One of the best ways to really see the benefits of the Blu-ray format is animated features, and Sleeping Beauty is a definitive reference title for hand-drawn animation on Blu. Sleeping Beauty was Disney's first Platinum Edition on Blu-ray, and all told, it's an easy blind buy. Some of the most celebrated sequences in animated history combined with a never-before-available 2.55:1 transfer and copious extras are absolutely worth every dime.
For their catalog "Platinum" Blu-ray releases, Disney has wisely chosen to include Disc 1 of the DVD release in a cardboard sleeve to accomadate parents with the suburb-standard-issue portable DVD player or people who want to take something on-the-go who don't want to shell out an extra $10 for a "Digital Copy" edition. Whereas I had already purchased the standard DVD edition, this was worth the upgrade, with or without the $10 "upgrade" coupon included in the package. It should be noted that large chunks of this review are repurposed from my months-ago review of the DVD edition on Arthouse Cowboy. Consider this the double-dip special edition of that review that's actually worth a look. The majority of this review covers features on both versions, with Blu-ray specific items denoted as such.
One of the more striking features of the restored movie is the fact it's back in its originally-intended aspect ratio of 2.55:1, first available to the public exclusively in this new home release. As soon as I saw the comparison shots, I immediately wondered just how it could be that so much of the frame had been sliced out for so long from this undeniable animated classic.
The "tapestry" design of the whole film that was mandated by Walt himself and implemented by Eyvind Earle (more on him later) lends itself so perfectly to this ultra-wide ratio, I spent one time through watching the movie and the next trying to visualize what was lost in previous transfers.
The original chop-job is like shaving a couple inches on the sides of a great work of portraiture because smaller frames were cheaper. I'm glad this has been rectified, and I frankly didn't know it had been missing for so long. I never knew anything was wrong with it as a kid, but now I know I could sense those missing inches off the frame. As for how it comes off in 1080p, my father-in-law put it best in that "it's pretty damn amazing."
The restoration of the film is covered in one of the docs on disc 2 (which I'll dig into soon enough further down), but for the real nitty gritty, I'll direct you to a recently-posted Yellow Layer Failure column put together by restoration king Robert A. Harris over at The Digital Bits.
The Movie
The storytelling shows its age, especially in the wake of Enchanted, which I find even more chuckle-worthy having re-watched Sleeping Beauty. While Prince Phillip stalks behind Briar Rose/Aurora in the forest, creeping up to take her in an embrace from behind, Ashley and I felt like we were watching a slasher flick, complete with telling the girl onscreen to not "go in there" or "he's going to get you!".
Just sing and play with animals and wait for a complete stranger to ambush you. Then, pretend to fight him off and call him a stalker, but then invite him over to your house that night. What could go wrong, right? The story is an artifact, but the aesthetic design holds up admirably 50 years later, especially thanks to the extensive restoration work. The dated plot mechanics and stereotypes aside, Sequence 8 and the fight with the Dragon are still two of the most compelling animated action scenes in the realm of traditional animation. With the overabundance of cheap CGI garbage churned out these days, the movie is a great family-friendly choice in a sea of talking animal crap.
Extras
Feature Commentary
One of the last extras I looked at is in retrospect one I wish I'd looked at first: the Feature Commentary with Pixar chief John Lasseter, Leonard Maltin, and animator Andreas Deja. Any chance to listen to Lasseter talk about classic animation is a can't-miss, and his Pixar movie yack-tracks have always been good. Maltin is a guy many either love or hate, and I'm pretty ambivalent on him. If you dislike him at all, his presence here won't turn you off. As is often the case with Disney history, Maltin really knows his stuff and he doesn't overload you with unnecessary info.
Back to Lasseter for a moment, because a couple places in this track reminded me of a doc I saw in 2007 called The Pixar Story (included in this week's WALL-E 2-disc set) where he served as one of the primary talking heads. Any chance you ever have to hear this guy talk about animation is an absolute privilege. I don't listen to as many comment tracks as I used to, but any of them with John are worth listening to, sometimes twice.
The piece of this triumverate you may not be familiar with is Andreas Deja, who has worked for Disney as an animator since 1980's The Black Cauldron, and has been supervising animator for many of Disney's major villains since then including Gaston, Jafar, and Scar, in addition to creating Roger Rabbit. He most recently supervised animation of Queen Nerissa in last year's Enchanted, so his inclusion here is more of an insider's than you would assume just knowing he works for Disney. Very informative and quiet in places where the three guys get wrapped up (understandably so) in watching this masterpiece unfold.
One of the best-integrated Blu-ray features is the Cine-Explore Commentary that interlaces multi-angle video of the participants, storyboards, photos, and sketches along with archival interviews. Is it a reason alone to buy the Blu? No, but if you have an HD set and are choosing, the transfer and bitrate make that decision for you.
Music Video: Emily Osment singing Once Upon a Dream
Look, I'm not the target market for this extra or a few of the others, so why did I watch it? Out of the same morbid curiosity my wife has in scrutinizing Disney DVD covers that employ radically different style than the actual movie, like the rerelease of Peter Pan. This is probably on there to support the Hannah Montana Generation of new Disneyphiles who'll learn the junk-rock version of this song because Hannah Montana's sidekick/friend is singing it. Not to get too off-topic, but if Miley Cyrus "retires" Hannah, will Osment take up the reins with the same character name/identity, or will she become "Morrigan Oregon" or "Rhoda Minnesota"?
Song Selection
Lets you jump to any "song" you want in this song-sparse movie.
Princess Fun Facts
Again, not aimed at me, this is what my wife calls "Pop-Up Video" for Disney movies. Assorted trivia and facts and so on.
Grand Canyon
The entire Grand Canyon suite set to a 29-minute video of the Grand Canyon. Lovely music, but I remember them showing this to us in elementary school music class and it put us all to sleep. The '58 Oscar winner for Short Subject, this may be used as background when I'm making dinner on the odd night. Lovely photography if you have a kid who's never seen the million and one docs/specials on The Canyon.
The Peter Tchaikovsky Story
My wife laughed at me when I put this on, but it turned out to be phenomenally entertaining. Thanks to current TV movie trends, I joked, it sounded like a Lifetime TV movie about "noted wife-abuser and philanderer Peter Tchaikovsky, that son-of-a-bitch." The first TV show broadcast in "stereophonic" sound and theatrical widescreen (it's only taken us 50 years to get aspect ratio right), it tells the story of young Tchaikovsky being haunted by melodies and being reprimanded for being an "artist" in the face of a lucrative career as a government official like his father. Plenty of 1950's TV acting is on display, which in and of itself is hilarious. Walt Disney himself introduces the piece as well as the "special preview" of Sleeping Beauty, and as much as we see movies spoiled in trailers these days, the two near-full sequences he shows are the climatic Dragon fight at the end and Sequence 8 ("Once Upon a Dream" in the forest).
Alternate Languages
Most people gloss over this, but I love being able to watch these Disney classics with the Spanish and French voice tracks. Great way to start your kids early on foreign language comprehension. You think I'm kidding, but I'm not.
BD-Live Features
These are Disc 1-specific as far as I can tell. I'm not terribly excited about live-chatting with friends while watching the movie, and this isn't something that makes me say "oh golly do I need Blu-ray." The pages and pages of Legal Disclaimer jargon is almost a game in and of itself. Not worth it yet to me.
Games and other Kiddy Stuff
Again, these were not designed for me, but I don't see how they could be entertaining to the target audience. The games themselves are better played with cards and the narrating voice is so condescending I wanted to take a sleeping pill.
Picture Perfect: The Making of Sleeping Beauty
Ahh, now this is the stuff. A comprehensive documentary of the production, history, and problems on Sleeping Beauty. Not too long, not too short, and just right. Disney's DVD production team does a masterful job of differentiating featurette content from "The Making of" and separating those out to their own little segments. Contributors range from Briar Rose herself, Mary Costa, to filmmakers and historians. Not a minute wasted or a redundant moment to be found.
Eyvind Earle: The Man and His Art
This glimpse into the life of Earle is a fascinating eight or nine minutes with a genius. With a life history so interesting, I'm surprised no one has fashioned a movie about this guy. A rough childhood that lead to greatness in this film. Worth re-watching it's so interesting and inspiring.
Sequence 8
Most would refer to this as "Once Upon a Dream." It was a notoriously complex sequence that Walt demanded be more and more unique, it almost sundered the entire production.
Deleted Scenes/Storyboards
The wisely-trimmed opening song and additional stuff with the kings. Disney really does cut the fat before they get to cooking. It was a whole lot more wasted effort back when they did every frame by hand. Three songs total and a couple of storyboards, introduced by Andreas Deja. The Storyboards are a comparison to the finished footage and worth watching.
Live Action Reference
They filmed live actors in costumes in front of stock sets for reference when drawing back in the days before mo-cap. Nice to see a peek into just how precisely they captured the physical nature of hair, fabric, and facial expressions.
Production Galleries
This is probably my favorite, sure-to-be unsung feature of this set. Through a copious amount of stills, you get to see the evolution of various character and location designs. Take my word for it and spend a few minutes with these and you'll find yourself spending the better part of a half hour or full hour poring over these.
Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough and Attraction
This was particularly engaging for me since as a kid or an adult, I've never been to either Disney theme park in the US. Disney Imagineers walk us through the attraction that's been unseen by the public for something like 40 years. They show us the magicians' tricks that make everything possible, and the changes that it went through until its closing. There's a not-so-hidden easter egg toward the end of the guided tour in addition to the news that the Castle Attraction is going to have a grand re-opening in 2009, which reminds me of Lasseter's passionate dedication to the Disney parks. Not only is his presence at Disney revitalizing their feature animation division, but their parks and DVD releases are really truly getting those Pixaresque bits of extra loving care.
4 Artists Paint 1 Tree
An old Walt goodie featuring how four artists interpret one task. This should be shown in school art classes. Eyvind Earle is one of the artists.
Trailers
The teaser, and full trailers from 1959 are here as well as the 1995 re-release one. I realized I hadn't watched these yet, so I just popped the disc back in and...my god. The 1995 trailer is in 1.85.
Blu-ray only
The Sound of Beauty: Restoring a Classic
The one (as far as I could tell) Blu-ray exclusive feature was this, a ten minute glance at the sound mix restoration. It's nice to know that they got to use the original sound masters and cleaned from there, but honestly this mostly comes off as promoting the Blu-ray format and 7.1 "Disney Home Theater Enhanced Surround Sound," but it is still worth watching. If you aren't a sound professional or do audio conversion in your basement, you probably aren't familiar with what you miss when listening to this new Sleeping Beauty disc. Rather, you probably miss what you're missing: hisses, pops, and other audio artifacts cleaned out of this cut don't make themselves readily apparent unless youreally think about the last time you saw this and the things that made it sound 50 years old. As with many catalog Blu-ray releases, the question of How Clean is Too Clean may come to mind, and though I'm still not sold on 7.1-ifying movies that it was never available for in the first place, I'm glad they wiped out the artifacting that was in there. As a completist, I'd actually have liked a lossy 2.0 mix thrown in for comparison, but it's really not that big a deal. Ten minutes worth your time, but you probably won't watch it again.
Last Thoughts
From a guy who used to buy DVDs all the time but has been tamed from that habit by a very practical wife, this would have gone to the top of my "weekly stack" in those days. As it stands, the pedigree of recent Disney DVD releases under John Lasseter have vastly improved over the "pretty good, where else are you going to find them" ones from before his tenure. This one is a blind buy unless you don't like animation, classic films, or Disney. Note that I left out "family-friendly" there. The frightening "get seduced by strangers vibe" in the forest glen makes this one difficult to recommend as totally ok for young girls...but then again I have to compare it to other "family friendly" movies out there. The Bolt trailer has a hamster talking about snapping someone's neck, for cryin' out loud. You have to understand that if I had kids, I'd be itching to show them The Nightmare Before Christmas as soon as I could without getting carted off for it.
Sleeping Beauty will be either one of your first purchases or a gaping hole in just about anyone's collection, on Blu-ray or DVD.
Read MoreElectric Shadow
Sidewalk Fest: 2 Directors Gone in 2 Years
One of the film-centric shoes left to drop in the current economic climate is the fate of regional festivals, whose existence depends in large part on the support of donors and almighty sponsors. I've learned from "Wade on Birmingham" by way of a twitter feed that the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival has dismissed its director. The near and dear to my heart Tallahassee Film Festival (in the same region) is in only its second year, and I fear for it and other "little festivals" having to potentially turn into weekend-long corporate ads rather than start (or continue to) promote their own unique identity...or cease to exist entirely.
When the times get lean, that's when non-profit enterprises are in the most danger of crumbling under the weight of pressure from all sides. Everyone deemed a "partner," from board members to local universities to sponsors and local government entities all start to transform into adversaries more than they may have already been to begin with. Naive or misguided people in leadership positions take the line-item approach to budgeting and look at "where all the money is going" and cut the big numbers wherever they see them, with no regard to how that may undermine things. You get what you pay for when it comes to the captain guiding the ship. You skimp and go with someone who doesn't know what they're doing, you run the ship aground faster than you ever thought possible.
Read MoreSXSW Announces More Features
I am absolutely baffled how they could add any more movies to their already jam-packed slate, but SXSW has announced Closing Night and some more special screenings and things that make my week even more packed and impossible. As before, I'm highlighting what catches my eye and including the full release after the jump.
500 Days of Summer (Closing Night)
I like both lead actors and will give this one a shot regardless of buzz
Along Came Kinky...Texas Jewboy for Governor
I didn't live in Texas at the time, but grew up here. The fact Kinky made the kind of splash he did is why so many more registered and active voters showed up in 2008.
Dungeon Masters
Gaming as social life fascinates me, as we find that job recruiters actively watch out for World of Warcraft fiends and gaming lives are really much more than recreation for many.
Golden Hornet Project Film Event - Metropolis with Original, Live Score
i saw the Moroder cut at BNAT on film for the first time, and I dearly love any new and interesting way to see it.
My Generation
Barbara Kopple. Three Woodstocks. Those four words had me right away.
René
I'm tired of "European film" meaning French, English, German, or Spanish to most Americans. Czech doc, I'm in.
The Slammin' Salmon
Broken Lizard's newest. I'll see anything that just one of these guys is in.
Still Bill
Bill Withers. Two words this time.
***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***
SXSW FILM ANNOUNCES SHORTS LINEUP, ADDITIONAL FEATURES
FOR 2009 FILM FESTIVAL
SCHEDULE LIVE AT SXSW.COM/FILM ON MONDAY
Austin, Texas - February 13, 2008 - The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival is pleased to announce the short film lineup for this year's Festival, March 13 - 21, 2009 in Austin, Texas. Over the course of nine days, 127 short films will screen at the festival, selected from 2,071 short film submissions.
Additional features span all categories, and naturally bridge to the SXSW Music Festival. Titles include Alex Vlack's Still Bill, a documentary about music legend Bill Withers, My Generation, a documentary examining the three Woodstock festivals, directed by Academy Award-winning director Barbara Kopple, the rock documentary Iron Maiden: Flight 666, directed by Scot McFadyen & Sam Dunn, and Marc Webb's 500 Days of Summer, starring Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
"It's exciting to have the full line-up scheduled and ready to go, and we're always very proud of our shorts programs," says Film Conference and Festival Producer Janet Pierson, "Not only are they carefully curated with an eye towards a cohesive and entertaining 90-minute program, but we feel shorts provide an extremely fertile ground to discover new filmmaking talent."
The additional features and comprehensive shorts lineup follow below. The schedule, complete with both screening and panel dates and times, will be available on Monday, February 16th at HYPERLINK "http://www.sxsw.com/film" http://www.sxsw.com/film. Visit often for more information and updates.
FEATURES
500 Days of Summer - Closing Night, Spotlight Premiere
Director: Marc Webb. Screenwriter: Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber
When an unlucky greeting card copywriter is dumped by his girlfriend, the hopeless romantic shifts back and forth through various periods of their 500 days 'together' in hopes of figuring out where things went wrong.
Cast: Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Afterschool - Special Screening
Director/Writer: Antonio Campos.
Robert is obsessed with observing reality in the form of viral clips on his computer screen, some sweet, some violent, some pornographic. When he joins a video class in school, he has the chance of documenting his own reality there, which includes the violent death of two fellow students. Cast: Ezra Miller
Along Came Kinky...Texas Jewboy for Governor - Lone Star States
Director: David Hartstein
This documentary chronicles singing Jewish cowboy Kinky Friedman's 2006 independent gubernatorial campaign in Texas. (World Premiere)
Died Young, Stayed Pretty - Emerging Visions
Director: Eileen Yaghoobian
This movie about rock posters is a candid look at the renaissance of North America's underground, indie-rock poster movement spurred by the unexpected launch of groupie Clayton Hayes' web portal Gigposters.com. (U.S. Premiere)
Dungeon Masters - Special Screening
Director: Keven McAlester
Against the backdrop of crumbling middle-class America, two men and one woman devote their lives to Dungeons and Dragons, the storied role-playing game, and its various descendants. As their baroque fantasies clash with mundane real lives, the characters find it increasingly difficult to allay their fear, loneliness, and disappointment with the game's imaginary triumphs. (U.S. Premiere)
The Eyes of Me - Lone Star States
Director: Keith Maitland
An extraordinary look at four blind teenagers. Shot at the Texas School for the Blind in Austin, Texas, the parallel stories of two freshmen and two seniors unfold over the course of one dynamic year. (World Premiere)
Golden Hornet Project Film Event - Metropolis with Original, Live Score - Special Screening
Wyatt Brand helps bring a spectacular film and music convergence event to SXSW Film with Golden Hornet Project's screening and live, original score for Fritz Lang's 1927 classic silent masterpiece Metropolis.
Iron Maiden: Flight 666 - 24 Beats Per Second
Directors: Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn
A rare behind-the-scenes look at one of the world's most influential bands as they fly 50,0000 miles around the globe in their customized Boeing 757, "Ed Force One" (piloted by singer Bruce Dickinson), on their 2008 world tour. (North American premiere)
My Generation - Special Screening
Director: Barbara Kopple
A documentary examining the enduring influence of the Woodstock legacy and the continuing search for community and ritual through the experiences of boomers and Gen X'ers at the three Woodstock Festivals.
René (Czech Republic) - SX Global
Director: Helena Tetíková
This raw authentic documentary film tells the story of a man whose life was being captured on camera since he was seventeen. The camera followed his hopeless journey between prison and brief periods outside the prison walls.
The Slammin' Salmon - Special Screening
Director: Kevin Heffernan. Writer: Broken Lizard
The story of a restaurant owner and former heavyweight champion who, over one night in his restaurant, institutes a high stakes, Glengarry Glen Ross like competition amongst the wait staff that leads to hilarious results. Cast:
Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, Erik Stolhanske, Jay Chandrasekhar, Michael Clarke Duncan, Cobie Smulders & April Bowlby
Still Bill - 24 Beats Per Second
Director: Damiani Baker and Alex Vlack
A feature documentary about Bill Withers, whose hits 'Ain't No Sunshine,' 'Lean on Me,' 'Lovely Day,' and 'Just the Two of Us,' are only part of a complex and fascinating man. The film includes a tribute concert, the closing show of the 30th anniversary season of Celebrate Brooklyn in New York, and a soundtrack of previously unreleased tracks. (World Premiere)
REEL SHORTS ONE
Alexandria
Director: Eric Elofson.
Three men are trapped in a bookstore at the end of the world, and they must decide who or what can be saved before a massive flood drowns them all.
Cochran
Director: James P. Gannon.
Jim's Cochran's life is stagnant; he makes no attempt to change and instead accepts his fate, living inside of his head with his memories of the past. One fateful day while walking alone in the woods he finds something on the ground, his decision to pick it up will change his life forever.
Countertransference
Director: Madeleine Olnek
An awkward woman with assertiveness issues finds her problems multiplied in therapy.
Hi Mom
Director: Amylee Belotti
An embellished look into the artist's view of her family and friends.
Hug
Director: Khary Jones
Drew is a virtuoso musical talent, with a music contract ready to sign. Asa, his friend and manager, must physically get Drew to the contract signing. When Asa realizes that Drew is off his meds, the morning commute turns troubling.
Isis Avenue
Director: Paul Marchand
An intimate short film documenting a 'crime-scene cleanup' crew's early morning excavation of a home left abandoned by its deceased owner in Ingelwood, CA.
That's My Majesty
Director: Emily Carmichael
Princess Moon has arrived in NYC on a mission to crown the new queen of her people. But the chosen queen is busy architect. As the Princess persists in her mission, the architect finds her workday interrupted at all the wrong moments, until a fateful decision gives both women what they didn't know they wanted.
Sunday Mornings
Director: Jannicke Laker
A story about a woman who returns to her flat after an extended drinking session in town.
Winter Lilacs
Director: Stephen Gurewitz
Chet Harvey tries to get a date to impress his aging mother Bernadette.
REEL SHORTS TWO
a'mare
Director: Martina Amati
Andrea and Felice are two kids whose lives centre around the sea. One day during a fishing excursion their usual routine is disturbed when something unexpected appears from the water
Autopilot
Director: J.B. Herndon
Adolescent boys ghostride bicycles. Inertia pulls a father and son toward an eerie kinship. And time is a circle.
Before the Sea
Director: Charlene Music
A little boy and his fisherman father confront life and death at the edge of the ocean, where their idle drag boat, the Anne Marie, blankets them in a dream.
Happy 95th Birthday Grandpa
Director: Gary Huggins
A fleeting memory in five minutes.
John Wayne Hated Horses
Director: Andrew Betzer
A father and his young son share a house, a yard, and very different ideas about masculinity and appropriate uses of army toys.
Peter and Ben
Director: Pinny Grylls
A man moves away from civilization and strikes up a relationship with the sheep.
Round Trip
Director: David Martin-Porras
The customs of an American airport places a mother and her son in a revealing situation when his luggage is inspected. Forced to deal with their past, they come to a point where lying to each other is no longer an option.
Sister Wife
Director: Jill Orschel
In a time when the practices of Mormon fundamentalism offer sensational fodder for the evening news, but little honesty, Sister Wife offers a rare and unflinching glimpse into a cloistered lifestyle.
Tess and Nana
Director: M. Stewart Thorndike
Thirteen-year-old Tess wants to get out of sick grandmother's dark house.
REEL SHORTS THREE
A. Effect
Director: Mike Ott
Two aspiring actors do their best to woo the same girl with their knowledge of Brecht and Scorsese.
The Better Half
Director: Rebecca Rodriguez
A disconnected man keeps a mysterious pair of mannequin legs in his room in NYC. Encounters with three women gradually reveal the origin and importance of the legs and ultimately raise the question, can you ever get all of someone?
The Golden Pose
Director: Lance Alton Troxel
A street performer grapples with artistic perfection...and mimes.
Non-Love Song
Director: Erik Gernand
On the last day of summer before heading off to college, two 18-year old best friends attempt to connect as adults and for the first time in their lives share a real moment.
Thick as Thieves
Director: Chris Demarais
When a successful businessman encounters an eccentric mugger in an alley, he decides that maybe banking isn't really his forte.
Thompson
Director: Jason Tippet
Since second grade Matt and Ryan have shared the bond of speech impediments, weapons, and things that go fast. But as their last days of high school speed by, the two friends find that their go-carts, dirt bikes, and RC cars can't outrun adulthood.
Unlimited
Director: Andrew Luis
A travelogue that follows Ben, a young Chinese immigrant, as he cobbles together an existence selling the cast-offs of others.
Wing It
Director: Julio Quintana
When a drug deal goes wrong and a violent confrontation seems inevitable, two guardian angels must decide whether to take action to protect their guys, or risk losing their wings.
EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS
100 MG
Director: Mike Kash
A meditation on the first couple weeks of starting antidepressants.
Bigband
Director: Daniel Calvo
A journey into contemporary urban world that forces a reflection on our society's day-to-day paradoxes.
Cattle Call
Director: Matthew Rankin
A high-speed animated documentary about the art of livestock auctioneering.
Chronicles of a Professional Eulogist
Director: Sarah Jane Lapp.
An animator's immortality project.
Dear Texas Highways
Director: Shaun Roberts
A suicide note with a happy ending.
The Idiot Stinks
Director: Helder Sun
Animation, Angst, Media, Martians and Miscommunication.
The Nature Between Us
Director: William Campbell
In a swirl of spray paint, sweet bike tricks, sloppy joe's and young love, a bonkers back-alley gang stumble upon a tiny secret world, creating a reality bending mash up of culture and style.
Turning Trick
Director: Kaja H. Lejon
Five girls are in a park. At first it looks like they are playing hide and seek but it quickly develops into something quite different.
ANIMATED SHORTS
Birth
Director: Signe Baumane
A young woman is pregnant and afraid to give birth. For a consolation and advice she goes to older women but their stories scare her even more.
Haunted House (SXSWClick Winner)
Director: Ross Wilsey
A bastardization of the classic comedy story, told from the perspective of scumbag puppets and their terrible deaths.
Here's the Stapler if You Need It
Director: Lance Myers
It's Lester's first day on the job at Copy-O's copy shop and his manager has given him one very important directive: don't let the customers use the big paper cutter in the back.
Hollerings: 3 Stories in Wood
Director: Lara Gallagher
The quiet anxieties of wood.
Luca Brasi Sleeps with the Fishes
Director: Simon Hawkins.
What may possibly have happened to Luca Brasi after he was assassinated.
Milbe (Mite)
Director: Karl Tebbe
A short animation about a grandmother, Oma Grete, and gigantic house dust mites that threaten to destroy the world.
Paradoxes and Oxymorons
Director: Kate Raney
An animated version of John Ashbery's poem "Paradoxes and Oxymorons." Narrated by DJ Spooky.
Photograph of Jesus
Director: Laurie Hill
Looking for photographs of Jesus, yetis and Hitler in 1948? Help is at hand with this documentary-fantasy based on true stories of requests for impossible images.
Rosa Rosa
Director: Félix Dufour-Laperrière.
While war is thundering at the gates of the city, Rosa and her lover live serenely together, trying to preserve a fragile normality.
Shaman
Director: Luc Perez
Waiting for the bus on a rainy day in Copenhagen, the old shaman Utaaq sees a rare bird from his past. This makes him reminisce his youth, and a beautiful tale about the forces of nature begins.
Solitude Past
Director: My Sandstrom
Ingrid is the loneliest woman in the world. She feels sorry for herself and begrudges others their happiness. When she gets close to another person she can no longer deal with her emotions and is swallowed up by her longing.
Sweet Dreams
Director: Kirsten Lepore
A stalwart cupcake escapes from his native land to discover what lies beyond the sugar skyscrapers and candy-condos. His violent shipwreck on a foreign shore forces him to adapt to a new lifestyle.
Tourist
Director: Matthew K
A tourist fights the crowds as he attempts to snap the perfect picture of New York. In a city full of landmarks, there will always be someone to ruin your shot.
Trepan Hole
Director: Andy Cahill
A dance between figures, clay, thought and sexuality.
You're Outta Here
Director: George Griffin
A feisty descendant of Betty Boop has finally had enough: she kicks out her clueless boyfriend while delivering a taunting, full-throated indictment, based on the barrelhouse rhythm of Fats Waller.
TEXAS SHORTS
Alexander Family Farm
Director: Keeley Steenson
Kim Alexander, a chicken farmer, lives in the outskirts of the city of Austin, about as close to the city you can get and still be country. This documentary takes a look at the technical aspects of egg and chicken farming, and Kim's philosophical approach of returning to the land as a way of life.
Casimiro
Director: Sergio Rabczuk
The story of an illegal immigrant as captured in a letter he writes to his family.
Coffee
Director: Vicky Wight
A woman, in a daze following the collapse of her relationship, tries to make a simple cup of coffee.
Entre Lineas (In Between Lines)
Director: Maru Buendia-Senties
A story about two friends that live on different sides of the Mexican-American border. As we follow Caroline and Ricardo we get a close look at the lifestyle of Mexican and Mexican-Americans and the universal struggle to maintain and find our own identities in a multicultural society.
Jack & Holly
Director: Robbie Bourland
A young husband has lost his job and is reluctant to lean on his wife for emotion and finical support.
Love Sadie
Director: Naiti Gamez
Sadie and her high-school friends struggle to escape the banality of everyday life. Her friends search for approval, and answers about life, from Sadie, the one confidant who can't articulate her own reality.
Tough Love
Director: Thomas Hackett
A look at the devotion and affection that young men and seek and express through the rituals of boxing.
Uprush
Director: Kim Hall
When a girl must decide between her best friend and her family, she chooses neither.
Ventilo
Director: Jerin Crandel
An alternate universe where dance replaces language and acceptance means everything.
MIDNIGHT SHORTS
Big Pussy
Director: Todd Strauss-Schulson
A nice-guy struggles to find the confidence to tell the girl he loves that her vagina has... an odor.
Boob
Director: Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion
A boob job goes horribly wrong.
Butthole Lickin'
Director: Kanako Kyle Wynkoop
Sometimes lesbian love isn't all it's cracked up to be.
The Famishing
Director: Toby Gorman and Jay Rathore
On a remote mountaintop, two hungry survivors get more than they bargain for in their quest for nourishment.
Fish Out of Water - The Nightmare
Director: Ben Barnes
In a follow up to last year's Midnight Short, Tumble and Chestnut attempt to enter Fish's nightmare to ward off the embodiment of all things evil.
Food for Thought
Director: Will Hartman
Two impulsive teens get a lesson in abstinence after they're caught "in the act" by their teacher.
I Live in the Woods
Director: Max Winston
A woodsman's frantic journey, driven by happiness, slaughter, and a confrontation with America's God.
Manbabies
Director: Kirk Johnson
Two smooth talking toddlers discuss politics, the state of the economy, and poo.
Receive Bacon
Director: James M. Johnston
A raunchy bathroom tryst is interrupted by an unfortunate case of the giggles.
Safety First
Director: Ross Wilsey
When it comes to guns and explosives, safety first.
Scatterbrained!
Director: Joe Avella
An educational video about an illness known as Scatterbrained. And Mountain Dew.
Treevenge
Director: Jason Eisener
Where do Christmas trees come from? Oh, you'll see.
Warm and Fuzzy Feeling
Director: Matt Dilmore
A warm and fuzzy holiday treat for Grandma.
SX GLOBAL SHORTS
A Vida Politica (Brazil)
Director: Katrina Mansoor
Negra Jho is a larger than life activist from Salvador, Brazil. Her form of activism is hairdressing, and she uses it to engage and empower her many clients and admirers.
Bitch Academy (Russia)
Director: Alina Rudnitskay
Young women in St. Petersburg are going to school again. They want to learn how to seduce, marry and control men. Bitch academy/ Vixen Academy is a tragicomic documentary of early Russian capitalism, which proliferates in an atmosphere of fear and hope, the dreams and intimacies of its young generations.
Calling Home (Scotland)
Director: Maria Andrade
For most Londoners, home is here but also somewhere at the other end of a phone line. 'Calling Home' is a gripping portrait of long distance relationships.
engage and empower her many clients and admirers.
Children of the Eclipse (Australia)
Director: Zane Lovitt
In February 2008, hundreds of children and their families converge on a hospital in Bangladesh. They each suffer from disfiguring cleft lips and palates. For the duration of a five-day camp, local plastic surgeons operate on the children in an effort to mend their lips and speech habits.
Forty Men for the Yukon (Canada)
Director: Tony Massil. A patient and observational look at two men who have spent their lives moving at their own pace and exploring where their interests take them.
Home (UK)
Director: Chris Allen
What is the true meaning of 'home' in the 21st Century?
King of Laughter (UK)
Director: Nick Hillel
In the 1950's people laughed an average 18 minutes a day, now the average is 6 minutes. World Laughter Master Belachew Girma from Ethiopia believes he can turn this around in Britain's saddest town, Walsall.
Lies (Sweden)
Director: Jonas Odell
Three perfectly true stories about lying.
Locusts (USA)
Director: Iqaa The Olivetone
Detroit-based Hip-Hop artists, Invincible and Finale, rhyme about how short-term profit-driven urban development schemes displace communities in their city.
Pockets (UK)
Director: James Lees
What do the contents of your pockets say about you?
MUSIC VIDEOS
Charlie Hewson 'Where Are You Going, Elena'
Director: Josephine Decker
Christopher Gordon 'America, Let's Go'
Director: Karen Odyniec
The Dirty Hearts 'Record Store'
Director: Jose Jones
Don McCloskey 'Mr. Novocaine'
Director: Peter Rhoads
Fleet Foxes 'White Winter Hymnal'
Director: Sean Pecknold
Gnarls Barkley 'Going On'
Director: Wendy Morgan
The Hidden Cameras 'In the Na'
Director: Joel Gibb
Javelin 'Soda Popinski'
Director: Ian McAlpin
Kaki King 'Pull Me Out Alive'
Director: Doug Karr
Krista Muir 'Leave a Light'
Director: Kara Blake
Megachurch 'Hyper Gospel'
Director: Lara Gallagher
The New Pornographers 'Myriad Harbor'
Director: Marc Lemond
Octopus Project 'An Evening With Rthrtha'
Director: Phillip Niemeyer
Oren Lavie 'Her Morning Elegance'
Director: Oren Lavie
Prefuse 73 'Aborted Hugs'
Director: Jurassic Technology
Roots Manuva 'C.R.U.F.F'
Director: Jessica Lux
The Saturday Nights 'Count it Off'
Director: Travis Senger
The Sword 'Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians'
Director: Mike Colao
Talkdemonic 'Duality of Deathening'
Director: Orie Weeks III
Temposhark 'Blame'
Director: Motomichi Nakamura
Terp 2 It 'F@ck This City'
Director: Drew Baldwin
Thunderheist 'Jerk It'
Director: That Go
Tycho 'Meridian'
Director: Brian Levi Bowman
Yeasayer 'Wait for the Summer'
Director: Mixtape Club
TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL SHORTS
Cloudburst
Director: John Gordon
Fatal Fortune Cookie
Director: Garrett Sullivan
Fresh Fruit
Director: Edward Kelley
A Hospital Bathroom
Director: Miguel Johnson
The Last Pageant
Director: Jason Broussard
Making Perfect
Director: Alan Michnoff
Mirror
Director: Rachel Racanelli
Miss Tilford
Director: Beck Olp and Bryan Lawson
Performance Evaluation
Director: Breannah Gibson
Puppy Love
Director: Joseph Walsh
Save the Arts
Director: Nicole Prian
The Transcendence of Gabriel
Director: Sam Cooke
Umbrella
Director: Ryan Kline
Unearthed
Director: Adrian Scarborough
When Life Gives You Lemons
Director: Jordan Haro
Zach
Director: Whitney Steele
The SXSW Film Festival (March 13 - 21 in Austin, TX) will open on March 13th with a screening of I Love You, Man, directed by John Hamburg and starring Paul Rudd, Jason Segel and Rashida Jones. The complete features lineup can be found at HYPERLINK "http://sxsw.com/film/screenings/films/" http://sxsw.com/film/screenings/films/, and the short film program will be announced later this week. Visit HYPERLINK "http://www.sxsw.com/film" http://www.sxsw.com/film for more information and updates.
South By Southwest Film Conference & Festival
SXSW offers a uniquely creative space for filmmakers, film fans, and even cinephiles to partake in the big and small picture discussions about filmmaking today. The Conference hosts a five-day adventure in the latest filmmaking trends and new technology, featuring Conversations with film icons, intimate mini-meetings and one-on-one mentor sessions with industry veterans. The internationally-acclaimed, nine-day Festival boasts some of the most wide-ranging programming of any US event of its kind, from provocative documentaries to subversive Hollywood comedies, with a special focus on emerging talents. Learn more at sxsw.com/film.
2009 Festival Sponsors
SXSW Film Conference and Festival is sponsored by Miller Lite, Fuze Beverage, ZonePerfect, The Independent Film Channel (IFC), Sierra Mist and The Austin Chronicle.
Read MoreDavid Mamet at U Texas Last Night
David Mamet was in town last night for a chat before a screening of The Spanish Prisoner. His connection to Austin is that last year he donated his papers to the Harry Ransom Center, where they will be available for study starting this spring. The discussion was moderated by UT's President, and the early portion of the talk was pretty tough to pay attention to much. The prez wasn't much of a conversationalist, so his version of a discussion was nervously fumbling over his words.
When Mamet got rolling answering questions from the audience, that's when the magic started.
At one point, when asked about the role of the director and the actors in contributing to a script, he called bullshit on the idea they had anything to do but perform the script true to its intent rather than act as though they know better than the writer. Choice comments about "commies" and how much like totalitarianism subsidized theatres are were particularly enjoyable.
He said the moment the audience is being force-fed "people running around the stage dressed like ferrets" is the moment "you start calling the audience stupid. I've met a lot of stupid people in my life, but never a stupid audience. The audience knows." His inference was that it's someone else who is afraid of the audience.
One of the highlights for me was hearing John Pierson laugh from the back of the auditorium every time Mamet said something that the more conservative people didn't necessarily expect or found shocking.
One guy asked if the recent impeachment of Rod Blagojevich had inspired him, to which Mamet said, "I would if it hadn't already happened four times in my lifetime."
The most precise and cutting thing he said had to do with the current economic crisis (paraphrased from hastily-written notes):
"I don't understand this term, 'predatory lending.' I don't mean that I don't think people should borrow money when they have no choice, but they do when they don't need it, or for things they can't afford. Now who is really at fault here? Who is the criminal? Is it the banks that loaned this money out? That's their job. That's what bankers do, is make money and loan it to people. That's what they've always done. Or is it the people who made it legal for them to do what they've done to people?"64: The Third Man Blu-grade
This title in particular has been the subject of a good deal of controversy on Elsewhere (among other sites), message boards, and email lists across the web. No one seems to talk about much aside from the "Grain Issue." Since the grain (or overabundance thereof) is the obvious elephant in the room, I'm going to address it before getting on to the additional content on display here, of which there is much to see and thoroughly enjoy.
There are those who defend the amount of grain as "director's intent" or historical accuracy, and there are those who wonder why this didn't get cleaned up a bit as WB did on Casablanca (the publisher of this site included). Another layer on this argument is the mess that has resulted from digital post-Post adjustment with a number of vintage films, from the de-graining of Sunset Boulevard (DVD) and Patton (Blu) to the complete color re-correction on The French Connection (Blu). I hope that not only do the guys at Fantastic Fest continue this past year's Fantastic Debates, but I hope that they choose a topic about digital "correction" because it would inevitably end in a gang battle with enough critics in attendance. Think Anchorman with less mustaches and suits and more t-shirts and beards or goatees...and beer.
Anyone reading should take a look at the images comparing the Criterion releases in DVD Beaver's exceptional (as always) breakdown of the differences between the Criterion versions (original DVD, DVD reissue, and Blu-ray). In particular, I have to point out what I consider the emptiest argument around on this disc: why do the DVD transfers look "better," easiest seen when you look at closeups and medium shots of different people? The simple answer is the contrast and bitrate were "fixed," still faithful to the original source, but you could classify the Blu-ray transfer as inferior entirely relative to the setup upon which you're viewing the disc in question.
For hi-def pros, please indulge me in reading (or skipping) through the next bit. I'm newer to HD monitors than many of you are, but just as many may be relative neophytes as well.
The Evolution of Digital Mastering and Criterion's Third Man
One of the filthy open secrets of DVD is that, faced with evolving and higher-quality technology that it'd be viewed on, much of the high-end mastering for DVD has been for naught thanks to inferior viewing equipment being used by most everyone watching it. This is why substandard transfers, Pan and Scan, and non-anamorphic widescreen have refused to die. Your dad/uncle/in-law who doesn't know any better thinks "it looks great! Better than VHS! I hate black bars!"
Instead of the monitor manufacturers moving us forward (Great Britain switched to digital broadcast BEFORE 2000), they kowtowed to your 70 year old grandfather. They've long been complacent to let movies shown on TV have the sides chopped off. These people are the same reason TCM isn't broadcast in HD yet.
The interesting difference in the rise of Blu-ray is that they're over-doing resolution (if that's possible) anticipating the day when 1080p is considered pedestrian and an eyesore, running counter the conventional wisdom previously employed across the video industry. The lowest common denominator is not their concern, and hats off to them for it.
There's a world of difference when you use 42+" display, which is where you actually see the difference between 1080, 720, or SD up-converted.
I took Criterion's Third Man Blu-ray for a spin and was shocked at how the grain looked like it was positively boiling on the faces of everyone in the movie. Surely the much-ballyhooed Criterion Collection gurus couldn't have meant for it to look like this. I put in the original release DVD of the same film and it looked a hundred times better. How the hell was this possible? It turns out that calibration was the culprit.
On HD sets, each HDMI port usually carries its own display settings. When I first hooked up my Sony BDP-350 Blu-ray player, I thought I took care of this, making the same adjustments I had on my other inputs (drop the Backlight, up the Contrast, tweak the Brightness, turn off 120Hz, etc.). The thing I didn't touch was Sharpness, and once I yanked that down near if not 0, my god what a difference. If there were one remaining blessing Criterion could give us, it'd be a unique little featurette for their Blu-ray releases that recommends calibration settings, because they obviously get high-def fine-tuning much better than the average person out there. I'm sure all that artificial "sharpening" makes CGI animal movies look great, but now I'm wise to how much my enemy it is.
Having now re-watched the disc with settings re-tweaked, it's glorious. I wouldn't change anything when it comes to this transfer. If you "cleaned" it any more, you'd get into the horror show territory that is the Patton Blu-ray disc. The transfer on this disc is a perfect reference for vintage material in HD.
The Movie
The Third Man was originally released in 1950, and is set in post-WWII, quadruple-occupied Vienna. American dime novelist Holly Martins travels there to meet his dear friend Harry Lime. Lime the character was the focus of radio shows and dime novels himself, and here the character of Martins arrives just as Lime has apparently died. Orson Welles is openly credited as playing Harry Lime, so for those who haven't seen the movie, connect the dots yourself.
The genius of the script and the progression of the movie, and why it endures isn't that the whodunnit nature of things keeps you guessing as much as how things happen and the craft that goes into it putting so much of what is made these days (six decades on) to shame. Rarely are casting, lensing, and cutting so perfect.
Supplementals
You've got two audio commentaries, one by Steven Soderbergh and Tony Gilroy that is engaging and enjoyable. They jump in with a great deal of energy that continues throughout the rest of the track. There's a second track by film scholar Dana Polan, a professor at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts who's written some books on film. I only got a few minutes into Polan's track and it reminded me of Humanities Film Studies classes i took in college. There's a lot of chatter about Gaze Theory and what each individual does moment by moment by moment on top of a mind-numbing amount of film history trivia. The Soderbergh/Gilroy track you can listen to anytime, the Polan is the more analytical and institutional. Polan's may be the favorite of the student, whereas the Soderbergh/Gilroy of the fan.
The aforementioned features join Shadowing the Third Man (2005, which you may have seen on Turner Classic Movies), "Graham Greene: The Hunted Man", Who Was the Third Man? (2000), a featurette that looks at the untranslated or unsubtitled bits of the film, and a nice liner notes booklet as holdovers from the re-issue version from a few years ago. There's nothing new in terms of quantity of content, just picture and audio bitrate improvement. All are top notch, and varied enough that even if you aren't a completist when it comes to watching Criterion releases, there's something for everyone.
Included as they were in both the re-issue and the original Criterion disc are a video introduction from Peter Bogdanovich that does what it needs to and doesn't wear out its welcome, The Third Man on the Radio (the Lux Theatre radio production and a Lives of Harry Lime episode), Richard Clarke reading Graham Greene's treatment (abridged, which one might alternately consider a third comment track, but serves as more an interesting table reading simultaneous to seeing a completed production), Joseph Cotten's alternate opening V.O., and both trailers.
Shadowing the Third Man on its own makes this one worth a purchase compared to similarly-priced Blu-rays out there, but if you really love this film (as I do) or want to learn more about early 1950's or noir cinema, it's a must-own. The Criterion price premium effect that has pushed their discs outside the budgets of most folks has thankfully dissipated, with a Blu-ray copy of The Third Man running you in the mid-$20 range. In fact, the Blu-ray Criterion pricing is fairly in-line with their standard releases, and depending on where you get it, occasionally a couple bucks less. This was the first Blu-ray disc I spun on my own home setup, and you could do far worse yourself if you're new to the format as well.Duff Disses Dunaway
In what world does Hillary Duff have a body or quality of work to go after Faye Dunaway? This world, the same one where it seems like a good idea to have a pretentious, non-period appropriate pseudo-actor play Bonnie in a "re-imagining" of Bonnie and Clyde. I hesitated even posting this, but it just riled me too much not to.
Read MoreSXSW09 Announces Slate
I will be hitting SXSW once again this year, and in particular, I've noted some things below I'm particularly interested in seeing. I've included the full press release further down.
Objectified - Helvetica is one of my favorite docs in recent memory
The Hurt Locker - if marketed right, from all reports this movie could break through the "Iraq movie" stigma
Passing Strange - Stew's Brodway show always sounded interesting, and I'm glad Spike covered it on film
Best Worst Movie - a doc about Troll 2. This has to be excellent.
The Two Bobs - Tim McCanlies, I'm there
Women in Trouble - Josh Brolin, Carla Gugino, and I know little to nothing about it, but I'm interested
For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism -
Breaking Upwards - star Zoe Lister-Jones was impressive in SXSW 2007 film Arranged and an episode of SVU I saw recently
The entire SX Global lineup - I regretted not catching the truly international focused track at SXSW08, and provided everything balances out right, I'm ambitiously trying to catch all of these
Strongman - NBC's Chuck star Zachary Levi's directorial debut. I regretted missing Shades of Ray at AFF last year. I think the guy's truly talented and wonder what he can bring behind the camera.
As much of Emerging Visions as I can manage - This is where In a Dream was last year, and it was my favorite of the fest.
Sundance movies making the trip to Austin: Adventureland, Humpday, Moon, Sin Nombre, We Live in Public
Austin, Texas - February 2, 2008 - The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival is thrilled to announce the complete lineup for this year's Festival, March 13 - 21, 2009 in Austin, Texas. Over the course of nine days, 108 features will screen at the festival, with 54 of those having their world premieres at SXSW 2009. Among the major films added to the lineup are: Spike Lee's Passing Strange, Sebastian Gutierrez's Women in Trouble, Wyatt McDill's Four Boxes, David Lee Miller's My Suicide, Tim McCanlie's The Two Bobs, Cary Fukunaga's Sin Nombre, Brant Sersen's Splinterheads, Andrew Bujalski's Beeswax, Kathryn Bigelow's Hurt Locker, Greg Mottola's Adventureland, Joe Swanberg's Alexander the Last, Duncan Jones' Moon, Nash Edgerton's The Square, Michael Paul Stephenson's Best Worst Movie, Lynn Shelton's Humpday and John Inwood's Exterminators. They join previously announced films such as Opening Night film I Love You, Man and Centerpiece screening Observe and Report, as well as documentaries Objectified, New World Order, RiP: A Remix Manifesto and Winnebago Man. These films were selected from 1,511 feature-length film submissions composed of 1,220 U.S. and 291 international feature-length films.
"We couldn't be more delighted with SXSW 2009 line-up," says Film Conference and Festival Producer Janet Pierson, "It's a great continuation of the quality SXSW is known for: plenty of compelling, new filmmaking talent across all budget lines, engaging documentaries ranging from the socially conscious to the hilarious, electrifying music films, prominent Texas themes, cutting edge and smart Hollywood films, and an even greater exploration into global cinema."
The festival's main competition categories once again find eight Narrative Features and eight Documentary Features, vying for their respective Grand Jury Prizes. The Narrative Feature Competition includes: Artois the Goat, directed by Kyle Bogart, Bomber, directed by Paul Cotter, Breaking Upwards, directed by Daryl Wein, It Was Great, But I Was Ready to Come Home, directed by Kris Swanberg, Made in China, directed by Judi Krant, The Overbrook Brothers, directed by John Bryant, That Evening Sun, directed by Scott Teems and True Adolescents, directed by Craig Johnson. The Documentary Feature Competition includes: 45356, directed by Bill Ross, Garbage Dreams, directed by Mai Iskander, MINE: Taken By Katrina, directed by Geralyn Pezanoski, Severe Clear, directed by Kristian Fraga, Say My Name, directed by Nirit Pered, The Way We Get By, directed by Aron Gaudet and Trimipin: The Sound of Invention, directed by Peter Esmonde.
The comprehensive lineup, by section and with synopsis descriptions, follows below. The final panel and conference lineup as well as the short film program will be announced next week. Visit http://www.sxsw.com/film for more information and updates.
NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION
This year's 8 films were selected from 737 submissions.
Films screening in Narrative Feature Competition are:
Artois the Goat
Director: Kyle Bogart. Writer: Cliff and Kyle Bogart
Lab technician Virgil Gurdies embarks on an epic quest to craft the greatest goat cheese the world has ever known and reclaim the heart of his beloved Angie. Cast: Mark Scheibmeir, Sydney Andrews, Stephen Taylor Fry, Dan Braverman (World Premiere)
Bomber
Director/Writer: Paul Cotter
A bittersweet comedy about love, family and dropping bombs on Germany. Cast: Shane Taylor, Benjamin Whitrow, Eileen Nicholas (World Premiere)
Breaking Upwards
Director: Daryl Wein. Writer: Peter Duchan, Daryl Wein, Zoe Lister-Jones
A young New York couple who, desperate to escape their ennui, but fearful of life apart, decide to intricately strategize their own break up. Cast: Daryl Wein, Zoe Lister-Jones, Julie White, Peter Friedman, Andrea Martin, Pablo Schreiber, La Chanze, Olivia Thirlby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach (World Premiere)
It Was Great, But I Was Ready to Come Home
Director: Kris Swanberg. Writer: Kris Swanberg, Jade Healy, David Lowery, Ben Kasulke
A woman tries to get over her recent breakup by backpacking in Costa Rica with her best friend, and through traveling together, the two women realize they may be on separate trips. Cast: Kris Swanberg, Jade Healy (World Premiere)
Made in China
Director: Judi Krant. Writer: Judi Krant and Dan Sumpter
Lost in Shanghai, an inventor discovers that it takes more than a bright idea to succeed. Cast: Jackson Keuhn, Dan Sumpter (World Premiere)
The Overbrook Brothers
Director: John Bryant. Writer: John Bryant and Jason Foxworth
Jason brings his girlfriend home for Christmas... and bad things happen. Cast: Nathan Harlan, Mark Reeb, Laurel Whitsett, Steve Zissis, John Jones (World Premiere)
That Evening Sun
Director/Writer: Scott Teems
A ruthless grudge match between two old foes. Lines are drawn, threats are made, and the simmering tension under the Tennessee sun erupts, inevitably, into savagery. Cast: Hal Holbrook, Mia Wasikowska, Ray McKinnon, Walton Goggins, Carrie Preston (World Premiere)
True Adolescents
Director/Writer: Craig Johnson
Aging indie rocker Sam Bryant takes two teen boys on an ill-fated hiking trip that forces everyone to grow up, and fast. Cast: Mark Duplass, Melissa Leo, Bret Loehr, Carr Thompson (World Premiere)
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION
This year's 8 films were selected from 737 submissions.
Films screening in Documentary Feature Competition are:
45356
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. (World Premiere)
Garbage Dreams
Director: Mai Iskander
Filmed over four years, the film follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world's largest garbage village. Each boy chooses a different path when their community is suddenly faced with the globalization of their trade. (World Premiere)
MINE: Taken By Katrina
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. (World Premiere)
Say My Name
Director: Nirit Peled
A story is built around the lives of entrepreneurs, mothers and artists fighting to be themselves in a society that offers few opportunities for women. (World Premiere)
Severe Clear
Director: Kristian Fraga
Armed with the world's most lethal ordnance and his home video camera, First Lieutenant Michael T. Scotti captures the chaos and complexity of war. (World Premiere)
Sons of a Gun
Director: Rivkah Beth Medow
A family of 3 schizophrenic men and their alcoholic caregiver/Dad get evicted, move into one motel room, argue, joke around, and find a new home. (World Premiere)
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. (World Premiere)
Trimpin: The Sound of Invention
Director: Peter Esmonde
A wild ride through the sonic world of an eccentric creative genius of Artist inventor/engineer/composer Trimpin. (World Premiere)
SPOTLIGHT PREMIERES
Premieres and sneak previews of films with distribution, plus world premieres from notable filmmakers or about notable subjects.
Films screening in Spotlight Premieres are:
Adventureland
Director/Writer: Greg Mottola
In 1987, a recent college graduate takes a nowhere job at his local amusement park and discovers the job is perfect preparation for the real world. Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Martin Starr
Alexander the Last
Director/Writer: Joe Swanberg
A sensual and intimate portrait of a young marriage. Focusing on an artistic young couple, the film illuminates the challenges of monogamy amidst myriad sexual and creative temptations. Cast: Jess Weixler, Justin Rice, Barlow Jacobs, Josh Hamilton, Jane Adams (World Premiere)
Beeswax
Director/Writer: Andrew Bujalski
Something like a legal thriller for anyone who considers "legal thriller" an oxymoron, the film revolves around a pair of twin sisters, Jeannie and Lauren - "same face, different bodies" - and Jeannie's brewing conflict with business partner Amanda. Cast: Maggie Hatcher, Tilly Hatcher, Alex Karpovsky (US Premiere)
Best Worst Movie
Director: Michael Paul Stephenson
When an Italian filmmaker, an Alabama dentist and fledgling Utah actors filmed the low-budget horror movie, Troll 2, they'd no idea that twenty years later they would be celebrated for making the worst movie ever made. (World Premiere)
For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism
Director: Gerald Peary
The first documentary to dramatize the rich, fascinating history of American film criticism. (World Premiere)
Goodbye Solo
Director: Ramin Bahrani. Writer: Ramin Bahrani and Bahareh Azimi
On the lonely roads of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, two men from very different worlds forge an improbable friendship that will change both of their lives forever. Cast: Souleymane Sy Savane, Red West, Diana Franco Galindo, Carmen Leyva, Lane 'Roc' Williams
Humpday
Director/Writer: Lynn Shelton
A farcical comedy about straight male bonding gone a little too far. Cast: Mark Duplass, Joshua Leonard, Alycia Delmore, Lynn Shelton, Trina Willard.
Hurt Locker
Director: Kathryn Bigelow. Writer: Mark Boal
Forced to play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in the chaos of war, an elite Army bomb squad unit must come together in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb.
Cast: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce (US Premiere)
I Love You, Man
Director/Writer: John Hamburg
The film centers on a man who, upon getting engaged, realizes he has no close male friends and must find someone to be the Best Man at his wedding. Cast: Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, J.K. Simmons, Jane Curtin, Jon Favreau and Jaime Pressly (World Premiere, Opening Night Film)
The Last Beekeeper
Director: Jeremy Simmons
This documentary follows the lives of three commercial beekeepers over the course of one year as they struggle with Colony Collapse Disorder. As they all take their bees to California's enormous annual almond pollination, they are forced to ask the question "If all the bees die, what do you have to live for?" (World Premiere)
Monsters from the ID
Director: David Gargani
The untold story of 1950's American Sci-Fi Cinema and the role of the Modern Scientist. (World Premiere)
Moon
Director: Duncan Jones. Writer: Nathan Parker
Before returning to Earth after three years on the moon, things go horribly wrong for astronaut Sam Bell.
Cast: Sam Rockwell
New World Order
Director Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer
Impassioned conspiracy theorists travel the globe trying to expose the group that they claim rules the world. (World Premiere)
Objectified
Director: Gary Hustwit
A glimpse into our relationship to manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them. (World Premiere)
Observe and Report
Director/Writer: Jody Hill
This dark comedy follows the story of Ronnie Barnhardt, a deluded, self-important head of mall security who squares off in a turf war against the local cops. Cast: Seth Rogen, Anna Faris, Michael Peña and Ray Liotta (World Premiere, Centerpiece Slot)
Passing Strange
Director: Spike Lee. Lyrics: Stew. Music & Lyrics: Stew and Heidi Rodewald
A musical documentary about the international exploits of a young man from Los Angeles who leaves home to find himself and 'the real'. A theatrical stage production of the original Tony-Award winning book by Stew. Cast: De'Adre Aziza, Daniel Breaker, Eisa Davis, Colman Domingo, Stew.
Sin Nombre
Director/Writer: Cary Fukunaga
Writer/director Cary Fukunaga's firsthand experiences with Central American immigrants seeking the promise of the U.S. form the basis of this epic dramatic thriller. Cast: Edgar Flores, Paulina Gaitan, Kristyan Ferrer, Tenoch Huerta Mej'a, Luis Fernando Pe-a, Diana Garc'a.
The Square
Director: Nash Edgerton. Writer: Joel Edgerton and Matthew Dabner
Nash Edgerton's debut feature is a film-noir in a bleak Australian town where a simple crime goes horribly wrong and escalates into a nightmare of unforeseen events. Cast: David Roberts, Claire Van Der Boom, Joel Edgerton, Anthony Hayes, Peter Phelps and Bill Hunter (North American Premiere)
Three Blind Mice
Director/Writer: Matthew Newton
Three young Navy officers hit Sydney for one last night on land before being shipped over to the Gulf to fight. Throughout the night the boys lose each other, find themselves, and along the way discover courage, friendship and redemption. Cast: Ewen Leslie, Toby Schmitz, Matthew Newton, Tina Bursill
The Two Bobs
Director/Writer: Tim McCanlies
Just as they finish their groundbreaking violent video-game masterpiece, the two gaming legends known as "The Two Bobs" discover that their precious game-software has been stolen... and with it, their livelihoods, genius reputations, everything they own. Cast: Tyler Francavilla, Devin Ratray, Mika Boorem, Cody Kasch, Leonardo Nam (World Premiere)
Winnebago Man
Director: Ben Steinbauer
Jack Rebney's outrageously funny outtakes from a Winnebago sales video became an underground phenomenon and made him an internet superstar. Filmmaker Ben Steinbauer sets out to find him. (World Premiere)
Women in Trouble
Director/Writer: Sebastian Gutierrez
One day in the lives of ten desperate women with one thing in common: trouble. Cast: Carla Gugino, Josh Brolin, Connie Britton, Adrianne Palicki, Simon Baker (World Premiere)
EMERGING VISIONS
Sidebar for new independent feature films, both documentary and narrative, that exhibit great innovation by filmmakers or from those earlier in their careers.
Films screening in Emerging Visions are:
Awaydays
Director: Pat Holden. Writer: Kevin Sampson
A blade-sharp rites-of-passage that buzzes with the post-punk energy of its late-70s Liverpool setting. Based on the classic novel by Kevin Sampson. Cast: Nicky Bell, Liam Boyle, Stephen Graham, Oliver Lee (North American Premiere)
Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo
Director: Jessica Oreck
Untangling the web of cultural and historical ties underlying Japan's deep fascination with insects... and what it says about the rest of us. (World Premiere)
Brock Enright: Good Times Will Never Be The Same
Director: Jody Lee Lipes
Artist Brock Enright's unbridled creative force clashes with the confines of love, family, and industry, as he crafts the most significant show of his career. (World Premiere)
Creative Nonfiction
Director/Writer: Lena Dunham
Reality and fiction are indistinguishable as a college student tries and fails to differentiate her creative writing screenplay from her increasingly awkward social life. Cast: Eleonore Endricks, David Unger, Audrey Gelman, Sam Lisenco, Lena Dunham (World Premiere)
Crude Independence
Director: Noah Hutton
A rumination on the future of small town America through the lens of a humanistic tale of change at the hands of the global energy market and its unyielding thirst for oil. (World Premiere)
Four Boxes
Director/Writer: Wyatt McDill
A snarky social thriller about three suburban nobodies watching a creep named Havoc on a website called fourboxes.tv - Rear Window on the internet. Cast: Justin Kirk, Terryn Westbrook, Sam Rosen (World Premiere)
The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle
Director: David Russo
When Dory's life seems like it's going down the drain, a strange "new life" takes shape inside him and he learns that sometimes you don't have to find meaning, it grows in you. Cast: Marshall Allman, Vince Vieluf, Natasha Lyonne, Tania Raymonde, Tygh Runyan.
Luckey
Director: Laura Longsworth
After sculptor Tom Luckey's devastating fall through a window, his family must cross delicate lines drawn long ago by divorce and remarriage while Tom, fully paralyzed and wacky personality intact, pursues building his biggest, most complicated sculpture ever. (World Premiere)
Make-Out with Violence
Director: The Deagol Brothers. Writer: The Deagol Brothers, Cody DeVos and Eric Lehning
A rock musical wherein the living love the dead and break into silence instead of song. Cast: Eric Lehning, Cody DeVos, Leah High, Brett Miller, Shellie Marie Shartzer
Modern Love is Automatic
Director/Writer: Zach Clark
A story about an apathetic nurse who moonlights as a dominatrix, her aspiring model roommate and the sad, strange world they live in. Cast: Melodie Sisk, Maggie Ross (World Premiere)
Motherland
Director: Jennifer Steinman
Six grieving mothers journey to Africa in order to test the theory that "giving is healing." (World Premiere)
My Suicide
Director: David Lee Miller. Writer: David Lee Miller, Eric Adams, Gabriel Sunday, Jordan Miller
An isolated, media obsessed teenager announces he's going to kill himself for his high school, video production class final project. Cast: Gabriel Sunday, David Carradine, Joe Mantegna, Nora Dunn, Mariel Hemingway (North American Premiere)
Pulling John
Director: Vassiliki Khonsari
The universal story of a champion arm wrestler's glory in an unsung sport, who after 25 years of success is now burdened with the inevitable transformation of aging. (World Premiere)
RATS and CATS
Director: Tony Ayres. Writer: Jason Gann, Adam Zwar
Ex-soap star Darren McWarren destroyed his career with a series of indiscretions. Now he's living the live away from the spotlight when a "Where are they now" journalist comes to call. Cast: Jason Gann, Adam Zwar, Anya Beyersdorf, Tony Rogers (North American Premiere)
Sissyboy
Director: Kate Turinski
A juncture in the lives of performance art revolutionaries, the film explores a Portland-based gender-bending drag troupe that has served up their audacity, ambivalence and social commentary throughout the Rose City for over 3 years before hundreds of devoted fans.
Sorry, Thanks
Director: Dia Sokol, Writer: Dia Sokol and Lauren Veloski
Disaster looms when Kira (reeling from a brutal break-up) sleeps with Max (who already has a girlfriend) and Max takes up two new pursuits: an obsessive-tending interest in Kira, and the mystery of whether he may in fact be an ass. Cast: Wiley Wiggins, Kenya Miles, Andrew Bujalski, Ia Hernandez (World Premiere)
Splinterheads
Director/Writer: Brant Sersen
For Justin Frost, a typical day is rolling out of bed at one, practicing improvised karate, and mowing grass for his best friend's landscaping business. But when a traveling carnival lands in his small town, Justin falls for a sexy con artist and wakes up to the life he has yet to begin living. Cast: Thomas Middleditch, Rachael Taylor, Christopher McDonald, Lea Thompson, Dean Winters (World Premiere)
St. Nick
Director/Writer: David Lowery
A stark, haunting portrait of childhood following the adventures of a runaway brother and sister as they try to survive, all on their own, out on the wintry plains of the great southwest. Cast: Tucker Sears, Savanna Sears, Barlow Jacobs, Mara Lee Miller (World Premiere)
The Time of Their Lives
Director: Jocelyn Cammack
With a combined age of almost 300, Hetty, Rose and Alison are still powerfully engaged in their individual forms of activism - from journalism, to public speaking to anti-war demonstrations - while quietly negotiating the final moments of their lives. (North American Premiere)
Trust Us, This Is All Made Up
Director: Alex Karpovsky
Immortalized in the world of improv comedy, Second City veterans TJ Jagodowksi and David Pasquesi explore the unique partnership and transcendental forces that govern their legendary performances. (World Premiere)
Wake Up
Director: Jonas Elrod
An average 36-year old guy suddenly wakes up with the ability to see and hear angels, demons, auras and ghosts. With his girlfriend by his side, he goes on a journey to figure it all out, and his search becomes a guide to revealing larger truths about the world and everyone in it. (World Premiere)
SX GLOBAL
An initiative to build upon our strong commitment to international films, organized in conjunction with a variety of international film agencies, institutes, broadcasters and producers.
Films screening in SX Global are:
Calling E.T. (Netherlands)
Director: Prosper de Roos.
A close-up look at a small group of people listening, watching, waiting and preparing for their perceived inevitable earthly encounter with extraterrestrial intelligence. (U.S. Premiere)
Favela on Blast (Brazil)
Director: Leandro HBL
Globe trotting taste-maker DJ Diplo presents a look at Brazil's Baile Funk music scene from directly inside the mountain ghettos where it spawned and thrives.
The Forgotten Tree (Mexico)
Director: Luis Rincon
A documentary that revisits the slums featured over fifty years ago in Los Olvidados, (Luis Buñuel), and reveals the current and similar conditions for the people in this area of Mexico City.
Journey to the End of Coal (France)
Director: Samuel Bollendorff
Millions of Chinese coal miners are making sacrifices everyday, risking their lives and spoiling their land to satisfy their country's appetite for economic growth. Meet them and learn more about how they live in this valley of death and pollution in the frozen winter of Northern China. (U.S. Premiere)
Love on Delivery (Denmark)
Director: Janus Metz.
In a remote fishing village in Denmark, 575 Thai women are married to Danish men. An intimate look at the unique relationships between these Danish men and their Thai wives. (U.S. Premiere)
Roadsworth: Crossing the Line (Canada)
Director: Alan Kohl
Stencil artist Peter Gibson's personal and professional struggle to defend his work, define himself as an artist and address difficult questions about art and freedom of expression. (U.S. Premiere)
Snowblind (England)
Director: Vikram Jayanti
Rachael Scdoris, 23, and legally blind since birth, is racing in her third Iditarod, the grueling 1,100 mile dog sled race in Alaska that's the toughest race in the world. (World Premiere)
Sounds Like Teen Spirit...a popumentary (England)
Director: Jamie Johnson.
Behind the scenes look at of the world's premiere youth music spectacle: The Junior Eurovision Song Contest.
Ticket to Paradise (Denmark)
Director: Janus Metz.
The sequel to Janus Metz' Love on Delivery' follows the story of a young Thai-girl's journey from peasant to sex worker. (U.S. Premiere)
24 BEATS PER SECOND
A showcase for documentaries about music, musicians, or the cultural ties that exist around them.
Films screening in 24 Beats Per Second are:
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Director: Sacha Gervasi
At 14, Toronto school friends Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner made a pact to rock together forever. They meant it. Cast: Steve "Lips Kudlow," Robb Reiner.
All Tomorrow's Parties
Director: All Tomorrow's People
A kaleidoscopic journey into the parallel musical universe of cult music festival All Tomorrow's Parties. (World Premiere)
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
Director: Chai Vasarhelyi
Youssou Ndour, one of Africa's most prominent musicians, returns home for the release of his highly controversial album, Egypt. (U.S. Premiere)
Intangible Assets Number 82
Director: Emma Franz
An Australian drummer searches for an enigmatic Korean shaman and is transformed by the journey. (North American Premiere)
Number One with A Bullet
Director: Jim Dziura
A feature-length documentary that pulls back the curtain on gun violence in Hip Hop.
The Promised Land - A Swamp Pop Journey
Director: Matthew Wilkinson
The story of South Louisiana super group Lil' Band o'Gold. 8 members, 25 egos, 6 livers - coming together to just play music. (World Premiere)
RiP: A Remix Manifesto
Director: Brett Gaylor
A documentary feature exploring issues of copyright in the information age, mashing up the media landscape of the 20th century and shattering the wall between users and producers. (North American Premiere)
Soul Power
Director: Jeffrey Levy-Hinte
Jeffrey Levy-Hinte takes us on an epic trip back to 1974 when the most famous R & B acts in the world, including James Brown, B.B. King, and Bill Withers, put on 12 hour long concert to help promote Muhammad Ali and George Foreman's historic "Rumble in the Jungle" in Kinshasa, Zaire. (U.S. Premiere)
When You're Strange
Director: Tom DiCillo
Using only original footage shot between 1966 and 1971, When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors, attempts to disentangle truth from myth, depict Jim Morrison, artist and alcoholic/addict, and showcase the other members of the band: Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore, who together channeled the group's magic.
LONE STAR STATES
A showcase for new independent feature films, both documentary and narrative, that are made by Texas residents or center on Texas subject matter.
Films screening in Lone Star States are:
American Violet
Director: Tim Disney. Writer: Bill Haney
The astonishing story of Dee Roberts, a young African American single mother, whose courageous fight against her unwarranted drug arrest forever changes her life and the Texas justice system. Cast: Nicole Beharie, Tim Blake Nelson, Will Patton, Michael O'Keefe, Xzibit, with Charles Dutton and Alfre Woodard.
Blaze Foley Inside
Director: Kevin Triplett
A documentary on the everyday man behind the legend, Blaze Foley. Born in a tree house, killed in a friend's living room and 86'ed from his own funeral, is now a bona fide country music legend whose songs are covered by Merle Haggard, John Prine, Willie Nelson and Lyle Lovett. (World Premiere)
Exterminators
Director: John Inwood. Writer: Suzanne Weinert
A dark comedy about a group of women who meet in court mandated rage therapy and decide to form a traditional business with very untraditional methods. Cast: Heather Graham, Jennifer Coolidge, Amber Heard, Joey Lauren Adams, Matthew Settle (World Premiere)
The Least of These
Director: Clark Lyda
Detention of immigrant children in a former medium-security prison leads to controversy when three activist attorneys discover troubling conditions at the facility. (World Premiere)
Over the Hills and Far Away
Director: Michel Orion Scott
This documentary chronicles the journey of the Isaacson family as they travel through Mongolia in search of a mysterious shaman they believe can heal their autistic son.
Sunshine
Director: Karen Skloss
In 1975 rural Texas, the local mayor's daughter grapples with an unplanned pregnancy finally deciding to have her baby in secret before giving her away in a hidden adoption. Twenty-three years later, the adopted child also has an unplanned baby out of wedlock. The film tells the intimate story of these two single mothers, while exploring the times and circumstances that afforded them very different options. (World Premiere)
MIDNIGHTERS
Funny or scary (or both) films playing for a midnight audience.
Films screening in Midnighters are:
A Film With Me In It
Director: Ian Fitzgibbon
An actor hard on his luck ends up with a large number of dead bodies on his hands. Cast: Mark Doherty, Dylan Moran (U.S. Premiere)
The Ceremony
Director/Writer: James Palmer
After finding a bizarre book, a young man is plagued by unexplainable occurrences inside his home. Cast: Scott Seegmiller (World Premiere)
Grace
Director/Writer: Paul Solet
After losing her unborn child, Madeline Matheson insists on carrying the baby to term. Following the delivery, the child miraculously returns to life, but when the baby develops a desperate appetite for human blood, Madeline is faced with a mother's ultimate decision. Cast: Jordan Ladd, Samantha Ferris, Gabrielle Rose, Malcom Stewart
Lake Mungo
Director/Writer: Joel Anderson
A supernatural drama about grief. Cast: Talia Zucker, Rosie Traynor, David Pledger (North American Premiere)
Trailers from Hell.com with Joe Dante - LIVE PRESENTATION
Joe Dante presents The Best of Trailers from Hell which showcases classic-era Previews of Coming Attractions - punctuated with humorous, passionate and insightful commentaries by contemporary filmmakers like John Landis, Eli Roth and Edgar Wright - with particular emphasis on the lurid, the extreme and the outrageous.
Zift
Director: Javor Gardev. Writer: Vladislav Todorov
A man freed after a wrongful murder conviction enters a diabolical city full of decaying neighborhoods, gloomy streets and bizarre characters. Cast: Zachary Baharov, Tanya Ilieva, Vladmir Penev, Mihail Mutafov
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
A section reserved for highlights in recent film festival success stories or films that screen in a non-competitive capacity.
Films screening in Special Screenings are:
American Prince
Director: Tommy Palotta
After being forgotten for 30 years, filmmaker Tommy Pallotta revisits Scorcese's lost documentary "American Boy" and its raconteur subject, Steven Prince. (World Premiere)
Berlin Calling
Director/Writer: Hannes Stoehr
Berlin Calling is an extraordinary story that starts in pre-war Berlin, spans three generations, and concludes in the dark and sweaty rock n' roll clubs that line the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. Cast: Paul Kalkbrenner, Rita Lengyel, Corinna Harfouch, Araba Walton, Peter Schneider (U.S. Premiere)
Blood Trail
Director: Richard Parry
War photographer Robert King let a camera crew follow him for over 15 years. From his first assignment in Bosnia to his breakthrough work in Chechnya, and on to his recent coverage in Iraq, Blood Trail is an extraordinary look at this difficult and dangerous profession. (U.S. Premiere)
Burma VJ
Director: Anders Ostergaard
Armed with small handy cams, undercover Video Journalists in Burma risk their lives to keep up the flow of news from their closed country as in September 2007 thousands of monks take to the streets of Rangoon in a peaceful protest against the country's military rulers.
Daytime Drinking
Director/Writer: NOH Young-seok
A drinking road trip fable of a guy who just got dumped... Cast: SONG Sam-dong, YUK Sang-yeop, KIM Kang-hee (U.S. Premiere)
For All Mankind
Director: Al Reinart
A trip to another world disguised as a documentary.
De Ofrivilliga (Involuntary)
Director: Ruben Östlund. Writer: Erik Hemmendorff and Ruben Östlund
A tragic comedy or comic tragedy about group pressure on the individual. Five separate episodes on everyday disasters. Cast: Maria Lundqvist, Leif Edlund, Olle Lijas, Vera Vitali, Cecilia Milocco (North American Premiere)
It Came From Kuchar
Director: Jennifer M. Kroot
The hilarious and touching story of the legendary, underground filmmaking twins, George and Mike Kuchar, and how their outrageous, no-budget movies inspired generations of filmmakers (World Premiere)
Know Your Mushrooms
Director: Ron Mann
Filmmaker Ron Mann puts the fun in fungus with his newest documentary. (U.S. Premiere)
Letters to the President
Director: Petr Lom
Exclusive access film about President Ahmadinejad of Iran, and what life is like under his regime. The film takes as its narrative thread the letters that supposedly ten million Iranians have written to the President. (North American Premiere)
Office Space - 10th Anniversary - LIVE PRESENTATION
Director Mike Judge will present a special screening of the cult phenomenon film on the occasion of its 10th Anniversary.
The Paranoids
Director: Gabriel Medina. Writer: Gabriel Medina and Nicolas Gueilburt
An aspiring screenwriter who lives in constant state of paranoia, faces the return of his successful friend Manuel and his girlfriend in this off-beat romantic comedy. (U.S. Premiere)
Saint Misbehavin: The Life and Time of Wavy Gravy
Director: Michelle Esrick
The true story of cultural phenomenon Wavy Gravy - a man whose life proves that you can change the world and have fun doing it. (World Premiere)
The Snake
Director/Writer: Adam Goldstein and Eric Kutner
The funniest movie about dating a bulimic... possibly ever. Cast: Adam Goldstein, Nina Braddock (World Premiere)
Strongman
Director: Zachary Levy
Stainless Steel bills himself as the world's strongest man (at bending steel) and hopes to make it big despite his advancing age.
Sweethearts of the Rodeo
Director: Bradley Beesley
Amidst stories of murder, hardship, heartache and redemption, the film follows the convict cowgirls of the Eddie Warriors Correctional Center in their preparation for the only rodeo where female prisoners compete rough-stock and as equals against male prison teams. (World Premiere)
We Live in Public
Director: Ondi Timor
The story of the Internet's revolutionary impact on human interaction as told through the eyes of Internet pioneer and visionary, Josh Harris.
The Yes Men Fix the World
Director: Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonanno and Kurt Engfehr
A pair of notorious troublemakers sneaks into corporate events disguised as captains of industry, then use their momentary authority to expose the biggest criminals on the planet. Cast: Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonanno
You Won't Miss Me
Director: Ry Russo-Young. Writer: Ry Russo-Young and Stella Schnabel
A portrait of a modern day rebel, Shelly Brown, a twenty-three year-old alienated urban misfit recently released from a psychiatric hospital. Cast: Stella Schnabel, Rene Ricard
The SXSW Film Festival will open on March 13th with a screening of I Love You, Man, directed by John Hamburg and starring Paul Rudd, Jason Segel and Rashida Jones. Hamburg, Rudd, Segel and Jones will also participate in a Conversation panel. Previously announced participants for the 2009 SXSW Film Conference include acclaimed writer/directors Todd Haynes and Richard Linklater in conversation together, filmmakers Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight, Thirteen), Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Spy Kids) and Mike Judge (Office Space, King of the Hill), longtime Stanley Kubrick producer Jan Harlan, SXSW alum and Mumblecore pioneer Joe Swanberg (Nights and Weekends, Hannah Takes the Stairs), Mark Woollen, the award-winning creator of many memorable trailers (Milk, Slumdog Millionaire, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), as well as a rare appearance by Col Needham, Vice President of IMDb.com Service Limited.
South By Southwest Film Conference & Festival
SXSW offers a uniquely creative space for filmmakers, film fans, and even cinephiles to partake in the big and small picture discussions about filmmaking today. The Conference hosts a five-day adventure in the latest filmmaking trends and new technology, featuring Conversations with film icons, intimate mini-meetings and one-on-one mentor sessions with industry veterans. The internationally-acclaimed, nine-day Festival boasts some of the most wide-ranging programming of any US event of its kind, from provocative documentaries to subversive Hollywood comedies, with a special focus on emerging talents. Learn more at sxsw.com/film.
2009 Festival Sponsors
SXSW Film Conference and Festival is sponsored by Miller Lite, Fuze Beverage, ZonePerfect, The Independent Film Channel (IFC), Sierra Mist and The Austin Chronicle.
Read MoreDigital: Senator Obama Goes to Africa (DVD)
Before he became the 44th President of the United States, and in fact before he had settled on running, then-Senator Barack Obama took a trip to Africa in 2006. He visited the prison in South Africa that once held Nelson Mandela and a refugee camp in Darfur; however, most important to him personally was a return to his father's hometown of Kisumu, in Kenya. Just two years in the Senate, and over the course of about an hour, here you see his first big step into the realm of international relations and diplomacy. In one of the most revealing looks you could get at Obama the new leader of the free world, you observe some interesting things, especially now that the election is behind us.
In this, the only documentary project brought to completion following Barack Obama that isn't some sort of campaign ad, you see his intellectual manner of speech lose some people during a speaking engagement. This "highfallutin' talking", which Republicans derided him for on the campaign trail is academic for sure, but for the first time in a while, you get to hear him talk about policy in something other than a soundbite or a speech that's more of a sermon. Even if a couple people found their attention spans stretched, he pulls it together at the end and he gets a resounding ovation.
Whether you like him or hate him, the relatively-short 52-minute runtime is time well spent getting a less packaged look at Obama. First Run Features is a lesser-known DVD distrib to most people, and this is probably the first you've heard of them. They put out One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern, which Jeff covered here and DiscLand reviewed here. In fact, the two might make a good double feature.
If you've bought shirts, buttons, stickers, posters, collectible coins, or any of the other HopeSwag throughout the campaign, this is a no-brainer. You can buy Senator Obama Goes to Africa here.
-Moises ChiullanFF09: Staring at Goats
HD Guide: Constructive Criticism to the Studios
Frames
Bachchan Challenges UK's Guardian
Amitabh Bachchan just today has issued a formal request for correction/retraction over the Guardian's two (I knew about one, not the other) erroneously-sourced, trash slam pieces that used his blog as reference material. I called attention to the situation yesterday. For those who've seen Slumdog, you know a little about how big a deal he is in Bollywood. For those who don't, think of the five top A-list US actors, combine their fame & acclaim, add in the legend status of the same number of Redfords, Newmans, and Deans. That's close to how famous and big of a deal he is.
Read MoreShine On Me explained
An LA Times interview with the one and only Chris Dane Owens.
Read MoreRoddenberry Pilots
Not Quite Hollywood
Slumdog Back and Forth
Perception can be deceptive, and when it so happens that you open your mouth and people take you at your word, this tendency becomes dangerous in this Imperial Information Age of ours. The wide-sweeping wins of Slumdog Millionaire from one critics' group to the next and the recent exposure (I can't bring myself to say "prestige") of its Golden Globe trophy have exposed it to more backlash, both realized and potential, than ever before. Before I can address my general grievance with the piling-on of hate for this beguiling "little" big film, I must clear up some misconceptions being slung in the interest only of the continuance of news for sake of news.
The multitude of directions in which the comments go on Jeff's recent post of a reader's thoughts on Slumdog's inferred mediocrity is an interesting case study of the American (or US-influenced) perspective on the film, where some will defend it as more deserving than standard-issue Oscar Bait and others will shitcan it for not being as beloved to them personally as WALL-E or The Dark Knight, going so far as to invoke the classic "I'll be damned if X movie gets attention and Y movie, which is truly one of the greatest ever made, is ignored. Hollywood elitism at its finest!" flavor of vitriol.
The plain truth of the matter is that this is why creative types are in their nature adverse to any sort of awards though secretly love them. Asserting that there is one (movie, actor, script, etc.) specific, objective "Best" anything is inherently ridiculous, since the nature of drama is that it affects everyone differently and quite subjectively. Drama for drama's sake!
It makes as much sense as the Bowl Championship Series determining who competes against whom in the NCAA football playoffs. I never thought I'd compare the cinema to American football, so help me.
Creatives get all this (minus the football), but they are just as subjectively biased toward this or that not deserving just as they love one thing more or less than someone else. It's all about personal causes and selfish ethnocentricity and prejudice and the whole ball of wax.
This is why the internet is such a fascinating and maddening place full of hypocrites, Judases, gods and samaritans depending on who is reading what. This is why the ever-more-mind-numbing series of year-end lists you see is so much preferred by creative types as their judgment on each Year As It Was.
So why am I going on about perspective in the same way you sat through a discussion of it stoned or otherwise aloof in high school or college?
Nirpal Dhaliwal, a writer for the Guardian wrote up a piece that was linked in the aforementioned Elsewhere post, championing Slumdog Millionaire as a film that could have only been made from a Western perspective and that Amitabh Bachchan was backlashing away on his personal blog.
Be as it may that Boyle made a movie that no pioneering Indian-native visionary with his relative clout would (or could) have and it receive the acclaim that it has, a crucial error is overlooked here. I read Amitabh Bachchan's blog semi-regularly, and his comments in this entry seem to have been misinterpreted intentionally to prove a point on both sides of the Slumdog argument. Bachchan addressed this two days later. As far as I've seen, Bachchan hasn't even seen Slumdog Millionaire or directly commented about his thoughts of the film itself.
In the original post, he's presenting a couple things that he's seen relentlessly bandied about in his own comments section and adding the slightest bit of commentary. He notes that there are plenty of comments from Indian readers who are that country's equivalent of the States' Nationalist Fanatics who are tens times as "over-sensitive" as they accuse their hated liberal brethren of being. Bachchan adds that every developed country in the world has a Slumdog underbelly, and it's true! Argue all you want that focusing on the slums and the poor is some sort of exploitation, but isn't that what cinema is all about? Voyeurism and exploitation are key ingredients or there wouldn't be a camera recording everything and you wouldn't be watching! Show me where in this movie someone staresinto the camera and tells you "India is a shithole slum where everyone is murdered and robbed" in the style of Reefer Madness. Mumbai Madness, it should have been called, yes?
As to why I use the word "beguiling" so many paragraphs ago, one of the reasons I was particularly taken by the film is that it a deceptive beast, really. I watched it first in October at the Austin Film Festival, and afterward said to a friend "if there were justice in the world, movies like this would actually get awards exposure more often than stuffy period dramas primarily spoken in english-accented english." It's from the director of 28 Days Later, Shallow Grave, and Trainspotting, set in India with a great deal of non-English being spoken, and has no recognizable American stars. Described to a friend, it would sound like arthouse, elitist preachapalooza, but turns out more easy to watch than a gameshow itself (even making gameshows like the one at its center seem half-enjoyable again). I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact Slumdog is an odds-on favorite for not only Best Picture nomination, but to win the prize according to the odds.
There are those who allege that it would take them multiple viewings to "catch everything" but the same could be said of The Dark Knight, which people I know had seen four times by the time I saw it once. There are also those that would say the Academy's out of touch and "elitist" for whatever reason for possibly nominating this movie instead of WALL-E or The Dark Knight. It would be wonderful if the Academy defied all expectation and put out a list like the following to knock everyone on their ass because this year's Oscar Bait didn't get everyone biting:
The Dark Knight
Man on Wire
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Waltz With Bashir
...but they just won't. Slumdog is a very universally appealing and different kind of thing than much of its competition, and I can't see why either of those qualities is a bad thing.
What I wonder now is why people are assailing this film for "taking up a spot" and not even touching Frost/Nixon, which, while admirably put together and interesting on its own, really is in a different tier of what I would call memorable. Very good, yes...but one of the five best films of the year...I don't think so.
You see, I've tricked myself into getting tied up in all this crap. Enough. The nominations will be out in a few days and I'll have some more things to say then. As for tomorrow, I'm working on a response to some hilarious things I read about Che (mostly the movie and little about the person) on Big Hollywood.
Read MoreDisc Roundup (Movies) 11.17.09
Disc Roundup (Movies) 11.10.09
Disc Roundup (Movies) 11.03.09
Shine On Me
I'm way late to the party by internet standards, but this is one of the most entertaining things I've seen in a LONG time on YouTube. Completely ridiculous, but better than the couple minutes apiece I spent watching trailers for In the Name of the King and Eragon.
Regular posting returns later today.
Read More