“BETTER THIS WORLD” DIRECTORS KELLY DUANE DE LA VEGA & KATIE GALLOWAY

When two young activists from Midland Texas were arrested with Molotov cocktails at the 2008 Republican convention, their story became a media sensation, but documentarians Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega couldn’t escape the feeling that there was more to this story than the good-kids-turned-domestic-terrorists version the media was reporting. So, they did what any skilled documentarians do: they took a leap of faith, jumped a plane and started talking to people involved with the case. The result is Better This World, a documentary that explores what happens when idealistic, angry young activists stop being polite and start getting mixed up with the FBI. I spoke with Galloway and Duane de la Vega as they were putting the finishing touches on their film, just in time for its premiere at SXSW.

Filmmaker: How did you decide to pursue this particular story?

Galloway: I was just sitting on a plane, and I came upon this story about an FBI informant who was going to be the star witness in a case against two young men from Midland Texas who were caught building Molotov cocktails at the Republican convention in 2008 and charged with domestic terrorism… The defense in the case of David McKay was entrapment, and the question was whether they would have been doing this if there had not been this government agent. Kelly and I had been talking about working on something together, and when we got together with our stack of ideas, she said that  this one was the one. We got on a plane two days later and started filming on the eve of David McKay’s domestic trial.

Duane de la Vega: After reading the blurb, we decided to take a small financial gamble and go out there and interview all the characters and decide whether they were strong enough. Almost immediately after meeting them, we knew that the characters were strong, and the story got more and more complex. We felt confident after that first trip that there was a rich story we could tell.

Filmmaker: A lot of your other films were filmed in real … Read the rest

SXFANTASTIC’S TIM LEAGUE ON 2011′S MIDNIGHT EDITION

Despite their protestations to the contrary, festival programmers are often a competitive bunch, jostling for not only premieres but status. That’s why SXFantastic, now in its third year, is such a welcome event. A collaboration between SXSW and Fantastic Fest, which unspools its own main event in September, SXFantastic brings Fantastic’s genre smarts and midnight-movie acumen to the South By sprawl. The result is a focused section that has been producing its own fan favorites, critical hits and even industry acquisitions. Last year’s successes included Gareth Edwards’ Monsters and the unlikely pick-up A Serbian Film (which just landed the SITGES festival in court over child pornography charges).

Comments Fantastic Fest co-founder Tim League, “Monsters — and what happened to Edwards after the festival — were our biggest surprises last year. It got picked up immediately, he’s got an agent, and now he’s helming the super-big-budget Godzilla reboot. And before SXSW he was pretty much an unknown SFX guy. I’m really happy for what happened to him.”

Of the origins of SXFantastic, League says, “I’ve always been a huge fan of SXSW. The opening day at the Alamo Draft House was for SXSW back in 1997, so we have had a relationship for a long time. When the Fantastic brand started to rise and we became known for our midnight program, [SXSW’s] Janet [Pierson] and I had a casual conversation about an alliance, and so far I’ve loved it. Off season, it allows me to keep looking under rocks and stay in touch with filmmakers, and I enjoy the process of programming just five movies instead of 70.”

So what about SXFantastic’s 2011 line-up? League calls Brandon and Jason Trost’s The FP (pictured above) “lovably unique,” saying, “I love its visual anarchy. The FP is set in some sort of strange alternate reality world where civic decisions are solved by a dance video game, Beat Beat Revolution. It’s played earnestly, but everyone speaks in a mid-’80s hip-hop-inspired dialect. And the film is a family affair. Brandon was the d.p. on Crank 2, which I love. His sister who was … Read the rest

JANET PIERSON ON THE FILMS — AND CROWDS — OF SXSW

Six weeks before the festival, every hotel room in downtown Austin was booked solid. Badges were already selling out a month prior, and, in the last few weeks, LAX-AUS flights have become almost impossible to come by. Last year the festival was, by all accounts, over-crowded — press and industry felt needlessly constrained by the impossibility of special access to screenings, and complaints of line cutting were all over Twitter. Pierson and her staff took all of these criticisms hard. In the wake of the grumblings, there are new and bigger theatres (the renovated State Theatre, next to the Paramount; the Vimeo theatre inside the convention center), new policies in place to cut down on cutting (sequential numbers will be distributed one hour before each screening) and methods to cheer up the industry (same-day Express tickets will be released each morning to badge holders.) But as the anecdotal evidence mounts, some anticipate the most crowded, least buyer-friendly atmosphere ever.
Has the new pressure from industry affected Pierson?

“We do feel that there’s more attention. We’ll see how it plays out, it’s tough — you want great things to happen for the films, because press coverage benefits everybody; agents and distributors and buyers should discover the films and give them futures and income. But we’re not a market, so we need to balance that.”

SXSW’s pride in not being a market — the desire to guarantee “democratic” screening environments for the films; to cater to the audience, not the industry — is complex. With premieres of films by Takashi Mike and Jodie Foster (The Beaver, which Pierson is proud to be showing, as it would have been swamped in tabloid frenzy anywhere else), the program needs to retain a balance between the audience favorites, press schedule relevance and emerging filmmaker discoveries.

“For me, being a destination festival is important, being a place that people bother to take a flight and book the hotel, that’s a goal; you want to experience this event in real time.” But the lack of press and industry perks is part of a larger mission … Read the rest

SXSW CLOSING WITH THORNTON’S “THE KING OF LUCK” & ANNOUNCES ADDITIONAL TITLES

By Jason Guerrasio

The South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival revealed today that its closing night film this year will be the world premiere of Bill Bob Thornton‘s documentary on Willie Nelson, The King of Luck. They also announced additional titles to the fest, including a work-in-progress screening of Bridesmaids, starring Kristen Wiig and produced by Judd Apatow, and a short from Harmony Korine. More info on the closing night film and additional titles can be found below.

SXSW will take place March 11-19 in Austin, Texas. Read full list of features here; Midnight, SXFantastic and shorts here.

CLOSING NIGHT FILM

The King of Luck
Director: Billy Bob Thornton
This is a documentary about Willie Nelson: the man, the songwriter, the friend, the father, legendary performer and champion of the family farmer. (World Premiere)

SPECIAL EVENTS

Bridesmaids (Work In Progress)
Director: Paul Feig, Writers: Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig
Kristen Wiig leads the cast as Annie, a maid of honor whose life unravels as she leads her best friend, Lillian (Maya Rudolph), and a group of colorful bridesmaids (Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLendon-Covey and Ellie Kemper) on a wild ride down the road to matrimony.

Films from R.E.M.’s Collapse Into Now followed by a Q+A with Michael Stipe
A selection of films from R.E.M.’s latest album, ”Collapse Into Now,” with films by notable artists and filmmakers and personally curated by Michael Stipe.

Night Fishing
Directors: PARKing CHANce (PARK Chan-wook, PARK Chan-kyong) (Narrative Short)
Story about the transitions between life and death brought by PARKing CHANce, the first collaboration between PARK Chan-wook and PARK Chan-kyong. (North American Premiere)

The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway
Director: Marty Callner, Created and Conceived by: Paul Reubens, Written by: Paul Reubens and Bill Steinkellner, Additional Material by: John Paragon, Also written by: Josh Meyers, John Koch and Paul Rust
Based on the original show that launched Pee-wee Herman into a pop culture icon, Paul Reubens’ beloved character brings his Playhouse to life once again in the HBO special “The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway.”

Sound & Scene: Made … Read the rest

SXSW REVEAL MIDNIGHTERS, SXFANTASTIC & SHORTS

By Jason Guerrasio

The South By Southwest Film Conference and Festival announced today the lineups for its Midnighters, SXFantastic and short films sections.

Midnighters has always been a popular section at SXSW having highlighted the talents of Eli Roth and Ti West in the past, but its notoriety grew a few years ago when the fest added the SXFantastic sidebar, which are midnight films programmed by the largest genre fest, Fantastic Fest. Last year, the section had the world premiere of Gareth Edwards‘ impressive debut feature Monsters.

The complete list of Midnighters, SXFantastic and short films titles are below. SXSW will take place March 11-19 in Austin, Texas. Check out the rest of the features screening at this year’s fest, including the competition lineup, here. And news on their closing night film.

MIDNIGHTERS

Attack The Block (UK-England)
Director & Writer: Joe Cornish
A funny, frightening action adventure movie that pits a teen gang against an invasion of alien monsters. It turns a tower block into a sci-fi playground. It’s inner city versus outer space. Cast: Jodie Whittaker, John Boyega, Alex Esmail, Franz Drameh, Leeon Jones, Simon Howard, Luke Treadaway, Jumayn Hunter and Nick Frost (World Premiere)

The Divide (US-Canada)
Director: Xavier Gens, Writers: Karl Mueller & Eron Sheean
To survive the end of the world…you must first survive each other. Cast: Michael Biehn, Milo Ventimiglia, Lauren German, Rosanna Arquette, Courtney B. Vance (World Premiere)

Hobo With a Shotgun
Director: Jason Eisner, Writer: John Davies
A Hobo finds himself in an urban hell. When he witnesses a brutal robbery, he realizes the only way to deliver justice is with a shotgun. Cast: Rutger Hauer, Gregory Smith, Molly Dunsworth, Brian Downey, Nick Bateman

Insidious
Director: James Wan, Writer: Leigh Whannell
Dark spirits have possessed the home of a family whose son has fallen into a coma. Trying to save him, the family moves only to realize that it was not their house that was haunted. Cast: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, Ty Simpkins, Barbara Hershey (U.S. Premiere)

Phase 7 / Fase 7 (Argentina)
Diretor & Writer: Nicolas Goldbart
Coco just … Read the rest

PETER BYCK, “CARBON NATION”

By Brandon Harris

Hope is easy to sell, but fear is easier. Billing itself as a “climate change solutions” movie, Peter Byck’s Carbon Nation doesn’t want you to panic. If fear of the consequences of climate change has been the primary emotional content associated with the slew of climate-themed docs that have found their way to screens in the wake of An Inconvenient Truth, Carbon Nation dwells more on the possibilities that technological innovation, communitarian initiative and an end to political gridlock could have on our world. Time is short, but in Byck’s telling, the means to stymie the long-term catastrophes associated with our consumption of carbon-based energy are here and it’s only a matter of time before we put them into widespread use. Byck’s doc travels all across the United States, spotlighting individuals at the forefront of green energy technology, activists who are working to find ways of convincing and educating the public, titans of media and industry who are hip to the cause and reporters who chronicle Washington’s immobility on the subject.

From windfarms in Roscoe, TX to water-powered geothermal generators in Alaska, Byck finds Americans who, with little fanfare or notoriety, are working toward a sustainable future for us all. Byck, whose unparalleled cast of green thinkers, intelligence officials, media tycoons and activist luminaries for Carbon Nation includes Van Jones, Thomas Friedman and Richard Branson, succinctly articulates the reasons progress on these issues is so vital without pointing fingers or raising ruckus. The veteran documentarian, who made the SXSW Jury Prize-winning doc Garbage and has made short docs on the making of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, finds ways to make these arguments while including the perspectives of individuals one wouldn’t associate with the green energy movement, including former CIA director R. James Woolsey or Duke Energy CEO James Rogers. We caught up with Byck on the eve of his film’s release. Carbon Nation opens in New York this Friday.

Filmmaker: Do you believe that we’ll ever be able to replace fossil fuels as our primary source of energy?

Byck: Carbon-based energy has been a great … Read the rest

MY 10 FAVORITE FESTIVALS OF 2010

It was a grueling and exhilarating year. Last year from January to December I road-ripped in my van, the “Red Devil,” occasionally flew on airplanes, a few times rode on trains, sprinting across and around America, then over and around Europe, parachuting in on nearly 50 film festivals. It was a manic-depressive trip on the rollercoaster-roadway. One minute I was kissing the stars and the next I was eating asphalt. It was madness, but madness that made complete sense.

To understand America today, non-fiction books are giving fewer and fewer clues. Literature has become passé for making sense out of our national confusion. Nor will you find the soul of America in music. It was decades ago that the beat of our country was in its music. Nor will you find knowledge in the popular media — a mercenary beehive of stupendous shallowness. Nor will you find enlightenment in our mainline cultural institutions. Can anyone find the remote control?

OK, maybe some of that is too strong. Yet, for me, to penetrate the elusive meaning of America and grasp the country’s pulsating Zeitgeist — the spirit of our time — requires a convergence of mediums, the blending of disciplines, a synergism from media that produces something deeper than ink on paper and more insightful than a blabbering head at a podium. To grasp this multiple-headed monster called America, we need the layered complexity and simple depth that comes from the heavy reality of film.

Not any film, but powerful, independent film. Not from any filmmaker, but from those with the courage to swallow the bullet of sacrifice — commercialism is an engine for profit, not an avenue for truth — from those filmmakers with the audacity to tell the truth and flash the middle finger to compromise. When one foot is on each side of the line, there is no deeper understanding, only more confusion. And the one thing this country doesn’t need is more confusion.

Whereas the best and brightest in our history first went into politics, then the sciences, some claim then business, and finally the arts, today … Read the rest

“UNCLE KENT” DIRECTOR JOE SWANBERG

Since Joe Swanberg’s first feature film, Kissing on the Mouth, premiered at SXSW in 2005, he’s managed to make at least a feature a year, multiple web-series, and found regular launch-pads at SXSW and IFC Films. When Swanberg directs a film, he really functions as a craftsman of the entire work: while he eschews screenplays in favor of improvisation, he works as cinematographer, editor, and usually acts in the film. As the nexus of a low-budget film movement stressing honesty, stories chronicling the lives of people in their twenties, and improvisation (this movement begins with an “M,” ends with “core,” and was never a good label), Swanberg received much attention and a fair share of controversy, in large part due to his unblinking and unglamorous depictions of sexuality.

When 2010 came and went, it seemed almost strange that Swanberg didn’t release a new film. For a director with as much dizzying drive and an ability to make films inexpensively, it seemed that Swanberg would only increase his pace of production. Well, it turns out Joe was busy. He will premiere three features this winter — two at Berlin, and Uncle Kent will debut simultaneously at Sundance and on VOD (through Sundance Selects).

Uncle Kent — the story of one weekend in the life of a charming but lonely 40-year-old Los Angeles cartoonist (played by Kent Osborne) looking for human connection through the internet — packs a surprising punch. The film exists exactly now, in a world of Chatroulette and Craigslist, but the protagonist of Uncle Kent seems a little too old to be playing kid games. The tragedy of the film is that he knows it.

Filmmaker: So…how many films do you have backlogged? Seriously — you’re premiering one film at Sundance, and two at Berlin? How did you find the time to make them all? I’m actually very curious about the workflow for the films.

Swanberg: Last year was really productive for me. I’ve been working on Silver Bullets since late 2008, but I made Uncle Kent, Art History, and three other films between May and September. … Read the rest

SXSW ANNOUNCES DUNCAN JONES’ “SOURCE CODE” AS OPENING NIGHT FILM

By Scott Macaulay

Moon director Duncan Jones’ second feature, Source Code, will open the 2011 SXSW Film Festival, it was announced today. Excerpted from the press release:

The smart action thriller is the second feature from SXSW Alum Duncan Jones (Moon), and stars Jake Gyllenhaal (Love and Other Drugs, Brokeback Mountain), Michelle Monaghan (Eagle Eye, Due Date), Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air, The Departed) and Jeffrey Wright (Quantum of Solace, Syriana). The South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival runs March 11 – 19, 2011 in Austin, Texas.

When decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens (Gyllenhaal) wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he discovers he’s part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train. In an assignment unlike any he’s ever known, he learns he’s part of a government experiment called the “Source Code,” a program that enables him to cross over into another man’s identity in the last 8 minutes of his life. With a second, much larger target threatening to kill millions in downtown Chicago, Colter re-lives the incident over and over again, gathering clues each time, until he can solve the mystery of who is behind the bombs and prevent the next attack.

Opening in theaters nationwide on April 1, 2011, the film was written by Ben Ripley. A Mark Gordon Company production, and presented by Vendóme Pictures, the film was produced by Mark Gordon, Philippe Rousselet and Jordan Wynn, with Hawk Koch, Jeb Brody, and Fabrice Gianfermi executive producing.

“We are delighted to welcome Duncan Jones back to SXSW. His debut Moon showed an intelligence, skill, and exceptional use of limited resources that’s exactly the kind of filmmaking we love to support,” said Film Conference and Festival Producer Janet Pierson. “Source Code is a terrific follow-up; it’s a smart, suspenseful thriller, and a perfect fit for our 2011 Opening Night!”

… Read the rest

New Model Army

By Filmmaker Staff

Making a business out of independent film is harder than ever. But still, great films are being made. In this series of short profiles, Filmmaker asked a number of leading independent producers about their producing models and how they’re finding everything from financing to material to office space.