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March 19, 2010

SXSW Wrap-up

1. Once again, SXSW - my fifth, and first as a newly engaged gentleman, which in so many regards sets the counter back to zero - is over. The festival is about a half-step away from overtaking Sundance, and with this new level of frenzy comes, apparently, an Austin-centric bug all its own. Hence, I'm now at home with a serious case of the sniffles.

2. I am, by virtue of my involvement with it, prohibited from doing more than blindly waxing ecstatic about Audrey The Trainwreck. Thankfully, there are other critics out there doing the Lord's work: here is Vadim Rizov's lovely take on the film for GreenCine Daily, which thrilled me in just about the same way that certain responses to St. Nick did last year. It eloquently echoes the sentiments we heard from many folks in the lobby after the screenings, and on Twitter (aside from the fine fellow who quickly listed it as one of the three films he hated at the festival).

3. Also, amidst this hurlyburly I've neglected to note that Lovers Of Hate (which the NY Times calls "viciously amusing") was picked up by IFC and is already available via Video On Demand. I don't need to tell Bryan that this accelerated acquisition-release schedule only raises the pressure for his next film. Consider that ante upped, my friend!

4. The Jackie Brown soundtrack was playing at Whole Foods a few days ago. Did they read my Cold Weather piece?

5. As most folks at the festival know, I did the four bumpers for SXSW this year (but not the midnight one). I'll write more about them next week, when they go online, but the response they received was really great. My goal was to make something that people wouldn't be sick of the twenty-fifth time through, and I think I succeeded - even if, in the case of the Onion A.V. Club's Leonard Pierce, I halfway depressed the hell out of them.

6. But perhaps that was halfway the point. My perspective on cinema isn't completely full of brimstone, but it does, more than it used to, come fraught with nervous questions of worth. These agitations pull every other panic in my life, every little agony, film-related or otherwise, into their tremulous orbit, until the state of this art form I love is forced to bear not only the desiccate, fickle masses and their cruel mediate overlords, but the fact that spark plugs on a '99 Volkswagen might just go out at the most inopportune time.

7. We were sitting in the Alamo Drafthouse, watching one more unplanned short film program while waiting for the mechanic to call. We'd stumbled in as the program was beginning, and just as the espresso I ordered was working its magic on my brain, a film by Jessica Edwards entitled Seltzer Works began. It's a short documentary, beautifully photographed, about this old seltzer factory in Brooklyn. The proprietor is a third generation seltzer filler, proudly presiding over his 100-year old machinery, tending to a product he loves and dedicated to its quality and integrity. It's a lovely little film, and, shortly after it ended, the car was fixed and we headed home.

Posted by David Lowery at March 19, 2010 11:37 PM

Comments

Posted by: Leonard Pierce at March 22, 2010 12:16 PM

Posted by: David Lowery at March 25, 2010 2:21 PM