KATIE GALLOWAY AND KELLY DUANE DE LA VEGA’S “BETTER THIS WORLD”

Originally posted as part of our 2011 SXSW coverage, Better This World is nominated for Best Documentary.

Screening Times: Saturday March 12th, 11:00am (Vimeo Theater), Monday March 14th, 1:45pm (Alamo Lamar B), Friday March 18th, 2:00pm (Paramount Theatre)

Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane De La Vega profile the young political radicals David McKay and Bradley Crowder in Better This World. The pair plotted to disrupt the 2008 Republic National Convention, but found themselves charged with domestic terrorism.

Filmmaker: How did you first hear of David McKay and Bradley Crowder? What drove you to make a film about them?

De La Vega: In early January 2009 we read a New York Times article about two young men from Midland, Texas, who were arrested on domestic terrorism charges at the 2008 RNC. The story described their involvement with a controversial FBI informant who was the government’s star witness in the case. We were intrigued by the informant’s involvement with the young men as well as  the fact that David McKay was planning to go to trial with an entrapment defense.

Filmmaker: Who was most instrumental in getting you access to the young men?

De La Vega: Their attorneys — Jeff Degree and Andrew Mohring — both of whom put us in touch with their clients.

Filmmaker: What was your biggest challenge when constructing the film in post-production?

Galloway: The main challenge had to do with the fact that  key events in the film — much of the heart of the story — took place before we were on the scene. Bringing that essential backstory to life  required a lot of creative thinking, gathering of materials and editing. We were fortunate to have access to a wealth of materials: archival footage and interviews, surveillance footage, jail house phone calls, court testimony and more. Here we have to give a shout out to our incredible editors Greg O’Toole (the film’s main editor) and producer and graphics editor Mike Nicholson — both of whom were terrific collaborators and repeatedly helped us turn straw into gold.   … Read the rest

SXSW WINNER: ROBBIE PICKERING’S “NATURAL SELECTION”

Robbie Pickering took home the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at SXSW last night for his grim Southwestern drama Natural Selection. The Jersey Village, Texas native and NYU grad’s debut feature, which tells the story of a sterile Christian housewife sent by her dying husband to find and bring back his illegitimate son from the Florida hinterlands before he dies, also won prizes for the performances of its stars, Rachael Harris and Matt O’Leary, plus its score, writing and editing. Filmmaker caught up with him during the festival to discuss his multiple prize-winning debut.

MATT D’ELIA’S “AMERICAN ANIMAL”

Screening Times: Monday March 14th, 6:30pm (State Theatre), Tuesday March 15th, 11:00am (Alamo Lamar A), Friday March 18th, 6:30pm (State Theatre)

In the dark comedy American Animal, a delusional, terminally ill young man (director, writer, editor and star Matt D’Elia) spends a long, booze and drugs-fueled night with his soon to be relocating roommate (Brendan Fletcher) as they prepare to take vastly different paths in life and death.

Filmmaker: How did you first conceive of the character of Jimmy? Did you always intend to play him yourself?

D’Elia: Like American Animal‘s lead character, Jimmy, I was also very ill in my early twenties. Bedridden and alone, it was easily the worst time of my life. Days felt like weeks, weeks felt like months, months felt like years. Forced to come up with something to do, some way to feel at least slightly better, I began to tell myself these fun, weird little lies to get through each day. It was pure escapism, plain and simple. I’d tell myself, “Yes, my dog can talk,” or “Yes, I’m Dean Martin today,” or “Yes, I’m Chevalier de Balibari from Barry Lyndon this evening,” or some other playful, silly thing like that. Of course, I didn’t actually believe these things, but they made me feel a little better and they passed the time, which is what mattered most during that period of my life. And this kind of imaginative, unshackled, thinking led to me coming up with the character of Jimmy. Unlike myself, Jimmy was terminally ill and, most importantly, he actually did believe the crazy things he told himself. A conflicted character like that — a young man who threw aside his grim reality in the name of a better, imagined one — was very exciting to me. He seemed like the perfect lead character for my first feature film, so I wrote a script centered around him.

By the time we were in prep, I had it in my head that the only actors who could pull off this wild, complex, tragic, hilarious young … Read the rest

ANNIE J. HOWELL AND LISA ROBINSON’S “SMALL, BEAUTIFULLY MOVING PARTS”

Howell: In 2006, we began making an original Web series called Sparks –- about a woman who explores her (and others’) relationship with technology. We were interested in the ways in which people had come to treat machines with potent human emotions –- affection, disgust, love and outright rage. So we wrote a protagonist who is a “freelance technologist,” someone who truly adores machinery — who looks out for it and protects it in a world of impulsivity and disposability. After successfully completing six episodes and licensing them to the Sundance Channel, we wanted to continue to explore the characters we had created in a more complex way. Inspired by the series, Small, Beautifully Moving Parts is a project that digs deeper into what it means to be “connected.” We ultimately found a different tone in the feature, and were able to create more complicated situations, as Sarah, facing parenthood, is trying to track down her own long-estranged parent (her mom), who is now living off the grid. What was fun was stretching characters and ideas that we already knew well into something else –- recognizable, but different. Also, it gave us a certain freedom to work quickly and efficiently, as these characters had been a part of our lives for some time.

Filmmaker: Who was most instrumental in getting the film financed and produced?

Robinson: We actually wish we could simply name one or two people here, but in truth, we have to thank the dozens of … Read the rest

P. DAVID EBERSOLE’S “HIT SO HARD”

Screening Times: Tuesday March 15th, 9:15pm (Alamo Ritz 1), Friday march 18th, 7:00pm (Vimeo Theater)

A veteran director and producer of cable television (Wicked Wicked Games, Desire), P. David Ebersole’s rock doc Hit So Hard is a typical booze-and-drug-filled profile of his friend and collaborator Patty Schemel, the original drummer for the seminal grunge band Hole, who fell on hard times after the always controversial rock band’s heyday.

Filmmaker: How did you first conceive of Hit So Hard?

Ebersole: My friend Patty Schemel brought me a gold box, filled with 40-plus hours of never-before-seen video footage from when she was on tour with her band Hole. She shot the tape on Hi-8 and was afraid it would disintegrate soon, so she came asking for advice about how to best preserve it. Soon, the two of us were transferring the tapes and watching the footage together. Patty, a great raconteur, began telling me her very personal and sometimes harrowing story. And the seed of the documentary was born. I’m a narrative filmmaker so when I told Patty she might have a documentary on her hands, I had no intention that I would be the one who would helm it. But Patty and her wife Christina Soletti, a close friend of ours and a producer in her own right, came back and said they needed and wanted someone in the family they could trust to do it justice. My husband/producer Todd Hughes and I spent the next few years interviewing Patty’s band-mates including all the members of Hole (Melissa Auf der Maur, Eric Erlandson and Courtney Love), friends, fans, social critics and other women drummers to craft what has become Hit So Hard: The Life & Near Death Story of Patty Schemel. So this film is literally a family made film: with Todd and I doing the heavy lifting, Christina finessing all of our access, and Patty’s best friend Roddy Bottum writing the score. Everyone working on or appearing in it did so out of love for Patty and a belief that … Read the rest

ANNE BUFORD’S “ELEVATE”

Screening Times:  Sunday March 13th, 4:30pm (Vimeo Theater), Tuesday march 15th, 10:00pm (Alamo Lamar C), Thursday March 17th, 6:00pm (Rollins Theatre)

Half a decade in the making, Anne Buford’s Elevate chronicles how a group of gifted West African basketball players respond as they are feverishly recruited by American schools on the promise of their skills on the hardwood, and how coping with the adjustment to American life may be the toughest thing of all.

Filmmaker: How did you first hear of the West African basketball players whose stories Elevate chronicles?

Buford: In the Fall of 2004, RC Buford, who besides being my big brother is the GM of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs, asked me to say hello and take donuts to the African Junior National team, who were on the New York City stop of their US tour. When I met the team — from various African countries, speaking different languages — I was instantly intrigued by how intuitively they communicated on and off the court…and maneuvered Times Square. I had been around many young basketball players, but none quite like these.

Filmmaker: How long did you spend getting to know the young men before you began filming them?

Buford: From May 2005 to October 2006 I traveled to Senegal and South Africa multiple times with the hope of getting to know the players and understanding what their lives are like. Looking back, I laugh when I read the emails that Assane Sene and I exchanged after we met at the NBA’s BWB Africa basketball camp back in September 2005. Assane has a love and great ear for languages — he was entirely unselfconscious about trying out his English on me! I owe him one for saving me the pain of learning French.

Filmmaker: What were your biggest challenges when constructing the film in post-production?

Buford: As a first-time filmmaker, finding the right people to work with was a struggle. Given my magazine and sports background, I like a collaborative team atmosphere. Figuring out how to do this in a new … Read the rest

ANLO SEPULVEDA’S “OTIS UNDER SKY”

Screening Times: Sunday March 13th, 9:30pm (Rollins Theatre), Tuesday March 15th, 9:30pm (Westgate), Friday March 18th, 11:30am (Paramount Theatre)

The story of a Eastern religious obsessive vlogger and idiot savant whose social ineptitude only rivals his desire to create Web Art, Austin based director Anlo Sepulveda’s Otis Under Sky follows the title character as he falls in love with a kleptomaniac, womanizing lesbian and conceives of an Internet-based Art project to connect people spiritually via the Web.

Filmmaker: How did you first conceive of Otis Under Sky?

Sepulveda: The inspiration for Otis was a soft-spoken, somewhat awkward bull rider named Garrison I met years ago. He was into Eastern philosophy and religions. He eventually learned Arabic and moved to Morocco. He came back to Austin once for a visit and had a full beard and was wearing a turban.  Of course, when Anis Mojgani was slated to play Otis the character changed but the spirit of Garrison is very much still there.

Filmmaker: Who was most instrumental in getting the film financed and produced after you’d written it?

Sepulveda: Well, the film is unscripted and really didn’t fully come together until we started editing so as you can imagine we did not attract a lot of backers. But my wife, Mandi Sepulveda, pretty much made the film happen financially and logistically. After we gained some momentum we received a grant from The Austin Film Society’s Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund. That really put some wind in our sails.

Filmmaker: What were your biggest challenges when constructing the film in post-production?

Sepulveda: Narrowing down the footage into a story. Since we shot unscripted, there were so many scenes that were repetitive or unnecessary. So narrowing it all down was a challenge.

Filmmaker: Where were you and how did you react when you were told you’d been accepted to SXSW?

Sepulveda: I was driving home from work and Janet called me and it took a second to really process. Once I realized what was happening there was this overwhelming since of relief. … Read the rest

SXSW SNAPS, PART TWO

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AROUND AUSTIN : MONDAY MORNING

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

An army brigade of cuties!

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

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

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

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

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

Later I passed out.

 … Read the rest

CHERIE SAULTER’S “NO MATTER WHAT”

Screening Times: Sunday March 13th, 4:15pm (Alamo Ritz 1), Monday march 14th, 4:30pm (Rollins Theatre), Wednesday March 16th, 9:00pm (Alamo Lamar B)

When 15-year-old Joey’s mother goes missing in the rural, economically depressed corner of northern Florida that he and his best friend Nick call home, they go searching for her through increasingly dangerous territory in No Matter What, a harrowing drama from first-time director Cherie Saulter.

Filmmaker: You grew up in Northern Florida and your film is set there. What did you draw upon from your personal experience growing up there for this film?

Saulter: None of the things that happen in No Matter What are things that happened to me personally. However, the film is set in the small town in Northern Florida that I grew up in, and everything about the way that part of the world feels has influenced who I am. The film is about Joey and Nick, two teenaged boys who are skateboarders and sometimes feel like outsiders in their rural hometown. Those characters are largely inspired by guys that I hung out with when I was their age. And while none of the things in the film are things that actually happened to people I knew, the characters react to their situations in the way that I think my friends would have reacted.This story is one that I’ve wanted to tell for a long time because the characters mean so much to me. They’re not characters that I feel like I’ve seen in a lot of movies. They’re not immediately likable and they don’t always do the right thing, but I wanted to make the movie because I want people to see that they’re still funny and sincere and are trying really hard to figure things out. I feel very attached to those characters, and I want other people to care about them, too.

Filmmaker: How long did you spend getting to your performers acclimated to the region before you began filming them?

Saulter: With the exception of Amy Seimetz, all of the actors in … Read the rest