All Posts Tagged With: "sxsw"
My HotDocs Picks
I’m heading up to HotDocs this weekend to celebrate with Ron Mann, whose work is featured in this year’s Focus On program of a mid-career filmmaker. The retrospective was curated by filmmaker Astra Taylor, whose Examined Life recently made the festival circuit and a wonderful screening in Austin as part of AFS’s Doc Tour. I’m very excited to see Ron and Astra, and hopefully get to see a bit of their Toronto.
I’ll also be moderating a panel on Monday, Creativity in Doc Making at 1 PM on Monday, May 4. Panelists include Jennifer Baichwal, Act of God (Canada), Laura Bari, Antoine (Canada), Peter Liechti, The Sound of Insects: Record of a Mummy (Switzerland) and Menna Laura Meijer, Sweety, The Friends, Betrayal and Murder of Maja Bradaric (Netherlands). I’m excited to watch their films and to think about creativity in doc making. It’s a subject that tends to get overlooked by people who are getting into documentary. They watch a lot of nonfiction television and think that a doc has to follow a certain form while in reality, the best docs push the boundaries of the form. Please stop by if you can!
SXSW 09: Wrap Up
SXSW was over a week ago, and I’ve spent the week since ruminating on what the event meant to me this year. It’s kind of weird how it has become a milestone in my life with which I measure where I am, how far I’ve come and what I am doing next. My experience this year was my first with Austin as my home. Last year, I had only been here about 6 months or so and it was a welcome relief to have my festival friends from all around the country come in for the fest. I guess I was lonely and welcomed the chance to see familiar faces.
This year, most of the events I went to were local in nature–the secret screening of Linklater’s fabulous Me and Orson Welles, the fun yet important Along Came Kinky screening and downright hometown party at Rabbit’s afterward, Winnebago Man. I was very much in touch with the work that is being made locally and it was important to be present for those moments. I didn’t get to everything I wanted to, but I made a respectable showing and more importantly, I wasn’t regretting hanging out with the “local crowd,” I was reveling in it. I moved to Austin because I liked the vibe and indeed, if a major international festival can happen in your own backyard and you are happy to hang out with people you see all year long, well, I’m counting that as a true blessing and confirmation that I made a good choice in moving to Austin.
SXSW 09: Doc Awards
Congrats to all the winners! See full list here>>
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Winner – 45365
Director: Bill Ross
An inquiring look at everyday life in Middle America, the film explores the congruities of daily life in an American town Sidney, Ohio.
Honorable Mention – The Way We Get By
Director: Aron Gaudet
On call 24/7 for the past 6 years, a group of senior citizens transform their lives by greeting nearly one million U.S. troops at a tiny airport in Maine.
EMERGING VISIONS Audience Award
Winner – Motherland
Director: Jennifer Steinman
Six grieving mothers journey to Africa in order to test the theory that “giving is healing.”
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE Audience Award
Winner – MINE
Director: Geralyn Pezanoski
After Hurricane Katrina, thousands of pets were rescued and adopted by families around the country, leading to many custody battles. Through these stories, the film examines issues of race, class and animal welfare in the U.S.
SXSW WHOLPHIN SHORT FILM AWARD
Winner – Sister Wife
Director: Jill Orschel
In a time when the practices of Mormon fundamentalism offer sensational fodder for the evening news, Sister Wife offers a rare glimpse into the cloistered lifestyle.
SXSW 09: Letters to the President
Petr Lom had some unbelievable access into the lives of Iranians in this film. It is so rare to watch a film about people in a foreign Muslim country that seems genuine, but this one sure does. Lom had a film permit from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad himself. There is only one man more important in Iran, or so says the bouncer at the front gate of the mosque, the Ayattolah Khomeini, as it was his mosque they were trying to enter with their cameras. Ah, ok, I’m gonna say that I don’t think we should be disrespecting Muslim religious spaces. Seriously. Thank goodness the filmmaker backs off and we cut to another scene. I hope that is how it went in real life.
The most moving scene for me was between two women who were waiting to have a face-to-face meeting with Ahmadinejad, and as they sit and chat, the camera and mic are on. They move from adoration of Ahmadinejad, to their lives, which include having to save for 3 weeks to buy strawberries for her daughter and having to pay $17 for a hunk of meat for family dinner. The women held their scarves up to their faces either to hide themselves or unconsciously, I’m not sure which, but they didn’t seem to know there was a camera on them. I felt the pain of their poverty. Beautiful work by Lom in letting that moment happen.
SXSW 09: We Live In Public
Sorry it has taken me a bit to get my butt into gear here at SXSW 09. The Film portion of the week is almost over and many of my friends will be heading out 
Since reviews started going up before the fest, I suppose they will be pretty much done with their coverage. I can’t keep up with that pace anymore so look for my coverage in the coming days.
But this leads me into my thoughts about We Live in Public (it won the Jury prize at Sundance and I just caught it). Even though I don’t have the high profile of friends like AJ, Karina, Eugene or Brian, on occasion, there is someone who has read something I’ve written and they introduce themselves and say something along the lines of wanting to meet me. It just happened to me today. It’s an incredible honor when someone says that and I haven’t once taken it for granted (though I do have the terrible habit of forgetting names – I need help with this, any suggestions?). But my minor “rock star” experience is both like and unlike Josh Harris’s, which is the biopic fodder for We Live in Public. It really resonated with me.
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