Around Austin

FILMMAKERS SQUARED

Love was in the air at the Filmmaker Brunch on Friday afternoon, where the top shelf tequila ran rampant. Against the backdrop of the soon-to-be-retired Troublemaker Studios green screen — where almost every Robert Rodriguez film has ever been shot — filmmaker pairs mixed and mingled. They were implored to hold this moment dear, because “this is the moment,” in an actually very moving speech by Up In The Air director Jason Reitman, who got into his car the day after the Oscars and drove straight to Texas. Jody Lee Lipes, co-director of NY Export: Opus Jazz and DP of […]

By Alicia Van Couvering on Mar 13, 2010 Around Austin
I WAS TOLD THERE WOULD BE COWBOY HATS

…at the Texas Hall of Fame Film Awards, a glorious benefit for the Austin Film Society that drew the cream of the Texas to Austin Studios last night. And indeed, there were Cowboy hats aplenty — Robert Rodriguez even gave one to Quentin Tarantino, the evening’s honoree. Some pictorial highlights: Kim Le Blanc of the Texas Film Commission, Lovers of Hate director Bryan Poyser, whose film is part of IFC’s day-and-date “Direct from SXSW” initiative, and Janet Pierson, Director and Head of Programming at SXSW and the kind of woman who can start sentences with, “When I was running a […]

By Alicia Van Couvering on Mar 12, 2010 Around Austin
A SOCIAL MEDIA GUIDE TO SXSW ’10

Mashable.com has compiled an unbelievable guide to how you can follow SXSW (in Austin or afar) through social media. The one we’re most intrigued by is Cliqset.com. Cliqset.com has created a real-time map that aggregates all of the geo-tagged activity in the festival area of Austin. Pulling in data from the major location-based social networks (Brightkite (), Flickr (), Foursquare, Gowalla (), Qik, and Twitter), the map will give you a bird’s eye view of who is at SXSW, where they are, and what they’re doing.

By Jason Guerrasio on Mar 11, 2010 Around Austin
GILBERT SHELTON AT SXSW

As part of their annual look at SXSW, The Austin Chronicle gets ready for the fest with this piece on iconic psychedelic comic book artist Gilbert Shelton, who’s best known for his Freak Brothers comics. He will also have an exhibit of his work in town during the fest as well as Harry Knowles conducting a conversation with Shelton on March 15 at the Austin Convention Center. Here’s an excerpt from the piece: Freewheelin’ Franklin, Phineas, and Fat Freddy symbolized the pot culture of the Sixties, their free-spirited lifestyle in pursuit of sex, drugs, and rock & roll the model […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Mar 10, 2010 Around Austin
SMILE LIKE YOU MEAN IT

Arms locked together, smiles frozen in place awaiting the digital flash — we all have these photos on our cameras and phones when we return from a film festival. These moments sure look like happy ones now that a festival premiere has spackled over all the fractures that production wrought. At SXSW this year, however, one group tried to summon up smiles that were a bit more sincere in intent. Operation Smile is a non-profit organization that provides cleft-lip and palate repair to children and young adults around the world, many in developing countries. Reps from the organization manned a […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 18, 2009 Around Austin
SWANBERG… KRIS SWANBERG

Joe Swanberg’s Alexander the Last is not the only Swanberg film here at SXSW. His wife Kris’s movie, It Was Great, But I Was Ready To Come Home, premieres at the festival too. Pictured above at last night’s Florida Fish Fry, from left to right, are Alexander the Last star Amy Seimetz, Swanberg, and Three Blind Mice director Matthew Newton.

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 16, 2009 Around Austin
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

The goal in any festival director transition: to maintain the quality of a festival and begin to put one’s personal stamp on it while not slowing its momentum or dampening its good will. Mid-way through SXSW, I’d say that for new director Janet Pierson, pictured here at the BMI dinner, that mission has been handily accomplished. Attendance is up; audience reaction to a good number of films is positive; the panels are informational and packed; there’s the requisite fanboy buzz from the opening night I Love You, Man plus today’s sneak of some of the Bruno footage; and there are […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 16, 2009 Around Austin
SWANBERG AND DENTLER

Pictured above, on the second floor of the convention center, Alexander the Last director Joe Swanberg and Cinetic Media Rights’ Matt Dentler. Dentler to me: “You know, I don’t work here anymore, but you don’t need to wait on this long line for your badge. You can go to the Panelists Registration over there.”

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 14, 2009 Around Austin
ADVICE FROM THE FRONT LINES: AUSTIN SURVIVAL TIPS

Thinking of those of you who are heading to SXSW for the first time, we asked some festival vets about some of the really important stuff — like where to find the best barbecue and where to nab free Wi-Fi. (The Austin Convention Center Wi-Fi gets overloaded and is notoriously slow.) What follows are the answers we received, but if you’d like to add your own comments to the mix, email us at editor.filmmakermagazine AT gmail.com BEST BARBECUE– “There is no simple answer to that question.” – Mike S. Ryan, producer and contributor to Hammertonail.com – You have to leave […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Mar 12, 2009 Around Austin
IN SEARCH OF SLACKER: LINKLATER’S AUSTIN

It doesn’t matter where we’re from, we all remember the way the place used to be. You know, before the local dive bar became a TGIF, the Kroger became the Whole Foods, and back when the scene was truly a scene. But, of course, as powerful as nostalgia can be, it is also self-generating. What’s around us right now will one day be a newcomer’s “way it was.” In terms of a filmmaker’s celebration of his hometown, Rick Linklater’s Slacker has, perhaps, no equal. It not only documented a place, Austin, but it grafted a sensibility onto that place, a […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 12, 2009 Around Austin

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