you think that if the gender roles were reversed that there would be a similar criticism? If it was a male protagonist, would they say, "He clearly has borderline personality disorder," as he's Facebook stalking?

HF: No, absolutely not. They would just be like, "oh, he's cold, or something."

LB: "Aww that's so sweet, he likes her." But, I do hear what you are saying. So quickly, the crazy card gets pulled.

HF: Okay, I get that she acts a little bit crazy, but she's not crazy. She's complex.

WaH: Working in the film industry and working in entertainment women obviously isn't the easiest thing. Do you all have female mentors or filmmakers, people who have helped you in your careers or people you have looked up to as an inspiration?

HF: Filmmaker-wise, if I'm going to mention female filmmakers, Catherine Breillat of Fat Girl. She is fantastic and doesn't shy away from, even as a woman filmmaker, putting women in a negative light because women aren't always positive. I also like Joyce Carol Oates, even though she's in a different field. I just admire not only her work ethic but also her incredible mind and her incredible storytelling ability. She is just a complete inspiration. There are some producers who I very much admire like Jules Daly. She runs a company called RSA Films, where I worked at the front desk right out of college. That's where Lindsay and I met. She's a force and I just sit there in awe of everything that she was doing and how she organized her business.

LB: As an actress Liv Ullmann and Gena Rowlands and all these woman who really throw themselves into things and aren't afraid to look ugly and scary. They just go there, which is awesome. Just watching their performances is so inspiring. Also, people who have contemporary careers like Cate Blanchett. She just does everything. She always gives 100%.

HF: I think, Lindsay, that you are not afraid to look not your best or to have your character make the wrong choice.

LB: Yeah or be a shitty person. Anyway, all those women I think as actresses are amazing. I'm really excited and in awe of like the women more in our immediate scene, our independent film scene. Obviously, like Hannah and Kim, Amy Seimetz. She's an amazing actress and has been producing for a bunch of people. She'll just hustle and make a movie happen and then go and act or whatever. Sophia Takal writing a movie, then just making it, then making another one.

WaH: Kim, what about you?

KS: I feel like I've been very lucky, especially coming up through the ranks of horror films which can be inherently sexist. I worked with men who were very respectful of me. So, I didn't experience that as much as women who have come before me, for sure. I have had a lot of help from various women at the Sundance Institute. Eden Wurmfeld, she was a producer on Swingers and a bunch of bigger independent hits in the 90s. She was actually a mentor of mine through the Sundance Institute. Rebecca Green, Anne Lai and Michelle Satter all from the institute, were really great and so knowledgeable about all aspects of production.

Amy Seimetz, I should say that more importantly. Watching her [Sherman worked as a producer on Seimetz's Sun Don't Shine] --she's so well-rounded in all aspects of production, but also we talked a lot about the things that we are able to do because there wasn't this kind of alpha male competition the entire time. There was something about the way that we were working that was different from the way that we had worked in the past. We didn't have to butt heads and bully our point-of-view across in an aggressive way. It just worked differently.
Something that Hannah and I talk about a lot is that we had really strong women in our families who raised us. Because of that, we never thought there wasn't anything we couldn't do. There is nothing that's off limits to us. I think that that is one of the strengths of being a woman in our generation because women who came before us had to fight really hard and they had obstacles and were able to push them down to a certain extent for us. So, we are able to do a lot more, more easily because of that.

WaH: Now back to the film the music really stood out for me.

HF: From the start I told Brian, our composer, that I wanted to have a horror film score. We did that by using very sparse drumbeats and single notes. Brian is an incredible force. I like to imagine that this film is like a female horror film.

WaH: Kim, I saw that you have a music background. I wanted to know if you had any input.

KS: I think Hannah had a very clear vision of the film from the beginning. I definitely wholeheartedly supported that decision. She's worked a longtime with Brian from Dirty Projectors and Brian McOmber, who actually composed the soundtrack. And I think that in talking to her that was one of the elements that brought me to her project. She did want to add horror elements and my background is horror. The way that she wanted to treat the film was very much in line with what I had done in the past and a sensibility that I could relate to.

WaH: What's next for all of you?

HF: I just finished a script called That Girl on TV and it's a critique of reality television and specifically a girl who becomes famous for dating a reality television star. I'm really excited about that. My goal is -- it's not going to happen -- to make it this summer and go back to Sundance because it was so much fun.

LB: I just wrapped a film up here in Austin called the Sideways Light which was directed by another female director by the name of Jennifer Harlow. It is a mother/daughter film. And, I'm going back to New York finally. I have a film that's playing at TriBeCa called Lily that I cast and play a supporting role in it. Another film that I cast last year called Gimme the Loot is premiering in New York. I'm doing a small role in Lawrence Levine's upcoming film Wild Canaries, which should be awesome.

KS: So, I have many projects coming up. I am in production now on Wild Canaries, written and directed by Lawrence Michael Levine, and am in development on Sophia Takal's Always Shine.

SXSW Interview with Sini Anderson, Tamra Davis and Kathleen Hanna of The Punk Singer

Kerensa Cadenas — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 18:00:03 GMT

I can't write about Sini Anderson's great documentary The Punk Singer without mentioning that Kathleen Hanna has been one of my life-long heroes. When I was sixteen a friend gave me my first Bikini Kill CD, I had never heard anything like it, and feminism wasn't something that was remotely on my radar. I dove into Hanna's music and read everything I could about riot grrrl, even doing a presentation on it for a high school class where I received quizzical looks from the other students. Hanna always seemed larger than life to me--a musically inclined revolutionary badass.

Anderson's The Punk Singer encapsulates Hanna in this way, documenting her "origin stories", her childhood, her time in Bikini Kill and the riot grrrl movement, and her time in Le Tigre. Hanna ruminates on these periods of her life and feminism, interspersed with archival footage of Bikini Kill performing, Le Tigre on tour and Hanna giving speeches at feminist rallies. She is eloquent, accessible, inspirational and remains exactly the woman that I (and many others) idolize.

However, Anderson also captures Hanna vulnerably--an unexpected romance with her now husband, Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys to her sudden exit from performing in 2005, a move that confused fans, friends and even Hanna's bandmates. The cause was unknown at the time but it was a health issue, a diagnosis of Lyme disease which had gone undetected for years.

Anderson gives a fascinating portrait of an endlessly inspirational woman, telling Hanna's story on her own terms. And while I'll always consider Hanna as a feminist superhero, she's also a woman--who deals with the same things we all do. Seeing everything that Hanna has thus far accomplished leaves the audience with the feeling that you can start your own revolution. The Sixteen year old me would be happy to know that Hanna, both in the documentary and face to face, lives up to everything I'd hoped.

I spoke with director, Sini Anderson; producer, Tamra Davis and Kathleen Hanna about the film.

Women and Hollywood: What drew all of you to decide to do this project?

Kathleen Hanna: My band Le Tigre was making a tour documentary. And we needed a director and I knew Sini was interested in filmmaking. We had talked a lot about filmmaking, so I approached her. And she was like, "No." And then two weeks later, we were hanging out and she was like, "Hey, I don't want to do that project, but I would be really interested in doing a movie about your life and your work. Think about it." I thought about it and said yes.

Sini Anderson: I was really excited the Le Tigre film, but my heart was just like, "When are you going to tell your story?" So, I asked Kathleen "When do you think you are going to be ready to tell your story? Because I know that people really need to hear it." Kathleen was like, "Oh, I don't know." Then she called me and said, "I've been thinking about what you said. I don't know if I'm ready to do this, but if we are going to do it, let's do it." That was a really exciting moment, to hear somebody be ready to say, "Yeah, you can do this. I'll tell my story."

Tamra Davis: I was working on Basquiat at the time. Sini came to me. I love mentoring young filmmakers and girl filmmakers. So, we talked about her making the film. Then three years later she came to me while she was editing. She had hit a roadblock. She had this amazing interview with Kathleen. What I saw in her footage was this amazing story but it was complicated to weave everything together. I came on and helped structure the film and made a story out of it in the edit room.

We all came back together and made sure that we all felt good about the story. For me, also, I love Kathleen's story so much and it was so important to me that it was told right. It was so overwhelming because not only was there all of Sini's footage, there were also hundreds of hours of this archival materials that was just massive. The goal was trying to figure out how to weave it together. For me, it was amazing to see Kathleen's life and try to structure an emotional story out of it. And we all worked together as a team. Both Sini and I love Kathleen so much, we really just wanted to make sure that that film represented her. Because it's her life.

WaH: Sini, the movie was funded by Kickstarter and I wondered if you could talk a little bit about that process.

SA: We are in this great place where people can pick up cameras and tell stories. That being said, it still costs a lot of money. And, I'm not somebody who comes from money. We were able to purchase a camera. You need a good camera if you want a beautiful film. That was something that I cared very much about, that the aesthetic look good. We had people willing to show up and work for free, but hard drives cost money, travel costs money, feeding your crew costs money. So, it was a real struggle.

We got to the point of editing and I thought I don't know what we are going to do without asking for help. So, we went to Kickstarter. I'm a huge fan. Not only is it such a great idea, they are really amazing people. They are really willing to show up and say, 'What do you need? How can we help you? Having that model and putting it out there for people is really making all of these films and projects and books and albums possible.
It was scary and fun to put it out there. But, I knew, if we put it out there, Kathleen's fans would come forward. People were so excited about it. Kathleen did an update for us that was just like, "Thanks, you guys. This was so great." And people were just excited to see her. It gave the film a lot of interest before we even started editing. All of those people from Kickstarter are still asking for updates and it's amazing.

WaH: One thing that really came up for me during the film was the whole idea of documentation. How difficult was it to collect and gather these things? I'm assuming you have a pretty big personal archive.

KH: A kind of serendipitous thing happened. My friend who used to be my roommate back in Olympia was very much present for the whole Riot Grrrl thing. She took one of the photo sets that's in the movie of me and Tobi [Vail] and Kathi [Wilcox], right when we are talking about the band breaking up. Lisa Darms, who is the archivist who now does the Riot Grrrl archive at NYU has been a close friend of mine for years and years and years. We went to a panel at the NYU archive, the Fales Archive, where now the archive is located, together. They were talking about the downtown archive and Richard Heil and stuff. I was like, I need a place to put my filing cabinet. I've been dragging that thing around for fucking ever. I wish somebody would start the Riot Grrrl archive. At the time, she wasn't working at NYU, she had a different job. She got a call a couple of weeks later where they were like, "Do you wanna come work here?" The first thing she said was that "I want to do a Riot Grrrl archive." It was almost a joke and then it started happening.

I got interns who helped me decide what was going to go in and what wasn't--those were all really almost political decisions. Decisions that ended up being in this film of "how much do you share" and "how much do you hold back." You want to share enough of your stuff that isn't necessarily attractive, that people see themselves in it because we're not all perfect. But, you also don't want to be somebody with no boundaries who doesn't protect yourself. I think that kind of negotiation, I learned from doing the archive stuff. The serendipitous part besides that was that I got to give them all the videotapes I had and I got to ask other people for videotapes. They started putting them all onto DVDs and digitized them all. The film really benefitted from that. There's just a stack of things that have already been digitized instead of having to get VHS players.

SA: It would have been another year at least without that work being done.

TD: It was just amazing that that access was there and you just had already so much on DVD.

SA: Kathleen was a pre-production demon.

TD: I was looking through my files and I saw this footage and it was all this great footage of Bikini Kill live, but it was also of her and Adam.

KH: It was us falling in love on her camera because we were all on tour together.

TD: It's another one of these tapes hidden in my basement. And I was sitting in the editing room looking at it with this weird feeling that Kathleen mentions, where she is looking at herself and it's like a seeing a different person. Looking at it, it's like Kathleen, Adam and I--and I don't even remember any of that. And, here is all of this beautiful, beautiful footage. So, I just can't even imagine. Are there other people out there that have this footage somewhere lying around?

KH: They definitely don't have that kind of footage because they weren't backstage.

TD: But, the archive is just so amazing. It was so exciting that she had done so much of that work.

WaH: I remember that you put something on your blog or Twitter, calling people to submit stuff. Did a lot of people reach out to you?

KH: It really ended up being friends. Also, I wrote to a lot of people on YouTube. I just would find a clip on YouTube and a lot of times I couldn't even watch it, but I know that that show was big. It was a turning point for us or a really messed up show. I would email that person and be like, "Hey!" Some people actually didn't believe it was me. I would do the, this is horrible, the kidnap victim thing of holding up a newspaper and taking a picture of myself and sending it. It's hilarious.

WaH: One thing that I think is really important with women and women's careers is having mentors, idols or people who've helped you in your careers. I was just wondering if all of you could talk about that.

SA: I think it's really really important. One of the things when I was making the film, when I was starting out, I thought over and over again was who are the women in the industry, in telling Kathleen's story--who are the smartest feminists that I want to see this film to give me honest feedback about what I'm missing? Who are the smartest women in music that I want to watch this film before it's finished and let me know musically what is missing? Tamra is who I thought of for film. I really wanted to talk with Tamra Davis.

So, I had a conversation with Tamra before we ever started production. She was open to that and had me over to her place and talked to me about it. She said you should try this and try this, and just gave me great advice. It was something that was on the forefront of my mind because I'm not an expert. It was really amazing to have Tamra come back and finish the project when she was the person I went to when I started it.

TD: For me, when I started out, I wanted to direct in the 80s and there were so few females making films, and not all of them were very approachable. You have so many questions and you need somebody to look at your work and help you. It's an incredibly valuable thing and there should be more women as role models and also as mentors. It helps inspire a whole new generation. We have to build that next generation because those stories are so important. Sini put such energy into making this film because the story had to be told. I was just really excited to be involved with it. So, hopefully, it inspires other women to mentor in whatever field and hopefully other directors too.

KH: So, in a way, I'm going to speak for you, I think what Tamra is trying to say is that maybe you looked for a mentor that wasn't there. Then, you became the mentor that you wish that you would have had.

WaH: Kathleen, what about you?

KH: What? I did it all myself! I don't need any mentors! President of Riot Grrrl! Created feminism! Created punk rock as a genre! No, I mean, Simone de Beauvoir, and a ton of writers just totally changed my life. She was a real early one for me. I was like, "Whoah! I'm oppressed? What!"

Other feminist thinkers and writers likeKathy Acker, Julia Kristeva, a lot of the French feminists were really influential to me and artists that were in the film and others who weren't, like Karen Finley, Leslie Gore. bell hooks, obviously. I totally ripped off her whole thing, turned her whole thing into songs. But in general for me it was just feminism. These were my people. This is my life raft and I want to get on this life raft because I'm sick of feeling like sexism is my own personal affliction because it's not. It's something that different people are experiencing at the same time and we need to help each other out instead of internalizing it to the point of externalizing it onto each other.

SA: And on that note, I would like to say that I think that we are at a place where we can have these mentors, and we can also find them. They are more accessible than we really believe. I think it's really important that young women know that. Go after the people that you really want to be your mentors, but also look at your best friend. There is a lot in there.

Dream big and just ask. People want to help.

SXSW Review: Women-Directed Shorts including Sequin Raze and Ellen Is Leaving

Kerensa Cadenas — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:00:01 GMT

At SXSW I was able to catch some excellent short films. There were a bunch of great women-centric ones including: Dotty a funny and touching look at an elderly woman struggling to send a text message to her daughter; Community's Gillian Jacobs was hilarious as a woman whose boyfriend begins to literally drive her insane in It's Not You, It's Me, and the gorgeously shot and supremely heartbreaking Mobile Homes about a young mother who is involved in human trafficking and is determined to get her and her son out.

The Shorts programs were also filled with excellent women-directed films that explored a wide range of topics from the toxicity of reality television to taxidermy. Here are some of my favorites:

Sequin Raze - Written and Directed by Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, Starring Anna Camp, Ashley Williams and Frances Conroy

Sequin Raze is a behind the scenes look at the unsurprisingly toxic environment of reality television--specifically dating shows ala The Bachelor. Goldberg (Williams) a producer on the hit dating show, and works as the closer the person who psychologically tortures female contestants into having on-camera breakdowns. She meets her match in beauty queen second runner up (Camp) who refuses to cave. It's a fascinating look at reality television, feminism and the psychological warfare between the two women. Enhanced by great performances by Camp and Williams, Shapiro's short left me riveted and wanting more.

When We Lived in Miami - Written, Directed and Starring Amy Seimetz

Amy Seimetz's When We Lived in Miami drops the viewer into a portrait of a woman who is desperately trying to keep her family together amidst the backdrop of a looming hurricane. The fascinating thing about Seimetz's short is the way she holds back from the viewer. She keeps the state of her marriage and even her character's mental state almost uncomfortably ambiguous and smartly allows the audience to make their own interpretations.

Weighting - Written, Co-Directed and Starring Brie Larson

Brie Larson's Weighting focuses on the end of a relationship. She needs to leave to figure out what she wants. But he wants her to stay. While it sounds like a tired concept, Larson's script unfolds the action almost in the form of a poem instead of straightforward dialogue. Also, as her character gathers her things from their shared home--all in one bag--the short has a distinctly surrealistic feel.

Skin - Co-Written and Directed by Jordana Spiro

Skin, written and directed by Jordana Spiro, tells the story of a child taxidermist, an outsider in his backwoods small town. He has a massive crush on a girl at school and when she takes a liking to him and his work, the two become fast friends. But something happens that causes everything to fall apart. Skin is beautifully shot with excellent performances from these two child actors and it is also deeply sad and upsetting.

Ellen is Leaving - Directed by Michelle Savill, Written by Martha Hardy-Ward

Michelle Savill's Ellen is Leaving won the Narrative Shorts Grand Jury Award. The gorgeously directed (reminiscent of Miranda July) short is about Ellen who is about to leave to travel around but has to leave her boyfriend, Hamish, behind in order to do so. As she makes her final arrangements, she decides maybe the best going-away gift for Hamish would be a new girlfriend. When her plan goes a little too well, Ellen has to decide if she can actually go through with it. It's a funny and touching look at how our endless abilities to pick up and leave whenever we feel like can affect our relationships. Aesthetically, it was also one of the most beautiful things I watched while at SXSW.

LatinoBuzz: WTF is Latino at Tribeca

Christine Davila — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 17:00:00 GMT

If you've read my last two WTF is Latino posts on Sundance and SXSW, you know I do my best to embody a manic optimist and find a silver lining when it comes to magnifying the limited representation of Latino stories and writer/directors at mainstream film festivals. I do that by expanding and deconstructing the broad term, hoping to educate myself and the masses on what 'qualifies' as Latino. However, the relative dearth of Latinos and Latin America at this year's 2013 Tribeca Film Festival program has seriously challenged me to find a positive spin on this woeful slate of brown in the world's most celluloid famous, multi-culti metropolis. It is especially stupefying considering the number of electrifying premiere film submissions there are to choose from at this moment.

I worked as an Industry Coordinator for the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival under Director of Programming David Kwok and Festival Director Nancy Schaefer. Back then Latin America was not only well represented in the program but Tribeca was at the forefront of showing bourgeoning film renaissances taking place in countries such as Panama, Peru and Colombia. No doubt this sensibility and charge came from the legendary jet-setting of one such Peter Scarlet, the cognoscente Artistic Director beloved by many Latin American festivals. At 8 years old, the Festival was fast outgrowing its post 9/11 birthmark and has since stubbornly and desperately struggled to position itself as a blank World Cinema festival. This is a strategy I find puzzling, given it is way out of league and under the heavy shadow cast from uptown by the auteur and discovery art house Lincoln Film Society. One would think it an ideal and very NY synergy thing to do would be to carve out your own identity in specializing in the kaleidoscopic, fertile microcosm of US immigrant odyssey found in every corner from Manhattan to the five boroughs. Not only is there a lack of US Latino stories this year, nowhere to be found are films from Latin America. Seriously. Click on the online film guide's search by country scroll down menu and visibly absent are Chile, Mexico and Argentina - three of Latin America's most renowned and heralded world cinema incubators. The closest we get is one feature from Brazil by veteran director, Bruno Baretto, and two shorts from Spain. Its plain to see that the Festival's new Artistic Director, Fredric Boyer (who headed bougie prestige fests, Cannes' Directors Fortnight and then Locarno Film Festival) is seriously 'Euro-cizing' the Triangle Below Canal.

So, what's my silver lining? Well, its based on the Short Term 12 lesson I just experienced at SXSW. I did not target the indie film as a Latino film but being familiar and a fan of Hawaiian filmmaker, Daniel Cretton's work, I went to see it and was immediately absorbed by the effortless kid-adult social psychological narrative. A detail that resonated with me was that one of the main juvy instructors was a foster kid who was raised and adopted into a big loving home by Mexican parents. He's as white as they come, yet he cooks a mean Mexican dish and expresses his emotions outwardly, attributes of Latino culture that informed his personhood. Maybe that's how subtle, relative yet impactful Latino culture is seeping into all of our lives. Maybe my barely passing grade on the Latino at Tribeca diagnosis is premature having not seen all of the films. Maybe where we least expect it, beyond cast and loglines, there are films buried in here with deeper social undertones of brown representation. I'm willing to excavate. All that big picture stuff aside, I am quite excited about the six films (out of some 168) I highlight here which offers a diverse albeit thin slice of Latino - whether its the narrative's themes, up and coming actors, and real life Americans - who knows how many times removed from their Latin roots - and how cool that looks like.

Without further ado, here it is; WTF is Latino at Tribeca Film Festival.

WORLD NARRATIVE COMPETITION

Stand Clear of the Closing Doors directed by Sam Fleischner and written by Rose Lichter-Marck, Micah Bloomberg

Logline: When autistic teen Ricky is scolded for skipping class, he escapes into the subway for a days-long odyssey among the subway’s disparate denizens. Meanwhile, his mother wages an escalating search effort above ground. Based on a true story and set in Far Rockaway, Queens, in the days leading up to Hurricane Sandy, these parallel stories of mother and son take the viewer on a touching journey of community and connection in and below New York City. Cast Andrea Suarez, Jesus Valez, Azul Rodriguez, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Marsha Stephanie Blake

Sam Fleischner's first film, Wah Do Dem was about a broken hearted hipster who goes on a cruise and gets stuck in the dangerous wild of Jamaica - just as President Obama is being sworn into office for the first time. The filmmaking felt so fresh, real, tense and engrossing. Just like you were on the adventure with him. Sam and his co-director Ben Chase won the $50,000 Target Filmmaker Award for Best Narrative at the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival. I'm so happy he is premiering this NY based film which features a Latino cast including Tenoch Huerta (Dias de Gracia), and half of the film is spoken in Spanish. No, Sam is not a Latino but a native New Yorker and I love his take and thematic weaving in this story. His statement and inspiration behind the film demonstrates his sensibility and vision, surpassing and waiving any requirement or notion that says you have to be Latino to tell authentic Latino stories. This is what Sam was able to tell me over email:

"I am not Latino but this story is inspired by true events that happened to a Mexican family. I was attracted to the parallel between people on the autism spectrum and people living as illegal immigrants in the US. Both instances are people wading through systems that aren't designed for them, interesting to think about the term 'alien'. "

NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT

The Pretty One, written and directed by Jenee LaMarque

Logline: Audrey has all of the qualities that her twin sister Laurel wishes she possessed: confidence, style, independence. When tragedy strikes, Laurel has the opportunity to reinvent herself. In a complex performance, Zoe Kazan poignantly captures Laurel’s complex mix of loss and awakening, especially as she begins a new relationship with her neighbor (Jake Johnson). Jenée LaMarque’s first feature film is a quirky, lovely tale of identity and the eternal bond between two sisters. Cast Zoe Kazan, Jake Johnson, John Carroll Lynch, Shae D'lyn, Frankie Shaw, Ron Livingston

I first met Jenee with her edgy girls short film Spoonful, a ridiculous real life scenario in which friends help out their lactating friend, which played the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. She was also kind enough to email me amid the crunch of finishing her first feature for its world premiere. I'm so grateful she responded because she truly personifies what I'm trying to convey about Latino identity (its American and expansive and our creativity relates to it vastly different ways). She says, "As for my Latina origin: my dad is Mexican, born and raised in Chino, CA. His mother's family is Mexican and has been in CA for a long time. His father's family is from Mexico City...we have a French last name, presumably because of the French who came to Mexico during the 19th century but I really don't know anything about my French-Mexican origins. My grandfather came to CA during WWII with the Bracero program. My Mom is Danish, Norwegian and French. I do identify as Mexican, as Latina, but I also identify as American and as white. I really wish that I had more of a connection to my Mexican heritage but unfortunately, my dad didn't speak Spanish to us growing up (even thought he's fluent) and he really identifies as American. It's funny, because I'm mixed, I don't feel I'm fully one thing or another, I feel like my identity is sort of slippery because of it. I think that my mixed heritage plays a central role in my voice as a storyteller; one of the themes of The Pretty One is identity (a struggle with identity) and I also find myself drawn to this theme again in again in my other work. "

DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT

The Motivation by Adam Bhala Lough

Logline: Go inside the lives and training regimes of eight of the world’s gutsiest professional skateboarders. These fearless stars face unique obstacles on the way to the Street League Championship and the coveted title of best street skateboarder in the world. Adam Bhala Lough, creator of the independent hit Bomb the System (TFF 2003), directs this fresh, energetic documentary search for that elusive quality that separates winners from the pack.

This skateboarding shred competish doc about the sheer intensity and will to defy the terror of cracked bones features some of the youngest, most successfully branded and competitive skaters in the game like Nyjah Huston (Puerto Rican father), Paul Rodriguez known as P-Rod, and Chaz Ortiz. I can't wait to meet these guys and get to know them. Adam is good like that. His last film, The Carter, about autodidactic and auto-real voiced rapper Lil Wayne impressed me for its gloss and floss but also by its covert way of infiltrating the hyped up insular world and mind of a subculture pop king. His flashy aesthetic and sneak transparency is bound to capture the badass jaw dropping leaps and outrageous rail tricks along with distilling the high intensity pressure and rush of winning in The Motivation.

MIDNIGHT

Frankenstein's Army (Netherlands, Czech Republic) directed by Richard Raaphorst and written by Miguel Tejada Flores

Logline: In the waning days of World War II, a team of Russian soldiers finds itself on a mysterious mission to the lab of one Dr. Victor Frankenstein. They unearth a terrifying Nazi plan to resurrect fallen soldiers as an army of unstoppable freaks and are soon trapped in a veritable haunted house of cobbled-together monstrosities. Frankenstein’s Army is the wild steampunk Nazi found-footage zombie mad scientist film you’ve always wanted.

Veteran Hollywood screenwriter, Miguel Tejada Flores has written such horror reboots as Beyond Reanimator and family classics as The Lion King but notably this is the guy who gets story credit for Revenge of the Nerds back in '84. His next film is the upcoming I Brake for Gringos starring Camilla Belle directed by Mexican filmmaker Fernando Lebrija. A frequent mentor over the years at NALIP's screenwriting and producing labs, it sounds like this guy is accessible and interested in nurturing the younger generation of Latino talent. A California native, his family is from Bolivia. Read his wordpress blog here

V/H/S/2 - Eduardo Sanchez is one of the seven filmmakers of the second found footage horror anthology which has screened at Sundance, SXSW and now Tribeca (that might be a record), and most famously directed The Blair Witch Project. Cuban born filmmaker.

SHORT FILM COMPETITION

Close Your Eyes written and directed by Sonia Malfa

Logline: Thirteen-year-old Imani Cortes is a gifted photographer longing to experience her first kiss. She has a crush on a quiet artist, Junito, with whom she has a natural connection, but she also faces an enormous challenge: she is slowly losing her sight to retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic eye disease. Will Imani let her disease stop her or be the path to independence? Cast Kimberly Lora, Julian Fernandez-Kemp, Sara Contreras, Victor Cruz, Rhina Valentina, Mia Ysabel

I'm looking forward to seeing this short set in Spanish Harlem. I don't know much about the filmmaker except that she raised 10k off Kickstarter for this, her directorial debut. And she looks Boricua. Check out her website which shows a number of her photos and videos that show off her 'eye'.

The Tribeca Film Festival starts April 17-28. Ticket info here

SXSW Interview with Brie Larson - Star of Short Term 12

Kerensa Cadenas — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:30:00 GMT

Short Term 12, written and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, was hands down one of my favorite films I saw at SXSW. The film follows Grace (Brie Larson), a young staffer at a group home who alongside her boyfriend Mason (John Gallagher Jr.) care for the group--ranging from children to young adults--at the home. While they aren't meant to serve as therapists, merely staffers to make sure the residents don't harm themselves, their connections through shared moments indicate much deeper bonds.

When Grace discovers she's pregnant along with a bond with new resident, Jayden (Kaitlyn Devers) more of her own past spills forth and she must cope with it all over again. Short Term 12 deals with subject matter that could be sensationalized, but Cretton handles it with subtlety, never exploiting the characters for dramatic gain. Larson is tremendous as Grace, playing her with a balance of stillness and strength. And she's supported by an amazing ensemble cast without which the realism of the film would not be felt.

Women and Hollywood spoke with Larson about Short Term 12, which won the Grand Jury Narrative Prize at SXSW. Larson has had a busy SXSW with roles also in The Spectacular Now and Don Jon. She also wrote and directed, Weighting, a surrealistic short about the end of a relationship.

Women and Hollywood: I really loved the film and you were so great in it. I was wondering what drew you to the project in the first place? How did you decide that this was something that you wanted to do?

Brie Larson: I was given the script while I was in Georgia, working on The Spectacular Now. I was sent the script because it was getting kind of close and there was a shuffle and the role was open. I read the script and wanted to do it so bad. It was one of the most beautifully written scripts and such a delicate and interesting character. I loved that it was not about talking, it was about learning how to talk, which is a hard thing to get across in a script. I just didn't actually believe that Destin would want, me, of all people to do it. I've never done something like this. I've never been the lead of anything. So, I was a little tentative about it. I didn't believe that I was going to get it. During that little bit of time, I ended up applying to a bunch of foster care places before talking with Destin.

By the time we spoke, I created this laundry list of all the stuff that I had done and all of the stuff that I was going to do to try and woo him. And it worked. There really wasn't an audition process, but we talked a lot. Movies for me are like philosophies. Each film has certain philosophical questions that I want to explore. Destin had the same sort of questions. We wanted to go on this journey together and it was the best experience.

WaH: I love that viewpoint of movies as philosophy. Is that a way that you approach picking your films?

BL: Yeah, it's finding for me a way that movies have a purpose. I don't deal well with being told what to wear and sit on a mark. It just feels like my soul is being ripped out. In this movie I really became interested in secrets. Any movie I've done, my character has had a secret. Whether it's in the movie or not, it is usually never is and it's usually not something I tell anybody. It is for me. But, I think every person has something that they are trying to get at it in a scene or want to save for themselves. And, that's what drives us to do things.

WaH: The diversity in the film is refreshing to see.

BL: It is so beautiful.

WaH: You don't often see that in film frequently anymore and it's so depressing.

BL: It's so depressing! And this is done in such a way that it's not like "Hey! Look! There are different kinds of people." It's just done like this is what life is. This is what you embrace. It was just really beautiful. It created such an interesting tone for all of us.

WaH: I'm really glad that you mentioned that. That was one of the things that really stood out for me about the film. It's a subject matter that, I feel like in the wrong hands could very easily turn into a one note caricature of what is actually happening.

BL: Yeah, poverty porn or something.

WaH: Exactly.

BL: We have the option of going into a movie with a bunch of money and say we are going to do a movie about how hard it is to struggle. Everyone can smell that stuff a mile away. You never pull the wool over anyone's eyes with that.

WaH: How did you prepare for the role?

BL: I worked and shadowed a foster care facility. I spent a lot of time talking with people who worked in foster care facilities. I followed a lot of threads on Reddit. I spent time getting the sea legs of having that strong voice that Grace can have when she's dealing with the kids that I just don't have. I had just gotten into the film, so I needed a little extra boost there. It felt really natural and fluid. I was just mostly listening, which I think was the best thing. My favorite part of my job is getting to do a scene where these kids talk and I just listen.

I planned out certain things. I kept a log. I don't plan anything out before I shoot something. I just memorize it and see what happens. When I was done, I had my big script and I would kind of write in what had happened so that three weeks from now when I'm shooting the thing directly before it or directly after it, I would have an idea of where I am so that everything matches up.

WaH: The other thing I really liked was the relationship between your character and Jayden. Had you previously worked with Kaitlyn Dever?

BL: Yes. On The Spectacular Now.

WaH: You have some really intense scenes together. How did you come at those scenes together?

BL: We had met during The Spectacular Now. We didn't have any scenes together, but we spent a lot of hanging out. In the same way that Grace meets Jayden, she sees herself in Jayden and that's kind of the catalyst for her understanding herself better. There was a very similar thing going on on the set. There was so much about Kaitlyn that reminded me of me at that age and we just got each other. And, she is just a true actor. I just have to give her so much credit. She's so ambitious, so hardworking. She's just so vulnerable in those moments that she needs to be and willing to just let it all go. And so excited about getting into things too.

I think a lot of kids would be tentative or nervous about doing something where they are slamming a door and thrashing. But, she did that scene eight times and wanted to keep doing it. She would wipe her tears and then restart the hysteria every single time. I was like "Man, I should start taking my cues from her." She is absolutely the real deal and I think that she really helped my performance be as good as it could possibly be. Most of my performance or my outlook on Grace was to get everything going in my head, but never saying anything. So, I would spend a lot of time working myself up and then throwing myself into a scene.

WaH: Why do you think it's so important to tell Grace's story? Why do you think it's special?

BL: I think it's a really important aspect of our lives to realize that life is constantly happening. Sometimes you get tossed a bad hand. I feel like when you can let things go you can actually appreciate something that's happened to you. I think that this movie is all about that the cure to everything is love.

WaH: Do you want to talk about your experience directing the short Weighting?

BL: I love it. I just love it. I feel like it has been such a great learning experience and has made me a better actor in many ways. I feel much more comfortable choosing my freedoms. Short Term 12 was hard work, but it's not my movie. It's Destin's movie and I'm just an instrument in his orchestra. I feel very comfortable in that and I don't feel anything beyond that. I can do that because I know I'm writing something at the same time that I can create and have complete control over.

WaH: The entertainment industry isn't an easy one for women. Do you have women you look up to or female mentors that have helped you in your career?

BL: I've been really fortunate that I've worked with a lot of strong women who are also mothers. I feel like it's like a game changer for most people, especially actresses. They are stripped down of everything and they have something that matters more than being on camera.

Toni Collette has been a huge influence. She was my absolute number one idol, and then I got United States of Tara. I was pinching myself. I couldn't believe the first day I was on set and I got pages of dialogue of real stuff to do with her. And, she actually liked what I was doing and she became my friend and has opened up her home to me. She is so, so awesome. And, she's a true talent. She's a chameleon and moves into other things and I've taken a lot from that.

Oscilloscope Nabs SXSW Documentary '12 O'Clock Boys' -- 'The Wire' Meets Cirque du Soleil

Beth Hanna — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:24:20 GMT

Oscilloscope Laboratories has picked up North American rights to Lofty Nathan's documentary "12 O'Clock Boys," which recently had its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. The Boys of the title are an infamous dirt bike gang in Baltimore who take over major city streets with flashy stunts at high speeds, alluding the cops' "no chase" rule due to public safety measures. Trailer below.

It took Nathan three years to complete the film, as he followed Pugg, a Westside pre-teen hoping to join the 12 O'Clock Boys.

This statement from Oscilloscope's Dan Berger should be enough to pique viewers' interest in time for the film's theatrical and VOD roll out: "It’s a portrait of a subculture as much as a window into the state of America, and it’s all in the guise of 'The Wire' by way of Cirque du Soleil."

No word yet on an official release date, but the doc still has various festivals on its slate, including the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.

Oscilloscope Rides With SXSW Urban Dirt Bike Doc '12 O'Clock Boys'

Nigel M. Smith — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:16:57 GMT

Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired all North American rights to Lotfy Nathan's debut feature "12 O'Clock Boys," fresh off the documentary's world premiere at SXSW. The film is next slated to screen at the Hot Docs and Full Frame Documentary festivals. O-Scope have yet to announce a release date.

Three years in the making, "12 O'Clock Boys" documents one boy's journey to join the notorious Baltimore dirt bike pack of the title.

Dan Berger of Oscilloscope said, “In '12 O'Clock' Lotfy has introduced us to a world so compelling, so foreign, and so relatable all at once. It’s a portrait of a subculture as much as a window into the state of America, and it’s all in the guise of 'The Wire' by the way of Cirque Du Soleil. It’s seriously like nothing you’ve seen before."

"Oscilloscope's great. I really hope they don't fuck this up," Nathan added.

With 7 (!) Films at SXSW, Jonny Mars is the Texas Film Star You Probably Never Heard Of

Nigel M. Smith — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 19:52:25 GMT

Why He's On Our Radar: With four films at Sundance 2013 and a whopping seven (four features and three shorts) at the recently wrapped 2013 SXSW Film Festival, Austin-based actor/filmmaker has already had a banner year -- and it's only mid March. Mars, last at SXSW with his directorial debut, the Dallas Cowboys documentary "America's Parking Lot," spent the bulk of his time at SXSW this year shelling his lead role in the moving dramedy "Good Night," co-starring "Girls" regular Alex Karpovsky. On the feature front, Mars also had supporting parts in "Pit Stop," "A Teacher" and "Computer Chess," all of which premiered in Park City before making their way to Austin (and all of which were made in Texas). And on the short front, he played a heavy metal rocker in "Black Metal," and appeared in "Follow" and "Hell No."

What's Next: "I just did a couple days on David Gordon Green's new film 'Joe' with Nic Cage, who's awesome," he told Indiewire. "I didn't expect to be nervous and I was just so impressed with Cage. He was everything I wanted him to be. Way into his character, very caring and giving performer, kinda nuts, kinda sane -- you couldn't peg him down. I really had a great time with him.

"That's really all I have. This is what I call the end of phase one."

You've been a mainstay on the Texas filmmaking scene for a number of years now. How have you seen the industry here evolve since first becoming a part of it?

Evolve or devolve?

Either, or.

It's interesting, it's way more democratic. I have a lot more power than I ever did ten years ago as a filmmaker. By power I mean the ability to do what I want -- to find a story a story and take it all the way to screen.

One thing that I've noticed, this democracy should allow us as storytellers to take more chances and tell stories that should be told. There really is a penchant for narrative storytelling here in Austin. There's a long historical tradition within the state of Texas, from songwriting to poetry. There's a European tradition to storytelling -- it's in our DNA.

Two things really work in Texas. One is digital technology has really made us more democratic. We're now able to fail quietly and on our own dime. The second thing is Texas, the South, has an anecdotally proven blue collar work ethic. These kids who have that work ethic and grow up with technology can realize their dreams. We might not make the sexiest products, but it's blood sweat and tears. I think the fact that there were what, nine movies at Sundance from Texas is crazy. It's a wave but it's not a wave that's going to crash anytime soon. This isn't going away.

Is that's what's kept you from LA?

Yeah, I can wait tables anywhere. I can't make movies in California on my own without money. I don't have two things. One, colleagues that would jump at a phone call and run out and help me. I just don't possess that. Two, permitting alone changes that. Texas, we don't always need permits. We can do things at a state level for twenty bucks. That's just a reality. Also in Central Texas, within fifty miles I can hit almost every geological formation known to man outside of an iceberg. We have things we can call mountains (laughs). It makes those locations easy to get.

I would like to make that transition. I wish I could stay here and have LA management, but I just kind of get laughed at when I talk to them out there -- and I get it. I don't necessarily agree with it, but I get it. We're only having this conversation because I was able to do what I did in the state of Texas. That's a fact. It seems wrong for me to plant a crop and then just leave it. There's fertile ground here. There's a workforce. I feel we're more dangerous here.

Meet JASH: Michael Cera, Tim and Eric, Sarah Silverman and Reggie Watts Launch a YouTube Comedy Channel

Alison Willmore — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:20:38 GMT

The JASH launch event at SXSW this year -- which included a BBQ brunch, a live episode of Scott Aukerman's podcast "Comedy Bang Bang" and a panel discussion -- took place a little early, the creators were the first to admit. "People should check it out, but they should make sure to check it out every few months, we're just figuring out what it is," Sarah Silverman said. "Really, we should be here in a year when we've found our stride, is the truth." The new premium YouTube channel was formed to feature the work of five distinctive and well-known figures in alt comedy -- Michael Cera, Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, Silverman and Reggie Watts. But aside from an entertaining intro video and individual greetings from comedians, the JASH team was promoting a channel and a website (jash.com) that didn't have much by way of content... yet.

That said, the promise of JASH is certainly enough to merit a lot of attention. It's the creation of comedy producer Daniel Kellison, along with Doug DeLuca, Mickey Meyer and Fullscreen Inc. The idea behind it is to give Cera, Tim and Eric, Silverman and Watts the financing, production resources, editing facilities and personnel to create online videos at their own pace, with the five given complete creative autonomy over and partial ownership of the content. And while Funny or Die remains the major player in the realm of comedy videos, YouTube is comparatively underpopulated with work from professional comedians.

"We all are very different, but have similar sensitivities, similar tastes," said Heidecker, who spared a moment with the rest of the team to talk to Indiewire while in Austin, adding that he and Wareheim were initially drawn in by the participation of the other comedians they admire and by the freedom offered: "It's like, here's some money, go make whatever you're going to make, and not worry about having Taylor Swift in it." "This is not a money gig," Silverman added. "But you can dream stuff up and then shoot it, and none of it comes out of your pocket. It's not schmancy, but it's awesome."

"Basically, we wanted to create one area that's not a shit zone on the internet," Wareheim put it.

"All of this is just who's involved with it," Watts said. "Because we're on board with shaping how it's perceived and what it looks like. it really does feel handcrafted. We're all connected, from the very top to the finished project." "It's more of a network where you can commission people to make things and attract people with similar sensibilities," Cera noted.

What can viewers look forward to on JASH? Tim and Eric have an upcoming bit called "Baby Life Coach," which, Wareheim explained, is a service for "if you're pregnant and you want a man to come sing to your baby, to make sure that that prenatal care is taken care of." Cera made a short film that Heidecker said wouldn't be out of place on the Sundance Channel. The wide-openness of the channel and the unfiltered nature of the content that's coming is certainly intriguing: "It's fartsy and artsy," Silverman said, and Watts added that some of the videos would be "sincere and serious." Heidecker said that there would be show strands as well as standalone videos: "We want it to be where you turn it on like it's Comedy Central."

But what's with that name? Kellison explained that originally the plan was to name the channel "Josh," but the owner of josh.com wanted a million dollars for the domain name. "We offered, we said we'll put your picture on their, you can be 'Josh,' but he said no." During a night out, Heidecker suggested "Jash," which was sort of "Josh" with a Southern accent, and it stuck. But it was the challenge of getting an affordable domain that drove the naming, Kellison said -- "We almost became MexicanFoodRecipes.com."

Here's the first non-introductory JASH video, a teaser for Heidecker and Wareheim's reality show spoof "Tim & Eric's GoPro Show."

SXSW Filmmakers Prove Crowdfunding Might Not Be the Norm and Final Cut Pro is Still Alive

Bryce J. Renninger — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 13:54:25 GMT

We asked SXSW filmmakers from the Competition, Headliners, Spotlight, Visions and Midnighters sections to tell us a little bit about themselves (read their interviews here). We also included a question on crowdfunding (Did you do it for this film? If so, how much of your budget did you raise through it?) and editing (What did you edit on?).

We learned that while the world is still rebelling against Final Cut X, it looks like Final Cut 7 is still keeping the software alive. The platform was easily the most popular editing software, with AVID the only other sincere answer in the bunch. When asked, "What did you edit on?," "Lords of Salem" director Rob Zombie answered by saying, "A pressed-wood table with a black lacquered finish from IKEA."

A great many SXSW films also said they didn't raise money through crowdfunding. Rob Zombie was again a smart ass and asked "Is that [crowdfunding] legal?," while "Good Ol' Freda" director Ryan White explained that the majority of his documentary was funded through Kickstarter and people donating their time to help him on the film. Here's a breakdown of the responses:

Editing Software

Avid

"Downloaded"
"Evil Dead"
"Getting Back to Abnormal"
"Plus One"

Final Cut Pro

"Before You Know It"
"Big Ass Spider!"
"Big Joy"
"The Bounceback"
"Burma"
"Cheap Thrills"
"Coldwater"
"Continental"
"Everyone's Going to Die"
"Fall and Winter"
"Go for Sisters"
"Good Ol' Freda"
"Grow Up, Tony Phillips!"
"Gus"
"Holy Ghost People"
"I am Divine"
"Improvement Club"
"Licks"
"Los Wild Ones"
"Loves Her Gun"
"Lunarcy!"
"Maidentrip"
"Medora"
"Milius"
"Milo"
"The Network"
"The Other Shore"
"Our Nixon"
"The Rambler"
"Reality Show"
"Sake-Bomb"
"The Short Game"
"Short Term 12"
"Snap"
"Swim Little Fish Swim"
"This Is Where We Live"
"These Birds Walk"
"Tiny"
"Touba"
"Twelve O'Clock Boys"
"An Unreal Dream"
"We Always Lie to Strangers"
"White Reindeer"
"William and the Windmill"
"Xmas Without China"
"Zero Charisma"

A pressed-wood table with a black lacquered finish from IKEA

"Lords of Salem"

Head to Page 2 to check out the results of our crowdfunding poll.

Crowdfunding -- in parentheses, percentage of budget raised through crowdfunding, if supplied, and comments from the filmmakers

Kickstarter

"Big Joy" (2 campaigns, <10%)
"Continental" (25-50% with IndieGoGo)
"Fall and Winter" (10-25%)
"Good Ol' Freeda"("We made the entire film with that money up until now ($58k is how much we raised), which is pretty incredible and a testament to how many people worked on this film for free".; 50-75%)
"Grow Up, Tony Phillips!"
"Improvement Club" (25-50%, with other 2 USA Artist campaigns)
"Maidentrip"
"Medora" (25-50%)
"euphonia" (~25%)
"Our Nixon" (10-25%)
"Tiny" (25-50%)
"Twelve O'Clock Boys" (2 campaigns for ~25%)
"White Reindeer"
"William and the Windmill" (25-50%)
"Xmas without China" (< 10%)

IndieGoGo

"Continental" (25-50% with Kickstarter)
"I am Divine" (25-50%)
"Zero Charisma"

USA Projects

"Before You Know It"
"Improvement Club" (two; 25-50%, with other Kickstarter campaign)
"Loves Her Gun" (~25%)

No (with funding source when provided)

"Big Ass Spider!"
"The Bounceback"
"Burma"
"Cheap Thrills"
"Coldwater"
"Everyone's Going to Die"
"Evil Dead"
"Getting Back to Abnormal"
"Go for Sisters"
"Gus"
"Lords of Salem" ("Is that legal? If so I will begin crowdfunding this movie immediately. Please leave your wallet at the front door in an envelope addressed to 'Mr. Zombie'")
"Los Wild Ones"
"Lunarcy!" (modest TV presales to Canada)
"Milius"
"The Network"
"The Other Shore"
"The Rambler"
"The Retrieval"
"The Short Game"
"Short Term 12"
"Snap" ("But if anyone wants to donate money to us, we'll accept!")
"This is Where We Live"
"These Birds Walk" (Sundance, Cinereach)
"Touba"
"We Always Lie to Strangers"

What Cameras Did the 2013 SXSW Filmmakers Use?

Bryce J. Renninger — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 13:53:48 GMT

We asked several SXSW filmmakers from the Competitions, Headliners, Spotlight, Visions and Midnighters sections (read their interviews here) to tell us a little bit about themselves, and we also asked them some questions about their process, like what camera they used.

Riding with indie film trends, the RED EPIC, with the Arri Alexa and the Canon 5D and 7D, were the fest's most popular cameras.

Here's the list of the cameras some of this year's SXSW'ers used:

Aaton XTR Prod Super16

"Touba"

Aaton A Minima Super16

"Touba"

Apple iPhone

"Twelve O'Clock Boys" (tertiary)

Arri Alexa

"The Bounceback"
"Burma"
"Cheap Thrills"
"Everyone's Going to Die"
"Go for Sisters"
"Gus"
"Plus One"
"The Rambler"

Arri SR-3

"Before You Know It"

Beaulieu Super-8

"Before You Know It"

Canon 5D

"Big Ass Spider!"
"Good Ol' Freda"
"Improvement Club"
"Los Wild Ones"
"The Network"
"The Other Shore"
"Swim Little Fish Swim"
"Tiny" (secondary)

Canon 5D Mark II

"These Birds Walk"

Canon 7D

"Improvement Club"
"Los Wild Ones"
"Loves Her Gun" (with a PL mount adapter)
"Maidentrip"
"Swim Little Fish Swim"
"Tiny" (primary)
"Twelve O'Clock Boys" (primary)

Canon C300

"Sake-Bomb"
"The Short Game"

Canon XF100

"Tiny" (tertiary)

Canon (various)

"Downloaded"

Go-Pro

"Big Ass Spider!"
"Loves Her Gun"
"The Other Shore"
"Reality Show"

JVC GY-HM100u

"Tiny" (secondary)

Panasonic HPX-170

"Getting Back to Abnormal"
"Tiny" (secondary)
"William and the Windmill"

Panasonic HVX-200

"Medora"
"Milius"
"Reality Show"
"We Always Lie to Strangers"

Panisonic VariCam

"Touba"

Phantom HD

"Twelve O'Clock Boys" (secondary)

RED ONE

"Fall and Winter"
"The Retrieval"

RED EPIC

"Coldwater" (with Panavision Primo lenses)
"Holy Ghost People"
"Licks"
"Milo"
"Plus One"
"Short Term 12"
"White Reindeer"
"Xmas Without China"
"Zero Charisma"

RED MX

"Snap"

RED SCARLET

"Grow Up, Tony Phillips!"
"Holy Ghost People"

RED (unspecified)

"Big Ass Spider!"
"Touba"
"An Unreal Dream"
"The Wait"

Sony CineAlta F65

"Evil Dead" (Master Prime and Fujinon Alura Lenses.)

Sony EX1

"Good Ol' Freda"

Sony EX3

"Before You Know It"
"Big Joy"
"Maidentrip" (with Letus adapter and vintage Zeiss lenses)
"The Other Shore"

Sony F3

"This Is Where We Live"

Sony Handicam

"Maidentrip"

DSLRs and "good ol' fashioned Super-8"

"Lunarcy!"

Archival Super-8's

"Our Nixon"

The one we rented from the guy with the funny hat standing behind Home Depot.

"Lords of Salem"

Many Different Cameras and Formats

"I am Divine"

SXSW: 'Hours' Star Paul Walker on Finally Getting Serious About Acting and Driving Vin Diesel "F*cking Crazy"

Nigel M. Smith — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 21:08:07 GMT

Despite the global success of the "Fast and the Furious" franchise (the sixth installment comes out this summer), Paul Walker hasn't emerged as a Hollywood star. As he told Indiewire at the recently wrapped SXSW Film Festival (supporting his indie thriller "Hours"), much of that stemmed from not wanting to be one in the first place. Now? Not so much.

Aside from "Fast & Furious 6," the actor will be appearing in action-comedy "Pawn Shop Chronicles," the thriller "Vehicle 19" and "Hours," which is the directorial debut of "Final Destination 5" screenwriter Eric Heisserer and is the story of a father (Walker) struggling to keep his baby girl alive in a flooded (and deserted) hospital during hurricane Katrina. Walker also recently signed on to topline "Brick Mansions," an action pic from the makers of "Taken," based on the popular French thriller "District B13."

In our interview, Walker candidly explains why it took him this long to get serious about his craft, reveals his surprising side job and talks about life as a single dad.

So I read on IMdB you executive produced "Hours"...

Yeah. What does it really mean? I mean it’s, you got a little more of a voice. The thing that I like though, you just have more control of the tone.

Is this a passion project for you?

Yeah, it was something I just connected with, I felt like it was pure. It wasn’t trying to be anything more than what it was. I mean, it’s pretty fucking simple. The thing I liked about it is if you just go and you tell the truth, then anybody that has a heart I’d like to think can go ‘Oh I relate’ or get a sense of whatever it is. To me I just like the purity of it. I’m always doing the big action thing, running around and being cool guy, which is fun from time to time. It was nice just being honest and tell things from the heart, I guess.

Was it a grueling shoot? It looked it.

I think emotionally it beats you up pretty hard. The thing that's nice is you can just trust it and live it and be in it every day and I’m good. I know the story, like I said, it’s pure. The thing I didn’t realize though, like I said, you’re emotionally invested and just living it every day, and the victory is my victory -- because we shot it in sequence. At the end it was pretty emotionally draining, but I was like, ‘I fucking won!’

To me the way I was raised, everyone’s all military in my family and we’ve always posed questions. From the time I was a little kid my father, my grandfather, my uncles were always creating hypothetical questions, like ‘How would you react if this happened?’ ‘How would you respond to?’ y' know. I mean something as simple as a guy coming up to you, you know the bank teller, the guy putting a gun up to your head. So with something like a disaster, it’s like ‘Oh shit I know this.’ You want to think that if you were tested or challenged in a way like this, especially because I’m a father, you know that you would react, you do whatever it would take to make sure that your baby made it through it. And you would just pray you have the strength, you have the determination, the willpower to see it through. So in a way I got to go and do it.

Was it your idea to shoot it chronologically for performance sake?

No, it was Eric’s. But it’s challenging. I think it was just better for tone and headspace. You know, Eric has never directed before but he’s a sharp guy and he knew that he wanted to have everything working in his favor. He was overprepared -- and that also gives you a lot of peace of mind. And I realized going into it, we sat down in our first meeting, I was like, wow. I mean you’ll see he’s just a real guy, no bullshit pretense, he’s just a real dude. He knows what he knows and he loves what he loves and he has opinions. And he’s a good team captain because tone is really important to him and I say tone -- not just what we’re seeing on the paper. The work environment is healthy, it’s a constructive environment. Some guys rule by fear and other ones rule by, I think, having a good heart and sensibility. He’s one of those.

Were you wary of the film exploiting the Katrina tragedy for the sake of thrilling people?

I don’t look at it that way. There’s some people that’ll probably say that, but some people will say anything. To me I was just like 'Oh it’s a pure story.' But it wouldn’t have mattered, the circumstances could have been anything, some guy in the middle of nowhere. It just worked. With all the incentive and everything going on in New Orleans, it was kind of perfect. When he wrote it it was just a little short story and then it morphed into this feature film. But I don’t know... I never thought of it that way.

And you shot it in New Orleans, right?

Yeah that’s what I’m saying, because the incentive, all the tax incentive filming in Louisiana, all over the south. And it was cool because I’d never been there before. It was fun because the majority of the crew was like 'Ah fuck I was here, I was going through this,’ ‘Man it was like that,’ ‘This is what I experienced.’ So for a lot of the people that were there it was personal.

What was it like to share that experience?

I think sharing the experience with them you just saw their work ethic, I think it brought maybe a little more accountability. I think we had just a hardworking crew and the people there were just into it, you could tell they were excited. It’s a contagion, it’s a nice flow, it’s this reciprocating thing, you just see everybody busting ass and going on a little further. We’ve got unions, we’ve got grips, we’ve got guys working electric. You know, there’s nobody going ‘Oh, that’s my department.’
You’re having quite the year with so many films coming up. Do you feel like you’re experiencing a second coming of sorts?

No, I think I’m just playing a little more now and I never wanted to before. To be honest with you, I wanted it to all go away.

Why’s that?

I wanted to be a marine biologist.

I read you went to school for that.

Yeah, I always wanted to use it so I figured out ways to make that happen. I’ve got projects developing right now. Jean-Michel Cousteau, who’s the son of my idol Jacques Cousteau. We’re working together and I’m working with Michael Domeier. I’ve been doing shark research and we’ve been doing tidal stuff and more educational stuff with Jean-Michel, which is fun. We’re going to schools and talking with kids -- I get to have my kid with me, too.

Because of what I represent to certain people, because of what I’ve been labeled as in this world as an actor, it allows me just a little more access. Kids listen to me more. I could use that to my advantage. I fell in love with the ocean when I was just a little kid, four or five years old, I was a junior ranger, I was going out and doing intertidal stuff, walking around and sticking my finger in my first sea anemone and picking up starfish and all that. It gripped me when I was young. So Jean-Michel comes, he’s sort of like minded with that, like you get them young and hold them forever. So just taking more advantage of that and running with that mindset, it’s fun.

Is the reason you're busier than ever on the acting front because you're more secure in the other areas of your life/career?

To me, I have a daughter that’s 14 years old. I’ve always been more of a transient sort of dude, I’ve always gone with the energy and the way it takes me. And she’s living full time with me now; I’m a full-time single father as of this past fall. This opportunity’s been put in my lap so I want to seize it, I want to make it work. And if it isn’t exactly what I want then I want to figure out a way to make it that. So all this information I’m sharing with you and where I’ve been on this journey, that’s open conversation. I mean we talk about it all the time. She’s getting to a place now where she’s trying to figure out who she, what she is in this world, forming a sense of identity, trying to find her sense of purpose, her style and all this stuff. So I think it’s the more we talk about it, this is just kind of life’s path.

Everyone’s in a difference at different times, everyone learns in his or her own time whatever it is they’re supposed to learn and what’s supposed to be revealed to them. It’s cool, she gets it, she appreciates it. She’s here with me at the festival. She gets into it, she wants to go into environmental law right now. That’ll change next week. It’s a fun time for both of us and she’s a cool partner, she’s the best partner I’ve ever had.

I’m getting the sense that you embrace acting more now as a kind of artistic endeavor?

Yeah, I think it, you know there’s different challenges in it. It was never something I really wanted, I didn’t have to work for it. Do you really appreciate it when something’s just handed to you? It was handed to me at an early age and I realized that unless you really take control of it and own it, it’s always going to feel that way. Whether you’re coming in as a producer or just coming in as an actor, just bring what you can bring. Whether it’s just mindset, as a producer I feel that's a big part of what I bring into it. I’m a problem solver, I love people. The more complicated they are the more I get into them and I just want to understand what makes them tick.

I have a way of just being ice, and just cooling situations and making things work. It’s important to me. I’ve always taken it that way as an actor. I’m really sensitive too and it’s as important to me. Life’s too fucking short. What we’re doing is pretty cool, but let’s make sure we’re having fun doing it. And it’s important to me that people feel appreciated because that’s when you get the best in people. Give people ownership, give them the pat on the back, give them the kudos they deserve. It’s the same token if someone’s slacking, you know you can point it out to them, but there’s a constructive way of doing it, the right way to do it. And then there’s asshole way of doing it.

I pride myself on -- I like being that person, I like that I have that mindset. Eric and I we’re going to work together again. Peter Safran, we did “Vehicle 19” together and we have the same code, the same ethics when it comes to the way we handle business, the way that we treat people. It’s really important to me. In any industry where there’s a lot of money to be made, those people are hard to find because there’s a lot of elbows and it’s ‘Me me me me me.’ When you find people that have the mindset ‘No it’s us, it’s the team,’ that’s refreshing.

Is it that sense of teamsmanship that keeps bringing you back to the "Fast and the Furious" movies?

"The Fast" is tough, it’s not easy. It represents too much to too many people. But that’s what also makes it fun. We have people that come from very different walks of life, Vin [Diesel] and I in particular, you know East Coast, just different mentality, different mindset, different childhoods. And so I don’t speak his language, he doesn’t speak mine, but we do complement one another. There’s times where I drive him fucking crazy and he drives me nuts, but that’s the beauty of it. It’s like there’s always been a respect.

SXSW 2013 Wrap: Best in Show, Disappointments and Four Takeaways from a Festival First-Timer

Beth Hanna — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 17:27:13 GMT

I got the chance to attend the SXSW Film Festival for my first time this year, and was impressed with the enthusiastic and respectful vibe of the festival, the warm reception from Austin locals and out-of-town festival goers alike, and -- importantly! -- the films. Below, my four takeaways from covering SXSW, and my rundown of best of the fest, buzzy titles I missed, and disappointments.

1. Strong lineup. Of all the films I saw, I would approximate that half I really liked, and none I disliked. As anyone who's been to a festival knows, these are pretty good odds. The Narrative Competition section was a particular standout, boasting titles like Chris Eska's "The Retrieval," a meditative and lushly paced African-American Civil War drama featuring good performances and gorgeous cinematography, and Ruben Amar and Lola Bessis' "Swim Little Fish Swim," a portrait of artistic idealism clashing with the realities of grown-up life, set against a vibrant New York cityscape (it also stars co-director Bessis, a charming young Frenchwoman who is a dead ringer for Rose Byrne). Meanwhile, Joe Swanberg's latest, "Drinking Buddies," is one of the better and more observant relationship films I've seen in a long time.

2. The benefits of arriving late. I didn't arrive in Austin until late Sunday afternoon, by which point the festival had been in full swing for more than two days. I was worried this would put me at a disadvantage in terms of coverage, but it actually helped things considerably. SXSW has a massive lineup, and it can be hard to know what one most wants to see. This is aided by having a few days of buzz preceding one's arrival. Also, in being late to the party, I was able to hit a few titles premiering later in the game that weren't receiving much coverage, like Sean H.A. Gallagher's terrific suburban drama "Good Night," and Narrative Competition title "Burma," which was uneven but featured notably strong performances. (The film went on to win the Grand Jury Award for Ensemble Cast.)

3. Don't stick to the plan. I've often found at festivals that the films I'm most anticipating ultimately disappoint, while the titles I'm less familiar with, that I attend as a spontaneous change of plan, bowl me over. Hitchcock diehard that I am, I was really looking forward to the "Bates Motel" series preview, starring Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore, and then ended up hating it (despite the appealing casting). Meanwhile, a last-minute swing by "William and the Windmill," the Grand Jury documentary-winner focusing on Malawian wind-energy inventing whiz William Kamkwamba (of "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" fame), proved delightful, and an insightful portrait of varying cultural definitions of success and fulfillment.

4. The solitude of the festival reporter. Not only was it my first time at SXSW, it was my first time attending a film festival solo for multiple days in a row. (My boyfriend, a fellow cinephile, is usually my partner in crime at such events.) Austin's bustling downtown, which reaches epic proportions during the multi-tiered festival, is well laid-out for rambling around by oneself, even at night. And there's a certain liberty to being the sole dictator of one's own schedule.

But I certainly felt the loneliness, particularly during long waits in line (abated slightly, of course, by other friendly badge holders), and then the post-screening scamper back to my conveniently-located hotel room, knowing that I had hours of writing ahead of me. (I love writing, and hate sitting down to write.) But the loneliness was instructive. Pushing through it is a skill I will continue to hone, while also learning to balance my time and stress levels so, in the future, I can head to the occasional fest party without feeling like a mountain of missed screenings and writing hours is looming over me. Yes, that's right: I didn't go to any SXSW parties. Film nerd, indeed.

BEST OF THE FEST:

"Before Midnight" (dir. Richard Linklater)

"Drinking Buddies" (dir. Joe Swanberg)

"The Fifth Season" (dirs. Peter Brosens, Jessica Woodworth)

"Good Night" (dir. Sean H.A. Gallagher)

"Maidentrip" (dir. Jillian Schlesinger)

"The Retrieval" (dir. Chris Eska)

"Spring Breakers" (dir. Harmony Korine)

"Swim Little Fish Swim" (dirs. Lola Bessis, Ruben Amar)

"William and the Windmill" (dir. Ben Nabors)

GOOD, BUT NOT GREAT:

"Burma" (dir. Carlos Puga)

"Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer" (dirs. Mike Lerner, Maxim Pozdorovkin)

"Milo" (dir. Jacob Vaughan)

"Short Term 12" (dir. Destin Cretton)

"Upstream Color" (dir. Shane Carruth)

"You're Next" (dir. Adam Wingard)

LESS THAN MEETS THE EYE:

"At Any Price" (dir. Ramin Bahrani)

"Bates Motel" preview (dir. Carlton Cuse)

MUST-SEES BASED ON BUZZ:

"The Act of Killing" (dir. Joshua Oppenheimer)

"Before You Know It" (dir. P.J. Raval)

"The Bounceback" (dir. Bryan Poyser)

"Coldwater" (dir. Vincent Granshaw)

"Downloaded" (dir. Alex Winter)

"Loves Her Gun" (dir. Geoff Marslett)

"Mud" (dir. Jeff Nichols)

"Prince Avalanche" (dir. David Gordon Green)

"Some Girl(s)" (dir. Daisy von Scherler Mayer)

Where Will TV Fit Into SXSW?

Alison Willmore — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 16:06:10 GMT

Anyone wandering through the first floor of the Austin Convention Center during SXSW this year could have spent an entertaining few minutes watching people take pictures on the "Game of Thrones" throne set up next to the display of posters from the film portion of the festival. Throughout the day, a photographer hired by HBO would take shots of passers-by who wanted to pose on the replica of the Iron Throne (yours to own for a mere $30,000). The activation was hard to miss, though HBO's presence overall was more subdued this year than last, when the premium cable channel sponsored "Girls" coffee giveaways and bike shares as the first three episodes of Lena Dunham series premiered at the Paramount Theater. Even without a screening in the festival, HBO's felt presence in Austin was important -- and it was far from the only network to feel that way. 2013 was the year that TV fully arrived at SXSW.

If you missed the opportunity to get a "Game of Thrones" photo, Showtime's invite-only lounge at the W Austin offered a chance to get your picture taken while strapped to Dexter Morgan's Kill Table. The network also sponsored film shuttle buses branded to "Homeland," "Dexter," "Shameless" and the upcoming "Ray Donovan," the pilot for which screened at a watch party held during SXSW's first weekend. BBC America held events at its "Roadhouse" plastered with posters for new shows "Orphan Black," "The Nerdist" and "Gizmodo: The Gadget Testers." A&E sponsored the opening night film party, the network's "Bates Motel" screening as a special event in the official Film lineup, followed by a Q&A with executive producer Carlton Cuse, while Warner Bros. had a "Tell-A-Vision" interactive experience set up at the Mexic-Arte Museum and IFC, one of the festival's early adopters on the TV side, hosted comedy at its Crossroads House.

Aside from any associations the event might have with tech-savvy cord-cutters, SXSW does seem like a prime marketing opportunity for networks -- particularly for the offbeat comedies and premium dramas mentioned above, which go over well with the hip, geeky, social media-happy crowd. And as packed with brands trying to get seen as the SXSW is, it's still relatively open territory compared to San Diego's Comic-Con. Dana Ortiz, the VP of Brand Marketing for Syfy, explained that the explorable downtown Austin shipping container village built to promote upcoming series and transmedia project "Defiance" was the network's first foray into SXSW after eying the conference for years. "Comic-Con is our bread and butter every year," Ortiz said, noting that Austin doesn't lend itself to the same kind of marketing saturation that Comic-Con does, and that they were aware that they "needed a hook" at SXSW and the right kind of property to promote. She sees SXSW as a couple years off from being the kind of platform Comic-Con has become, while noting that the latter event has become a kind of "Mardi Gras" for network and studios at which it can be difficult to get heard.

But where will the growing TV presence fit at SXSW? The conference has expanded its scope in recent years, with SXSW Comedy bringing new evening options and an array of stand-ups into town, and the Digital Domain, a film offshoot, serving for the past two years as a place to house screenings and discussions of web series and other projects falling outside the traditional big screen focus. TV panels fell over the film and the interactive side, with ones like "How TV & the Internet Are Converging on TMZ" and "iCritics: Showrunners Friends or Worst Enemies?" being open to both, while "Changing Rules for Women and Sex on TV" fell under film and "Chuck Lorre: In Conversation with Neil Gaiman" was classified as interactive.

SXSW Film producer Janet Pierson noted that in terms of panels, there's been an ongoing discussion between the two sides of the conference about where each event belongs, and that "we talk about it when we can." And for all of the network brand presence at SXSW, the only actual screening of a TV series programmed in the festival this year was "Bates Motel" -- which seems like a natural expansion of film to Pierson, who spoke of the interest in TV series from "The Sopranos" on from the film industry and crossover with indie directors working in both mediums. "Before we premiered 'Girls' here last year, I was very interested in bringing in what I felt was quality television content," she added, pointing out that "Bates Motel" also has its roots in cinema with "Psycho" as its basis. "There were several other series that were submitted to us that we felt didn't make sense," she said, with the festival attracting a lot of interest from networks interested in a possible screening after "Girls."

As audiences grow more platform agnostic, watching films and TV on demand at home on the same screen, the idea of high-end TV getting a rare chance at a communal projected viewing experience doesn't seem outlandish, particularly at a festival like SXSW where the boundaries of film and its intersection with other mediums are explored. And from a business perspective, the possibility of additional sponsorships from networks with money to spend and shows to promote isn't a negative, though Pierson made it clear that that would never effect programming decisions. One can't help but hope that if TV is going to become another pillar of SXSW, that it be part of the film side rather than get pulled into the expanding maelstrom that is Interactive, not the least because Film would seem to put more of a priority on actually screening things as opposed to just putting them on display. The idea of SXSW serving as the latest Comic-Con-style platform for marketing could be balanced out by the welcome opportunity to watch and discuss the properties in question instead of just hyping them.

28 Reviews From the SXSW Film Festival

Indiewire — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:00:02 GMT

The 20th edition of the SXSW Film Festival came to a close on Sunday, but the movies from this year's program aren't going away anytime soon. Indiewire reviewed 28 films in the lineup, roughly half of which we already covered at earlier festivals. In case you're still catching up on SXSW coverage, we've rounded up links to all 28 reviews here.

"Before Midnight"
With "Before Midnight," Richard Linklater has completed one of the finest movie trilogies of all time. Nearly 20 years have passed since Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) met on a train in Vienna and spent a passionate night together in "Before Sunrise," then abruptly parted ways, only to tentatively pick up where they left off nine years later with "Before Sunset." That movie ended without resolving a tantalizing possibility: Would Jesse, now a successful writer stuck in a dead-end marriage, truly miss his flight back home and spend more quality time with Céline? "Before Midnight" answers that question while asking many more as it consolidates the full power of the earlier movies into a masterful treatise on the evolution of romance. Read more here.

"Computer Chess"
There is an immediate sense of change afoot in "Computer Chess," Andrew Bujalski's fourth feature as writer-director, visible to anyone familiar with his previous work. While Bujalski's influential "Funny Ha Ha" -- along with follow-ups "Mutual Appreciation" and "Beeswax" -- were almost defiantly shot on 16mm film and focused on the interpersonal relationships of chic young adults, "Computer Chess" is a period piece set 30 years in the past and shot on low-grade analog video. Experientially, however, "Computer Chess" falls in line with its precedents while achieving much funnier, offbeat results. Read more here.

"Upstream Color"
Shane Carruth's 2004 time travel drama "Primer" provoked endless scrutiny for its heavy reliance on tech speak that the director refused to dumb down. His long-awaited followup, "Upstream Color," also maintains a seriously cryptic progression that's nearly impossible to comprehend in precise terms, but its confounding ingredients take on more abstract dimensions. An advanced cinematic collage of ideas involving the slipperiness of human experience, Carruth's polished, highly expressionistic work bears little comparison to his previous feature aside from the constant mental stimulation it provides for its audience. This stunningly labyrinthine assortment of murky events amount to a riddle with no firm solution. Read more here.

"The Act of Killing"
In Joshua Oppenheimer's "The Act of Killing," a pair of gangsters -- responsible for murdering an untold number of suspected communists in the years following the 1965 overthrow of the Indonesian government -- get the chance to recount their experiences. At first showing no visible remorse, the men boast of their achievements, and Oppenheimer capitalizes on their enthusiasm with a twisted gimmick: The men are given numerous opportunities to reenact the murders for Oppenheimer's camera, sometimes emphasizing their brutality and occasionally delivering surreal, flamboyant takes that offer a grotesque spin on classic Hollywood musicals. Playing make believe with murderers, Oppenheimer risks the possibility of empowering them. However, by humanizing psychopathic behavior, "The Act of Killing" is unparalleled in its unsettling perspective on the dementias associated with dictatorial extremes. Read more here.

"First Cousin Once Removed"
Documentarian Alan Berliner is frequently the star of his movies, but his focus extends beyond his neuroses. Rather than the star of the show, he's a vessel for bigger ideas and evades the perils of self-indulgence that could result from putting himself in front of the camera. That tricky balance is on display better than ever in the stirring "First Cousin Once Removed," which deepens an oeuvre that has already dealt with the tender issues of father-son relationships ("Nobody's Business") and insomnia ("Wide Awake") by exploring his fears of senility to devastating effect. Using a powerful focal point to manifest the movie's central concerns, Berliner makes his interest in the topic relevant to everyone. Read more here.

"The Pirate Bay: Away From Keyboard"
A funny thing happened in the moments leading up to the Berlin International Film Festival world premiere of "The Pirate Bay: Away From Keyboard," a documentary about the prosecution of the titular Swedish file sharing site's founders. Minutes before the screening, director Simon Klose called a friend up in front of the audience and asked him to unlock a version of the movie uploaded to YouTube, appropriately setting the stage for a tale focused on internet freedoms. The lights went down; the screen lit up. But before "TPB AFK" started, the same warning sign preceding all movies at the festival appeared. "Film piracy is illegal," it read, an inadvertent irony not lost on the majority of the room. Chuckles circulated. In a way, the story had begun before a single frame. At the root of "TPB AFK" is a fundamental tension between conventional views on copyright law and the emerging standards of digitally savvy users. Klose's entertaining, passionate documentary wholeheartedly endorses the latter group, and its sympathetic stance is infectious -- but only if you're already amendable to the general cause. Read more here.

"V/H/S/2"
Last year's anthology horror production "V/H/S" was a revelation mainly because it took the overly familiar found-footage genre and exploited it to the fullest extent. The sequel achieves a similar goal with more frightening extremes. Containing only four spectacularly gory shorts directed by emerging genre filmmakers, along with an equally unsettling wraparound tale, "V/H/S/2" lacks some of the original's subtleties but delivers a nearly unbroken series of visceral shocks. The last movie was a wild ride with several stops along the way; "V/H/S/2," once again produced by the Bloody Disgusting production team known as The Collective, pushes full throttle ahead the whole way through. Read more here.

"Much Ado About Nothing"
There's a certain irony to Joss Whedon's adaptation of "Much Ado About Nothing": While the script culls a beloved literary achievement more than 400 years old, it has relatively uncomplicated aims. Made in the immediate aftermath of Whedon's massive production of "The Avengers" and shot over the course of a two-week period at the cult director's Santa Monica home, "Much Ado About Nothing" has the scrappy feel of a high school play populated by professionals looking to take the pressure off. Call it a Shakespearean catharsis or just call it a lark -- either way, the movie represents Whedon's least essential work, regardless of the material's inherent comedic inspiration. Read more here.

"You're Next"
"You're Next" doesn't break new ground in the horror genre, but it sticks to rules that work. Director Adam Wingard ("A Horrible Way to Die") and screenwriter Simon Barrett ("Dead Birds") demonstrate a firm grasp on their material, delivering a tightly-wound survival story replete with disarming humor that holds the whole bloody mess together. Read more here.

"Yellow"
Nick Cassavetes has yet to hit on a filmmaking style to rival his father's legacy, but with "Yellow," the director of "The Notebook" presents an unhinged portrait of emotional turmoil with bold stabs at expressionistic representation at every turn. It's not only Cassavetes' best movie, but also a fascinating alternative to conventional melodrama that burrows inside its troubled protagonist's head and unleashes her emotions in vivid terms. No matter how messy it gets, "Yellow" renders a troubled subjectivity with striking creativity. Read more here.

"Spring Breakers"
"Spring Breakers" wouldn’t be a Harmony Korine movie if it wasn’t polarizing in some way. Sure enough, the latest by the director of "Gummo" and "Trash Humpers" seems calculated to outrage, titillate and/or exhaust viewers with its gleefully nihilistic portrayal of spring break in St. Petersburg, Florida, seen here as a slickly stylized, slo-mo bacchanal of keg stands, bong hits and topless coeds. Read more here.

"Museum Hours"
To date, Jem Cohen has made intimate non-fiction diary films rooted in an attentiveness to atmosphere and riddled with small observations rendered in profound terms. While his new feature "Museum Hours" is technically his first narrative effort, with a pair of amateur performances and the backbone of a fictional story, its constant introspection and remarkable sense of place provide a fluid connection to the earlier work. With a keen eye for the capacity of fine art to address a complex range of attitudes and experiences, "Museum Hours" effectively applies Cohen's existing strengths to a familiar scenario and rejuvenates it by delivering a powerfully contemplative look at the transformative ability of all art. Read more here.

"Lords of Salem"
Metal rocker Rob Zombie's second career as a filmmaker proved he was just as capable of unsettling showmanship behind the camera as he was onstage. His frightening "House of a 1,000 Corpses" hinted at the spectacular portrait of depravity that came next in 2005's "The Devil's Rejects," which got so intimate with serial killers even some dedicated genre fans felt it crossed a line. Zombie's two "Halloween" remakes, however, found less favor, which means it's time for a comeback. With the effectively creepy "The Lords of Salem," Zombie reaffirms his capacity to tap into the genre's strongest qualities. Read more here.

"The East"
Suspenseful, ludicrous, fascinating, and utterly unsubtle, Zal Batmanglij's "The East" plays like an unholy mash-up of "Martha Marcy May Marlene" and "Alias." The film builds on the themes of cult and identity that Batmanglij and his star Brit Marling explored artfully in their breakout debut "The Sound of My Voice." But here, that psychology is in service of a fast-paced espionage potboiler. Read more here.

"Euphonia"
In the grand tradition of "The Conversation" and "Blow Out" -- but produced with far more modest means -- "euphonia" uses sound to heighten the sense of its characters and audience alike. Danny Madden's microbudget tale of a curious teenager (Will Madden) who grows obsessed with a recording device runs a trim 53 minutes, barely contains any dialogue, and hardly qualifies as a feature-length movie. But the filmmaker's commitment to his cryptic technique makes "euphonia" into an enthralling experience so impressively realized that it may deserve its own category of cinema. Read more here.

"Go For Sisters"
For decades now, John Sayles has written and directed movies rooted first and foremost in sharply conceived characters. More recently, even as his scrappy, self-financed productions have varied in quality, this central aspect has remained in place. "GO FOR SISTERS," like the filmmaker's previous features "Amigo" and "Honeydripper," sustains a feeble premise with richly defined characters and strong performances, yielding an underwhelming but nonetheless sustainable viewing experience. Read more here.

"The Punk Singer"
For some 15 years, feminist punk rocker Kathleen Hanna carried the torch of a movement seemingly defined by her furious investment in the cause and the artistry that brought it to national attention. As the energetic frontwoman for Bikini Kill throughout the nineties, followed by the hugely popular dance group Le Tigre, Hanna was an unstoppable presence both onstage and off. Her impact is effectively explored in Sini Anderson's documentary portrait "The Punk Singer," which relies on interviews and robust footage from over the years to create an involving look at Hanna's determination -- as well as the forces that nearly toppled it. Read more here.

"White Reindeer"
Filmmaker Zach Clark's first two features, the scrappy nurse-turned-dominatrix comedy "Modern Love Is Automatic" and the wicked beach party noir "Vacation!," paired restless formalism with Clark's penchant for deadpan humor. By contrast, his touching Christmas tale "White Reindeer" funnels Clark's darker sensibilities and erotic themes into a decidedly more complicated vision of suburban unrest. With a mixture of pathos and dry wit, Clark delivers a solemn twist on the holiday movie formula that simultaneously inhabits the genre and turns it inside out. Read more here.

"Swim Little Fish Swim"
"Swim Little Fish Swim," the confident debut feature from writing-directing duo Lola Bessis and Ruben Amar, provides a gentler alternative to a familiar mold. Though less of a crowdpleaser than it may first appear, that's the key strength that makes this admittedly uneven first feature stand out. The filmmakers juxtapose their character's struggles against an older couple facing the practical issues of their livelihood, establishing a thoughtful examination of the harsher challenges styming the blind idealism of youth. Read more here.

"Awful Nice"
Director Todd Sklar's short film, brazenly titled "'92 Skybox Alonso Mourning Rookie Card," followed a pair of estranged brothers drawn together by the untimely passing of their father. At less than 13 minutes, it managed to economically set up two aimless characters and let them run wild to comic effect, culminating with a kitchen food fight for the ages. Before either their crude personalities or the relentless virile jokes grew tiresome, it was over. No such luck with "Awful Nice," Sklar's feature-length treatment of the material, which resembles the short in spirit but takes its puerile energy to a tedious extreme. Read more here.

"William and the Windmill"
The story of Malawian teenager William Kamkwamba is candy for the Western imagination: In 2001, the 14-year-old Kamkwamba dropped out of school and picked up a library book about harnessing electricity, then built a windmill from scratch, effectively powering his subsistence farmer family and saving them from the debilitating effects of a famine. Kamkwamba's scientific achievement speaks for itself, but the attention he received in its wake is a thornier issue that Ben Nabors turns into a fascinating look at the tricky balancing act of third world activism. Transformed into a media darling and public cause, Kamkwamba was either rescued, exploited or -- as Nabors implies -- something in between. Read more here.

"Short Term 12"
There is undoubtedly a potential bad version of "Short Term 12" that writer-director Destin Daniel Cretton ("I Am Not a Hipster"), fortunately, didn't make. The movie, which follows the experiences of staff and patients at the eponymous foster care home for at-risk teens, contains a series of sentimental hooks without overplaying any of them. Cretton's screenplay pulls off a tricky balance of imbuing its story with emotional weight while not coming across as cloying in the process. The situation is inherently dramatic, but the filmmaker complicates it with characters worth rooting for. Read more here.

"Cheap Thrills"
Savagely assaulting the desperation of a blue collar family man, the comedic thriller "Cheap Thrills" establishes a ridiculous premise early on and takes it to various extremes, again and again, until you just have to accept the crazy venture on its own terms or simply give up. That's also the situation for its dazed leading man, Craig (Pat Healy), a broke father newly unemployed when he comes across the affluent Colin (David Koechner) in a bar and plays along with a series of increasingly deranged bets in exchange for monetary rewards. The metaphoric weight to the scenario is immediately evident, but "Cheap Thrills" basically uses that starting point to mess around. Read more here.

"Evil Dead"
The first two entries in Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead" trilogy -- released in 1981 and 1987, respectively -- delivered such delightfully inventive takes on the horror genre, uniting the disparate traditions of suspense and slapstick, that no remake could possibly match their originality. Respectably enough, with his snazzy redressing of the first movie, director Fede Alvarez doesn't even try. Instead, "Evil Dead," a studio-produced take on the demon possession mayhem at a now-iconic cabin in the woods, delivers a slick and undeniably wild ride by repurposing the original premise in body horror terms. With simpler aims and oodles of blood, the new movie is a watered down scare-fest that works in spite of its formula by constantly frightening audiences into submission. Read more here.

"12 O'Clock Boys"
The first time we see the group of mostly young adult dirt bikers cruising down the streets of lower class Baltimore neighborhoods in "12 O'Clock Boys," the speed and intensity of their risky, unauthorized stunt work has been translated into poetry: Pitching backwards in slo-mo as they point to the sky, the riders take on the elegance of Olympic champions. Yet Lotfy Nathan's contemplative portrait pits this lyrical dimension against the life-threatening dangers of the act and the root causes for such extreme antics, delivering an astute look at how social conditions can lead to an audacious form of rebellion that, in spite of its elegance, makes matters worse. Read more here.

"Drinking Buddies"
In eight years of features, Joe Swanberg has developed a substantial body of minor works, but "Drinking Buddies" proves it had a direction. Swanberg's unabashedly scrappy profiles tend to focus on perpetually inelegant people in search of meaning in their lives as they often struggle to find romantic satisfaction. "Drinking Buddies" is no exception, but with its steadier production values and uniformly strong performances, it continues the director's observational approach while improving on the most promising ingredients found throughout his filmography. Read more here.

"Good Ol' Freda"
There are two main ingredients that make "Good Ol' Freda," a documentary about The Beatles secretary Freda Kelly, stand out from countless other takes on the rise of the world's most iconic band: First of all, having worked for the group during its initial decade of existence but remained largely in the shadows, Kelly held a unique ringside seat to their rise without directly being a part of it. Additionally, perhaps because of her ongoing fidelity to the band, Kelly has remained secretive about her experiences prior to this project, directed by Ryan White and mostly told from Kelly's point of view. It's less exposé than curiosity, adding little new information to The Beatles' expansive mythology, but rather one more perspective on their initial days of fame that does the legacy proud. Read more here.

"The Bounceback"
Austin-based filmmaker Bryan Poyser's first two features, "Dear Pillow" and "Lovers of Hate," explored relationship problems by dealing in unconventionally frank ways with sex. Working on a microbudget scale, the movies had little in common with larger and considerably tamer comedy-dramas about similar issues. "The Bounceback," a step up in scale for the director, bears a closer resemblance to a studio-produced romcom, and suffers to some degree by comparison to his rowdier, unpredictable earlier works. However, compared to the current mainstream standards for the genre, the movie is a smart, refreshing cut above that channels the intelligence found in Poyser's other movies into a more common mold. Read more here.

SXSW '13 Review: 'The Retrieval' is A Finely Crafted and Evocative Film

Vanessa Martinez — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 01:54:51 GMT

The Retrieval, which premiered at SXSW this year, almost slipped under our noses prior to our preview of it a little over a month ago. It’s a film well deserving of our appreciation and attention. Writer/director Chris Eska (2007’s August Evening) has crafted a very unique and cleverly scripted tale about a young boy named Will, played impressively by newcomer Ashton Sanders, who is sent along with his uncle Marcus (Keston John) by a gang of bounty hunters to retrieve Nate (Tishuan Scott), a wanted freed man.

It’s an unexplored part of history dealing with slavery, especially on film; a complex and jarring dilemma of slaves who are promised a reward for capturing runaways and fugitive black freed men; these are oppressed slaves manipulated and many times coerced into turning against other slaves for monetary gain and survival.

The Retrieval is set during the Civil War, which serves as more of a backdrop. But it’s very much a character-driven narrative between the youngster Will and the seemingly hard-hearted Nate, a man who has undergone a traumatic separation from his wife, while fleeing up north with intentions of returning, and the loss of a child. Nate is reluctant to travel with the orphan Will and his uncle Marcus, as he should be. Their plan is to con Nate into going back to his hometown by telling him that his brother is sick and waiting to see him. There’s a carefully orchestrated plan, which will lead the bounty hunter gang to Nate’s recapture.

The young Will carries a guilty conscience; his uncle is hardly a father figure, and Will begins to seek the comfort and acceptance of the aloof Nate, more so after his uncle perishes during a Union/Confederate encounter. There are so many elements to the narrative crafted with authenticity and humanity. There’s survival, but there’s also the need for kinship, friendship and familial ties, even if such are the surrogate kind. These elements ultimately forgo survival at the very end, in a sense.

There have been comparisons to Django Unchained made on the web from articles written about the film, which I find perplexing. The Retrieval could not be more distinct in tone, style, and narrative in general. It’s not an epic, grand scale production, but its quality is very competent, especially for a limited budget. The film is admirably photographed; its set design is striking, and its score is effective, adding to the significance of the film. But it would all be remiss if it weren’t for the nuanced and affecting performances by rather unknowns, especially Tishuan Scott and the young Ashton Sanders, which make the film truly compelling to watch.

Retrieval is more of an observant, quietly affecting tale, but a few of its scenes are suspenseful and pack their share of action; they are not necessarily brutal, although they are definitely believable. The film reeks of authenticity, which makes the viewing of it all the more intriguing.

Chris Eska’s sophomore feature film is a well-researched and relevant drama with instinctual and gripping performances, which should definitely garner some accolades along its festival run (Tishuan Scott won the SXSW Grand Jury Prize for lead actor). This resonant, gem of a film deserves no less than a “sleeper hit” status, along with theatrical distribution, and I’m particularly hopeful for the latter.

SXSW Review: 'Cheap Thrills' Is Like 'The Hangover' Taken To An Absurdly Nihilistic Degree

Drew Taylor — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 00:00:49 GMT

It was only a matter of time before the recent hyper-raunchy comedy style exemplified by "The Hangover" (and repurposed, in watered-down form, for things like "Identity Thief" and "Horrible Bosses"), would take a dark, seedily indie-movie turn. And that's what "Cheap Thrills," which was one of the few movies to acquire distribution at the South By Southwest Film Festival, really is: it's the hysterical, son-of-"Jackass" tomfoolery of "The Hanger" taken to an absurdly nihilistic degree. For the most part it works, despite some tonal wobbliness, although it should be noted that "Cheap Thrills" is not for the squeamish or easily offended.

The plot of "Cheap Thrills" is the stuff of a million hastily scribbled short stories (it also bears, at least in passing, a superficial resemblance to the Quentin Tarantino section of anthology movie "Four Rooms") – a schlub and new father (Pat Healy from "The Innkeepers") is facing total financial ruin. He's about to get evicted from his apartment and he goes to ask his boss (his wife's father) for a job, only to get fired instead. While drowning his sorrows, he runs into a skuzzy former friend (Ethan Embry) and a wealthy, bizarre couple (played by David Koechner from "Anchorman" and Sara Paxton, also from "The Innkeepers").

The man starts to offer Embry and Healy money to do stupid shit – take a shot of this, throw darts at that – again, this isn't exactly cutting edge fodder for a feature-length narrative (we flashed immediately to the infamous season twelve episode of "The Simpsons," "Homer vs. Dignity," which climaxed with Homer being sexually assaulted by a panda while wearing a bear suit). Healy's financial hardships give the premise some legitimate weight, and the feeling of getting swept up in the sensations that go along with reconnecting with an old friend and meeting some fascinating new people, is realized pretty well.

Eventually Healy and Embry go back to the couple's luxurious home, and that's where things start to really ramp up. It's Paxton's birthday, and Koechner wants to really give her a good show. After Embry tries to steal a safe full of money from Koechner, he lets them in on the fact that the money is actually for them – if they complete a series of increasingly bizarre and debasing gags. Embry and Healy are in.

Things begin simply (and disgustingly) enough, with Koechner charging them with taking a shit inside their neighbor's home. The neighbor routinely lets the dog shit on Koechner's lawn, and he wants some revenge. Embry takes things too far, though, and kidnaps the dog… And that's only the beginning. Then the proceedings get really, really dark, leading to (among other things) adultery, self-mutilation, and murder, with increasingly Chuck Palahniuk-ian grossness. It's all "a little much."

Thankfully, the performances are all, if not totally humanistic, then at least passably relatable. Healy, who was a nebbish weirdo in "The Innkeepers" more than anything else, shows surprising range here as a man at first morally conflicted and then determined to establish at least some kind of financial footing for his family. Embry, known for his squeaky clean performances in things like "That Thing You Do" and "Once Upon a Time," dirties himself up nicely as a scumbag who you'd rather not have as a part of your life (his dangerousness might be posturing, but it's still got an edge). And Koechner, saddled, one assumes because of his comedic background, with the most cartoonish role in the entire movie, equips himself well, despite virtually no character development or background.

Sadly, it's Sara Paxton who pays the price for all this male posturing. Instead of being a fully formed character, she parades around in a (admittedly adorable) shirt-dress, makes smoky fuck-me eyes, and takes photos on her smart phone. Paxton is a gifted comedienne and performer and she is undeniably sexy, but none of these traits are put to any particular use in "Cheap Thrills." There's a subversive undercurrent that suggests, like Amy Adams in "The Master," she might be the one pulling all the strings, but this isn't elaborated on to any meaningful degree. Instead, it just seems like a wasted opportunity and an underutilization of one of the most exciting young actresses working in independent film today. (At the very least, though, it's better than "Shark Night.")

Director E.L. Katz and screenwriters Trent Haaga and David Chirchirillo are keenly aware of what they can get away with and what they can't, and how to ratchet up the tension while increasing the movie's darkness, until things get claustrophobically bleak and charcoal-sooty. There are some occasional missteps, tonally speaking, along the way to its pitch-black climax (they are too good to reveal here, so let's just say that a severed digit doesn't need to suffer the indignity that this one does), but for the most part the filmmakers do a good job of maneuvering the dicey waters of potential outrage.

If there's anything that separates this from a hyper-violent, indie movie variation on "The Hangover" (and honestly, we're not sure there is anything), it's the Healy character. Unlike most movies that use the current economic crisis as a dramatic backdrop, Healy's character is vibrant enough that the audience can make an easy connection and go through the journey with him. No matter how despicable he becomes, it's easily to know where he came from. [B]

SXSW Doc Review Recap: Snoop Lion In 'Reincarnated,' Alex Winter's 'Downloaded' & More

Drew Taylor — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 23:48:15 GMT

If the South by Southwest Film Festival was burdened by anything this year, it was an abundance of quality documentaries. It seemed that, while the narrative side of things was surprisingly sparse (where was the "21 Jump Street" or "The Raid" of this year?), the documentary selection was stronger than ever – there were more buzzed-about entries than we had time for, quite frankly (sorry "Medora!"), and almost everything we saw impressed us to one degree or another. Here is a quick rundown of a handful of key SXSW documentaries – "Lunarcy!," about people obsessed with the moon; "Downloaded," which aims to be the definitive documentary about file sharing program Napster; "Twenty Feet from Stardom," which charts the history of pop music from the backup singers' point of view; "Reincarnated," about Snoop Dogg's transformation into reggae titan Snoop Lion; and "I Am Divine," about director John Waters' corpulent muse, cross-dressing sensation Divine.

"Lunarcy!" (Simon Ennis)
This lively documentary, which will air later this year on the Epix satellite channel, focuses on a handful of Americans deeply obsessed with the moon including: a strange, autistic man with a genius-level intellect and a wonderful collection of paisley vests, who wants to be the first person to leave the Earth and never return; a Milwaukee retiree who devotes almost all of his free time to a moon-centric newsletter that contemplates what it's like to, say, garden up there (he also designs subterranean habitats for the moon-dwellers); and a man who claims to be the owner of the moon, selling off parcels of land to those interested in lunar development. There's even a former astronaut who paints moon-centered landscapes, using moon dust from his space suit and impressions from his moon boots to give the paintings texture.

Ennis is careful to accentuate these peoples' eccentricities without ever explicitly making fun of them, using text and graphics to keep things moving. Nothing is ever heightened or exaggerated, just comically goosed, and at a certain point, their love of the moon becomes contagious. What initially sounded absurd becomes romantic, and the movie takes on the kind of optimistic, utopian glow that used to be a part of really great science fiction and the bright-and-shiny futurism of Walt Disney. As strange as it is (and trust us, it gets plenty strange – the guy who wants to leave Earth apparently has no sense of irony, especially considering how close his proposed colony Lunar City, sounds like lunacy), there's something deeply emotional and hopeful about "Lunarcy!," made all the more powerful by how offhanded its delivery is. Odd and oddly touching, "Lunarcy!" is a movie about people on the fringes of society who just might have the right idea. Before space travel becomes uncomfortably privatized, "Lunarcy" is kind of a must-see. [A]

"Downloaded" (Alex Winter)
It's kind of amazing that no one has done a definitive feature-length documentary about Napster, the genie-unleashing program that allowed music lovers to swap songs with each other over the vast ocean of the Internet that forever changed the way we consume music. "Downloaded" still might not be that definitive documentary, but it's still pretty fascinating nonetheless. "Downloaded" focuses mainly on the friendship between Shawn Fanning, a teenage genius who created what would become Napster (that was his online handle at the time), and Sean Parker, a friend and fellow hacker (who, as we all know from "The Social Network," would also have a hand in that other culture-shaping online phenomenon, Facebook). The two rose together and took the fall together, with Parker taking it way harder due to his use of one word in one email – and that word was "pirate."

If you were one of the initial adopters of Napster, then you know this story by heart – and while Winter has access to all the major players (including the small cluster of hackers who helped develop and refine the Napster software, and people opposing the site, like Lars Ulrich from Metallica) – there are some odd omissions. For instance, while Winter utilizes tons of footage from MTV and other news outlets, he oddly enough chooses not to chronicle the moment when, sometime in 2000, MTV had a countdown to when Napster was being shut down (hosted by Kurt Loder and other personalities), which was a bizarre and profound moment in the culture. MTV, a giant corporate entity, not only was covering this little backwoods website, but it seemed to be bemoaning its death.

Elsewhere, "Downloaded" feels a bit too familiar and safe, with lots of footage of rich white guys talking on couches. (Parker remains a somewhat insufferable, antsy kind of genius.) What remains so flabbergasting about the entire thing is how, even now, music executives that Winter interviewed, still seem like they were caught off guard. It's hard to have any sympathy for an industry so fundamentally clueless. As a human drama, "Downloaded" excels, as a historical document, less so. [B]

"Twenty Feet from Stardom" (Morgan Neville)
One song that was being played, almost everywhere you went, all week long, during South by Southwest, was the new single by screechy pop band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "Sacrilege." The song, in less than four minutes, crescendos to accompany a whole host of voices that are certainly not lead singer Karen O, and it's hard to imagine the song having the same ear-worm-y power without these additional vocals, even if you don't give much thought to them.

"Twenty Feet from Stardom" sets out to right that wrong, as a kind of "history of pop music" documentary told from the point of view of the backup singer. And my god what a point of view it is. Director Morgan Neville highlights a small cluster of backup singers (among them the legendary Darlene Love, Merry Clatyon, Lisa Fischer, and Judith Hill) who have profoundly altered the pop music landscape by their mere presence. Uncannily, Neville interviews the big shots they often sing for – people like Bruce Springsteen, Sting, and Stevie Wonder, who are totally appreciative and just as in awe of these amazing performers as we are. (Sobs were audibly heard throughout our screening.)

In one incredibly powerful moment, Neville plays the raw audio track of Clayton singing the "Rape, murder" section of "Gimme Shelter," both for Clayton and then, Mick Jagger. The vocals, raw and unencumbered by the rest of the song's ornate sonic embellishments, is something close to transcendent, and it's a hoot to see both Jagger and Clayton draw the same conclusion. They're visibly moved and shaken, and so are we.

"Twenty Feet from Stardom" stumbles a little bit towards the end (a final sing along with a number of the backup singers should have been a rousing call to arms but it comes off as unnecessarily somber), but up until then, it's a rollicking, totally engaging piece, one that explores all facets of life as a backup singer (including, tragically, why so few of them can crossover to a successful mainstream solo career). An unexpectedly moving, often joyous triumph, "Twenty Feet from Stardom" proves that history isn't just made at the front of the stage. [A-]

"Reincarnated" (Andy Capper)
Yes! It's the documentary we were all anxiously awaiting, one that chronicles fabled gangster rapper Snoop Dogg's transformation, via Rastafarianism and a small cargo-hold full of weed, into Snoop Lion, a peace-loving reggae traditionalist! And while this is pretty shoddy pretext for a feature-length documentary (one produced by Vice), it ends up being a fairly entertaining romp just the same.

Snoop's spiritual transformation oftentimes feels like little more than an elaborate put-on, as he meets with Nyabinghi Rasta and other Jamaican legends in a supposed quest for enlightenment. This transition might have come from within, but it reeks of a intricate form of personal rebranding. It also just seems like an excuse for Snoop to smoke even more weed than normal, a notion once thought to be scientifically impossible. Far more interesting are the biographical and historical moments, when Snoop talks about his past as a gangbanger and his beginnings in the rap business. He speaks with unflinching honesty, takes on a kind of hushed, confessional tone. It's pretty compelling stuff, too, full of violence, betrayal, questionable business dealings and strained friendships. We never thought we'd hear the words "Master P saved me" come out of someone's mouth, but there is Snoop, saying it aloud.

Also of note is Snoop's friendship and creative partnership with en vogue producer Diplo, who is helping load the Snoop Lion project with (it must be admitted) some pretty wicked beats. As the mastermind of the sonic side of the Snoop Lion endeavor, Diplo seems committed too, and if this whole thing is all a ruse and not a genuine quest for spiritual betterment, at least it's a really cool-sounding ruse. [B-]

"I Am Divine" (Jeffrey Schwarz)
The mythos of John Waters seems to have been mined to death. There are the books that Waters has written, which sit alongside the commentary tracks he's recorded, frequent interviews, and supplemental materials on the DVDs, adding to a wealth of information found in unofficial materials, like the great documentary about his early days "Divine Trash." It might occur to you that another documentary about a Waters confederate, this time focused solely on Harris Glenn Mistead, aka drag performer Divine, would simply be overkill. And it kind of is. But that's the point.

"I Am Divine" is just as garish, splashy, and loud as Divine himself – it's all glittery eye make-up and off-color dick jokes and snazzy animated graphics. What's so shocking is how kind of profound it is, with Divine coming across as a genuine trailblazer, one who challenged gender roles and notions of body image and traditional beauty, a person who lived an incredibly complex inner life and who worked really, really hard.

Of course that makes everything seem so serious, which, despite its melancholy ending (Divine died tragically at the age of 42, a day before he was supposed to start an extended stint on "Married… With Children"), "I Am Divine" most certainly is not. It is first and foremost a hoot, featuring a number of hilarious interviews with Waters and the various collaborators from back then (including Mink Stole, Tab Hunter and members of drag queen group The Cockettes) and lots of little seen footage of Divine's stage shows, which seemed like a hilarious, totally gay assault.

This is the definitive biography of Divine, too, delving into his music career, his lovers, and his addictions (although only fleetingly – remember, this doc is all about pep and sparkle). For a subject that seems to have been overexposed, there are some new insights and footage that we have personally never seen before despite being keenly interested in the subject matter. Divine was a big guy with a big heart, and this documentary does him justice and then some. [A]

Critics Pick The Best Scenes and Surprises of SXSW 2013

Steve Greene — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 19:17:46 GMT

In case you missed it, today we published the results from our traditional end-of-fest poll for SXSW 2013. As expected, critical favorite, audience award and Narrative Grand Jury Prize winner "Short Term 12" fared well, taking the Best Narrative Feature prize. On the acting side, "Drinking Buddies" took home Best Ensemble and among nonfiction films, Documentary Grand Jury Prize Winner "William and the Windmill" topped the Best Documentary list.

But there were a couple of categories on this particular go-around that we haven't featured in past editions. This time, critics were invited to send in their picks for their favorite scenes of the festival. Unlike the film/performances categories, where the choices can speak for themselves, our critics had to elaborate a little bit on what in particular stood out among their selections.

The Best Scene page has links to all 23 ballots and also excerpts a few critics' responses. In looking at the results, it's interesting to see how critics managed to skirt around specific details when describing the various scenes they chose. By now, the Britney Spears-centric sequence in "Spring Breakers" has picked up traction with festival-goers and those who saw the film after it opened last week. But there are moments in these films that present a challenge: explaining what makes them great would be to take away some of the magic of experiencing them for the first time.

Here are the stripped-down, minimalist ways that some critics described those scenes (with titles omitted, in case even this is too much information):

"The slow-motion drunken barrage of destruction."

"The charades and photo album scenes."

"'God bless Daniel Ellsberg.'"

"The two back-to-back reveals during the dinner scene."

"Swiffer Argument."

In some ways, I find these little snippets more effective than a trailer in generating some excitement about these titles. Even if someone in print described these scenes in more detail, the visual aspect of seeing these moments unfold would still be preserved, something that a trailer can't exactly guarantee. It's also an effective way to single out the films that might not be as uniformly great as the award winners, but would have moments strong enough to merit a trip to the theater.

And Best Scene is a designation that can also be applied to documentaries, too. The Ellsberg moment referenced above comes from "Our Nixon," a film focusing on the personal video footage shot by White House staffers in the former president's administration. A Sundance doc that resurfaced in Austin, "Twenty Feet from Stardom," interviews some the music industry's most notable backup singers. Two different critics singled out the film's moment with Merry Clayton, the voice behind the chilling moments of the Rolling Stones song "Gimme Shelter."

Equally as enticing are the Biggest Surprises, another category new to the SXSW poll. We left this open to films, performances, or overall festival trends, since some noteworthy aspects of the festival don't neatly fit into the other categories. Critics could single out the things that caught them off guard, both positive and not-so-positive.

One of the top surprises from SXSW for multiple critics? David Koechner, who appears in "Cheap Thrills," one of the festival's sneaky hits. Both he and Olivia Wilde, who starred in Joe Swanberg's "Drinking Buddies," drew votes for being able to find projects that fully took advantage of their acting strengths. By highlighting certain performers in that space, there's the added signal that even those who might be averse to a particular performer/filmmaker might find something worthwhile. Festivals have a way of generating certain expectations, but this is a reminder that some of the best films, performances and moments are ones that keep you on your toes.

So for those who, like me, are high-grade spoilerphobes, would categories and evaluations like this be the optimal middle ground between trailers and reviews? Or is festival buzz just inherently a double-edged sword that piques interest while oversharing? Either way, we've got some of our critics' favorites on those two pages if you're adventurous enough to look.

For the results of all the other categories from the SXSW Poll, including Best First Feature, Best Ensemble and Best Performances, check out the entire list here.