SXSW: lazy Sunday

So far, movies I would recommend that have another screening scheduled during SXSW:

• Stagedoor—Now this is my idea of a good family film.
• The Aggressives—Not at all a family film, but a very good documentary that might not get widespread distribution, so see it if you get the chance.
• The collection of animated short films—More on that later in this entry. Get there early, it is very popular.

Best venue so far: Arbor Great Hills, believe it or not. Although it is a Regal cinema, they are not showing “The 2wenty” before the SXSW films. It is very pleasant to sit in a quiet theater with good house lights before a movie starts. (I wish the Arbor were like this year-round, damn it.) The seats are very comfy, too. It’s a good-sized theater and the out-of-towners are not likely to make the drive, so it’s easier to get good seats.

The Alamo theaters are fine, but some things are starting to wear thin. Both theaters are showing the same reel (or DVD, whatever) of weird little clips before the movie starts, and it’s stuff I’ve seen before. You can only watch Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood singing “Jackson” so many times before you want to smack someone. Really you should only ever have to watch it once. I also don’t want to see the Alamo house ad for Marcia Brady Fetish Night anymore, although it is funny to see that the audience routinely hoots and applauds whenever that ad appears, no matter how lukewarm they are about the rest of the ads.
And while we are on the subject of repetitive things being shown before the SXSW movies, I wish that SXSW had more than two house ads. After a while, that kind of thing starts to get repetitive. Do none of these people realize that many of us are going to see a dozen or even two dozen movies in nine days? Seeing the same trailers and ads is going to make us buggy.
Alamo South seemed to be having projection problems on Friday and Saturday night. The first time I noticed this, during The Aggressives, I thought it was just a flaw in the film. But then The Puffy Chair had the same problems, and the director apologized afterwards for projection difficulties. What is happening is that objects in the background, or in a very long shot, look weirdly digitized—everything seems to be made up of tiny rectangles. Maybe I was sitting too close to the screen? I’ll try sitting somewhere else the next time I’m there.
I haven’t been to the Dobie yet for SXSW so I don’t know which theater they’re using (hopefully the Egyptian one). Also, I still don’t know if I’ll have to pay for parking. I’ll find out today. (General consensus seems to be that it won’t be a problem. Whew.)
More on Saturday
I forgot to talk about seeing Tell Them Who You Are at the Arbor on Saturday. This is a documentary about cinematographer Haskell Wexler, directed by his son, Mark Wexler. You may not have heard about Haskell Wexler, but you would surely recognize some of the movies he’s worked on: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, In the Heat of the Night, The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Coming Home, Matewan, and Mulholland Falls … and that’s a fraction. He also directed a few movies, notably Medium Cool.
Haskell continually tries to direct his son during this film. In one scene, he has something to tell Mark that he thinks will be good for the documentary, so he has set up his hotel room with chairs for them that will show him in the best light.
The film is very personal. Mark wanted to focus on his relationship with his dad, and he includes scenes with well-known actors and directors talking not only about his dad, but about their relationships with their parents or children—Jane Fonda, Martin Sheen, etc.
I liked this movie until close to the end, when it started to drag a little. I thought the sequences with Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden went on too long and didn’t contribute too much to the overall film. I was also concerned about the scene with Mark’s mother, because I felt it bordered on the exploitative, but the payoff at the end made it worthwhile.
This was another movie where I wanted to ask about rights issues, because Mark Wexler included so many scenes from movies his dad was involved with. It was wonderful to see those bits of movies, most of which were instantly identifiable, but I can imagine it was a pain (and not cheap, either) to get permission to show all those movies. However, Mark Wexler was at the screening and he did say the movie is slated for theatrical release, so I guess all of that has been taken care of.
Sunday
I was a lazy creature on Sunday. I was exhausted. I’m not sure why—how tiring can it be to sit on your butt and watch movies? Maybe it was leftover tiredness from last week.
I decided at the last minute to go to the Animated Shorts being shown at Alamo Downtown. I was originally going to see them on Wednesday, then realized that it would be much smarter to go on Sunday when I wouldn’t have to find and pay for parking downtown.
I did have to give up my workout—one big regret about the way I scheduled the film festival with my job is that I am not going to have any workout time for the next week. And I’m eating out, and sitting in theaters … not exactly a healthy lifestyle. I guess it’s a good thing I don’t go to film festivals more often.
I’d forgotten how much I love seeing short animated films. I miss the Tournee of Animation series we used to drive down to the Prytania in New Orleans to see when I was at LSU. I remember seeing Bruno Bozzetto’s “The Bug,” which I adored, and also a lot of Bill Plympton shorts. The only animation series available in Austin these days seems to be Spike and Mike, which isn’t to my taste. (I have heard about Mike Judge’s upcoming animation collection, though, which I would like to see.)
Alamo Downtown had a full house for a noon showing on a Sunday, surprisingly enough. I noticed a lot of people were in line to buy individual tickets. I didn’t realize animated shorts were so popular.
This was a very nice collection. My favorite, which I think was an overall audience favorite too, was “Learn Self Defense.” It is a parody of educational animated films, in which an average little man named George learns all about how to defend himself. After the first lesson, you start realizing that there’s a reason why this character is named George, and that many of these lessons seem to be directed at another George we all know. The director, Chris Harding, was in attendance and he said that there are in fact people who don’t make the connection between the main character and certain political figures. But this Austin audience got it and loved it.
Many of the shorts had a message to deliver: “The Meatrix” denounced factory farms in a very cute and palatable way, “Convenience” addressed the over-medicating of children, and “Backseat Bingo,” which animated conversations with the elderly about their sex lives, was quite enlightening.
Other films, such as “Elegy” and “Scrounge,” were impressive and visually striking works of art.
I liked seeing all the different types of animation. “Learn Self Defense” and “The Meatrix” used Flash. “Magda” was stop-motion using those little wooden mannekins. “Awaken” was claymation.
I also particularly liked “The Meaning of Life,” with its combination of stick-figure-ish drawings and gorgeous portayals of the galaxy set against Tchaikovsky, although I thought it was a little long.
I sat through the Q&A afterwards and I have to say that it was the most intelligent Q&A I have encountered so far. People asked sensible questions about animation techniques instead of just gushing at the filmmakers or wanting to know what happens to fictitious characters.
After I left Alamo, I met some friends for brunch at Eastside Cafe. I hadn’t been there for brunch in years and I would like to report that the eggs florentine are still just as yummy. I also had a mimosa, which might explain why I went home afterwards and had a nap, missing the 4 pm screening I planned to attend.
I missed the 6:45 pm screening, too. I was tired and I wanted to catch up on things at home. I had to get some paperwork done on medical reimbursement stuff, and I desperately needed to do laundry, and I had to run back to the grocery store due to a lunch-meat snafu. And I needed some quiet time.
I realized I am getting anxious about seeing as many films as I can in nine days, and not wanting to miss this opportunity or that one. I need to cut that out.
I wish I could make more of a fun social event out of the film festival. My boyfriend comes home from SXSW Interactive after going to parties and having dinner at Uchi and hanging out with people. I come home after sitting by myself in the dark. I am envious of LB, because if you read her entries on the film festival, she and her husband have obviously found a way to balance film watching with relaxing and people watching.
But I am stressing a little too much about how I’m going to get everything done at work, when I’m going to find time to write about all the movies I’m seeing, whether or not I should change my Thursday schedule to stay away from downtown (it’s St. Patrick’s Day), when I’m going to work out, how I’m going to be able to find dinner. I suppose it is easier to attend a film festival in another city, because you’re in a hotel and not near the office and at a distance from the daily mundane stuff.
I am supposed to calm down, relax, and just have a good time. Even if I only see a couple more movies, it’ll be fine. Right? Right.