SXSW SNAPS, PART TWO

The Innkeepers‘ star Sara Paxton, glam at the Driskill Hotel premiere afterparty. In Ti West’s excellent horror picture, wearing a red hoodie and blue jeans she plays a tomboyish hotel clerk and amateur ghost hunter.

A fantastic idea — as part of its Film Design Awards, SXSW hosts a poster design competition, displaying all the entries in lobby gallery.

Myth of the American Sleepover producer Adele Romanski and Visit Films sales agent Ryan Kampe at the Kodak Filmmaker’s Brunch.

Forget barbecue. Grilled cheese is the food of Austin. The sandwich here is from The Big Cheese, inside the convention hall. It costs $5.75. About 25 yards away, outside, the grilled cheese is free at a GroupMe food shack as long as your prove you use the service. The lines there are very long, setting up a personal financial experiment. How much is your time worth? I’ve been paying for my sandwiches. What is it about grilled cheese that sends you right back to childhood? The American suburban youth’s madeleine.

In the main hall, Matthew Lesko, who is appearing at the trade show promoting his site, which he calls the “world’s largest database of government programs. See what programs you are eligible for!”

There is a lot of free food at SXSW. Also in the trade show, free cotton candy.

There are many long lines at SXSW. Sometimes you come across one and have no idea what it’s for.

At the Alamo Ritz, director Ben Wheatley answers questions about his Heart of Darkness-meets-Wicker Man hit-man thriller while actor Neil Maskell looks on. IFC Midnight has picked up the film.

Vikram Gandhi following a tough Q&A at the Alamo Lamar screening of his documentary, Kumare. The film follows Gandhi as he reinvents himself as yoga-teaching Indian spiritual leader and amasses a small crowd of unsuspecting and quite sincere followers. “I want to hear you say, ‘I’m sorry,’ to the people in this film,” one audience member said. “I feel humiliated on their behalf.” “I don’t think we should feel sorry for them,” Gandhi replied. “We worked hard … Read the rest

AROUND AUSTIN : MONDAY MORNING

So much pork, so much sitting in dark cold rooms! The first grand weekend of SXSW 2011 was, for me at least, rather subdued. Individual films threw little parties and then there were some big ragers, and there is as ever that old sense of uber-community. But it was a slow burn feeling of familiar faces colored by a succession of new friends, all incredibly nervous for their premieres, all getting drunk later in parking lots. But just when you think you have party fatigue, something like this happens:

An army brigade of cuties!

Yes, readers, an army brigade on horseback! What were they doing?? My investigative skills were no match for their discretion. They said they were ‘on duty.’ Texas is full of mystery!

The industry presence is felt strongly here this year — although you have to know where to look for them.

I get lost frequently, so I have decided to take more cabs. Then the cabs get lost.

Then the movies and fun began! Here’s a slide show of time I spent after screenings in parking lots:

At “Otis Under Sky,” we were warned to stay in our seats…. and were treated to an octopus like DIY laser light show!

Later I passed out.

 … Read the rest

SXSW SNAPS, DAY ONE

The first day at SXSW, the 4th floor. “What’s this line for?” I asked the woman standing next to me. “No idea,” she said. But it wasn’t a line for anything. The crowd was just there. And as I pushed my way through, it slowly started to dissipate. It was like one of those highway slowdowns, where the memory of congestion lingers after whatever caused it.

If you’re going to sponsor a festival, at least do something useful, like this rolling Samsung display of panel times, schedule changes and social media activity.

When you check into SXSW, you’re given three things: the catalog, your badge, and a punch card giving you one free Macallan single malt a day.

I have wished there was one of these guys — except promising Blackberry repair — at Sundance.

Lonelygirl15 creator Mesh Flinders at the Austin Convention Center. Several years later, has anyone done viral narrative video better?

Well known publicist Jessica Edwards, left, is here at SXSW as a director. She’s made Tugs, a documentary short about the New York City harbor. At right is Austin filmmaker Heather Courtney, whose documentary Where Soldiers Come From, world premieres here.

Austin human signage.

The Paramount marquee before the premiere of Austin filmmaker Aaron Burns’ blacktino. (Filmmakers, remember that when you go all e.e. cummings with your titles your signage will invariably be wrong.)

On my way to the premiere of Source Code, the line at the Apple pop-up store was around the block. Afterwards, still a line and they were still selling new iPad 2s.

A tiny Tiny Furniture reunion: at the Film Opening Night party at Buffalo Bills, actor Alex Karpovsky and producer Alicia Van Couvering.… Read the rest

GRAB A HEALTHY BITE AT SXSW

One of the joys of going to SXSW every year is indulging in the eats around Austin. But often that leads to chowing down on stuff that’s certain to expand the waistline.

But there’s hope. Over at the Eat Well Guide, you’ll find a rundown of some of the top local eateries in Austin that won’t put you in a food coma.… Read the rest

SXSW IS ALL SMILES

Hangin’ at the Austin Chronicle party at Lazona Rosa last night, everyone was in fine spirits:

…tall person Zachery Levy, a panelist this year whose Strongman played the festival last year, towering over short person Ben Kasulke, DP of Humpday, The Freebie, Nights and Weekends and more…

… A New York minute: Greencard Pictures’ Nick Kadner, here supporting IFC TV’S Food Party, Olivia Thirlby of Juno fame, David Call of Tiny Furniture, and Catfish director Henry Joost…

…Gabriele Caroti of Bam Cinematek, who is approaching his deadline to lock the program for BAM Cinemafest, enjoying the rainy evening with Jim Browne of the Tribeca Film Festival, who just finished his work for the fest. (NB: Jim Browne’s Argot Pictures will be releasing our favorite insect-culture documentary of last year, Jessica Oreck‘s Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo.)… Read the rest

FILMMAKERS SQUARED

Love was in the air at the Filmmaker Brunch on Friday afternoon, where the top shelf tequila ran rampant.  Against the backdrop of the soon-to-be-retired Troublemaker Studios green screen — where almost every Robert Rodriguez film has ever been shot — filmmaker pairs mixed and mingled.  They were implored to hold this moment dear, because “this is the moment,”  in an actually very moving speech by Up In The Air director Jason Reitman, who got into his car the day after the Oscars and drove straight to Texas. 

Jody Lee Lipes, co-director of NY Export: Opus Jazz and DP of Tiny Furniture, with NY Export: Opus Jazz producer and ballerina star, City Ballet’s Ellen Bar.

11/4/08 director Jeff Deutchman, pulling double-duty at SXSW this year as Acquisitions Coordinator of IFC Films, as is 11/4/08 producer Natalie Difford, Program Associate for Chicken & Egg Pictures, who will administer a generous cash prize to one lucky female director at this year’s festival.

An Austin Affair:  Local filmmaker Paul Gordon, writer/director/star of The Happy Poet, accepting an affectionate glance from neighbor Geoff Marslett, writer/director of Mars, a film in which Paul also stars.

- Alicia Van Couvering… Read the rest

I WAS TOLD THERE WOULD BE COWBOY HATS

…at the Texas Hall of Fame Film Awards, a glorious benefit for the Austin Film Society that drew the cream of the Texas to Austin Studios last night.  And indeed, there were Cowboy hats aplenty — Robert Rodriguez even gave one to Quentin Tarantino, the evening’s honoree.  Some pictorial highlights:

Kim Le Blanc of the Texas Film Commission, Lovers of Hate director Bryan Poyser, whose film is part of IFC’s day-and-date “Direct from SXSW” initiative, and Janet Pierson, Director and Head of Programming at SXSW and the kind of woman who can start sentences with, “When I was running a movie theatre in Fiji….”

Former SXSW Director and Head of Programming Matt Dentler and John Pierson, author of “Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes,” someone to whom the term “indie guru” can be accurately and liberally applied.

SXSW TRIVIA ALERT!  Steve James, director of Hoop Dreams and the very very good SXSW film No Crossover: The Trails of Allen Iverson (stay tuned for my interview with James on this site soon), made Reel Paradise, a film about the Pierson’s time in Fiji running the most remote movie theatre in the world.

– Alicia Van Couvering… Read the rest

A SOCIAL MEDIA GUIDE TO SXSW ’10

Mashable.com has  compiled an unbelievable guide to how you can follow SXSW (in Austin or afar) through social media.

The one we’re most intrigued by is Cliqset.com.

Cliqset.com has created a real-time map that aggregates all of the geo-tagged activity in the festival area of Austin. Pulling in data from the major location-based social networks (Brightkite (), Flickr (), Foursquare, Gowalla (), Qik, and Twitter), the map will give you a bird’s eye view of who is at SXSW, where they are, and what they’re doing.

… Read the rest

GILBERT SHELTON AT SXSW

As part of their annual look at SXSW, The Austin Chronicle gets ready for the fest with this piece on iconic psychedelic comic book artist Gilbert Shelton, who’s best known for his Freak Brothers comics. He will also have an exhibit of his work in town during the fest as well as Harry Knowles conducting a conversation with Shelton on March 15 at the Austin Convention Center.

Here’s an excerpt from the piece:

Freewheelin’ Franklin, Phineas, and Fat Freddy symbolized the pot culture of the Sixties, their free-spirited lifestyle in pursuit of sex, drugs, and rock & roll the model for a generation that broke more molds than any before or since. Their hairy appearances and attitudes were summed up in one philosophy: “Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope.”

It was a potent anti-establishment mantra that sold about 40 million comic books in 15 languages and is still chanted by the faithful. The Freak Brothers were such a hit that even the appearance of Fat Freddy’s Cat attracted fans, and the cat, whose panels started appearing on the bottom of the comic pages, soon got his own comic. But the Freak Brothers were Sixties hippies in the Seventies, anachronistic by the New Wave Eighties, relics by the Gen X Nineties, and ancient history by the Aughties. What was left but for them to become retro cool?

“We never expected them to stay popular,” says Gilbert Shelton, the Cheshire grin on his face almost audible as he speaks on the phone from France, where he resides with his wife. “Maybe they were just easy to read. At the time, the daily newspapers wouldn’t touch certain subjects, so weeklies sprung up, some leftist. Before the Chronicle, there was The Rag, and I was in sympathy with these weekly newspapers, but they were godawful dull. I thought what they needed was a comic strip to improve readership. So that’s the reason I started the Freak Brothers.”

The Freak Brothers may also be coming to the big screen soon. … Read the rest

SXSW HOTEL ROOMS : SARDINES AWARD

The WINNER of the Filmmaker Blog  ”Around Austin” ridiculous festival hotel room set-up is: 

… Read the rest