SXSW Releases Panels and Short Films Info

Diversity seems to be the key this year at the SXSW festival, which takes place in Austin, TX from March 12-20, as they’ve now announced the full lineup of Panels and short films that will be at this years event. As with the feature films schedule, this list of panels and shorts should provide an almost endless supply of diverse and interesting programming for attendees.

Following sre some highlights of panels we think are worth checking out. For a full list and descriptions, head over to the SXSW official site. Also, be sure to check back here at The Flickast as we’ll be at SXSW this year to bring you all the details on these great events and much more.

A Conversation with Michel Gondry
The stratospheric rise of Academy Award-winning visionary Michel Gondry is one of the great success stories of modern film. Working with fellow travelers like Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman and Bjork, Gondry has made his mark on the film landscape with iconic work like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep. Come and enjoy what promises to be a fascinating discussion as Gondry discusses his latest, highly personal and emotionally raw documentary A Thorn in the Heart with TCM’s Elvis Mitchell.

Directing the Dead: Genre Directors Spill Their Guts
How does modern horror take gore beyond the purely grisly to the level of grand guignol art and imagination? How does bone-cracking violence and flesh-rending horror contribute to the hallowed pantheon of art and cinema? Join five of the most striking genre filmmakers in modern movies as they lock horns over the all-important issues of blood, guts and gratuitous gore. Featuring Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland), Matt Reeves (Let Me In) Eli Roth (Hostel), Quentin Tarantino (Inglorious Basterds), Ti West (House of the Devil), moderated by Scott Weinberg (Cinematical)

Filmmakers in TV: A Case Study
Carving a niche in the world of film is tough enough, and achieving the same feat on the small screen is no easier. Successfully mastering both is in yet another league, but somehow the creators of HBO’s Eastbound & Down are pulling it off with style. Find out how Danny McBride (Your Highness), and filmmakers David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) and Jody Hill (Observe and Report) made it look easy in this illuminating, entertaining glimpse at the art of combining technical skill, sharp comedy writing and moving from the packed auditorium to the living room couch.

Creating a Graphic Novel Hollywood Will Buy
Graphic novels are red hot in Hollywood now. With its combination of words and visuals in one attractive package, a comic book can be a great sales tool when pitching your project to studios. Ean Mering (Pomegranate) talks to David Wohl (Radical Publishing), Martin Shapiro (Night Owl Productions), Matt Hawkins (Top Cow) and Ted Adams (IDW Publishing) will explain how to create a graphic novel that will attract the attention of movie producers.

Previously announced participants for the 2010 SXSW Film Conference include Jeffery Tambor’s Acting Workshop, a Kick-Ass Conversation panel with director Matthew Vaughn, actors Aaron Johnson, Cholë Grace Moretz and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and comic writers Mark Millar and John S. Romita, Academy Award-winning Argentine composer, solo artist and producer Gustavo Santaolalla in Conversation with BMI’s Doreen Ringer Ross, and Cult comics legend Gilbert Shelton in Conversation with Harry Knowles.

There are also a great deal of short films screening at this year’s fest. It’s a long list but has several opportunities to explore and enjoy some great films and discover new filmmakers on their way to bigger (and longer) films in the future.

COMPREHENSIVE SHORT FILMS LINEUP

NARRATIVE SHORTS
A selection of original, well-crafted films that take advantage of the short form and exemplify distinctive and genuine storytelling. The winner of our Grand Jury Award in this category is eligible for a 2011 Academy Award nomination for Best Narrative Short.

ANATINUS

Director: David Wanger

A glimpse of the dawn of a strange new era.

Bedford Park Boulevard

Director: Felix Thompson

A fifteen-year-old Latino boy at a high school in the Bronx makes a mistake that will define the rest of his life.

The Big Fiddle

Director: Willi Patton

A conceptual drama exploring the nature of music in cinema, and the possibilities of having a live score shape the ways in which the characters interact with each other.

Bikini Lighters

Directors: Andrew Goldman and Andrew Blackwell

After shoplifting lighters, three young friends venture into the woods behind their neighborhood to create an explosion.

Black Ops Arabesque

Director: Jared Drake

A Secret Service Agent has a secret of his own- it involves ballet shoes.

Brave Donkey

Director: Gaysorn Thavat

When Brian pays a visit to his old home he unexpectedly finds himself in the middle of a violent dispute in which he saves a woman’s life. Tragically, his courageous decision proves to be his ultimate undoing.

The Call to the Post

Director: Brian Higdon

David, an aging musician, returns to a horseracing track to rediscover the job that defined his identity.

Cigarette Candy

Director: Lauren Wolkstein

Forced to play the role of “the hero” at his homecoming party, a traumatized teenage Marine forms an unlikely bond with a rebellious young girl.

Coney Island Baby

Director: André Aimaq

Betty found a thick wad of cash hidden in a porn DVD stashed in her new oven. And that wasn’t even the strangest thing that happened to her that day.

Equestrian Sexual Response

Director: Zeke Hawkins

Alice is introduced to sexuality through the world of racehorse breeding.

Girls Named Pinky

Director: Alex Lubliner

Morris Munsey is an average man searching in vain for a human connection. On a quiet night in a small town bar, he finds her…

Going Back

Director: Adam Keleman

A glimpse into the life of Lorna, a failed model, who returns to her home town after a sudden death in the family, confronting the past she left behind.

The Hardest Part

Director: Oliver Refson

An aging actor finally secures the audition of a lifetime. But just how badly does he want the role?

Have You Seen My Hair?

Directors: John M. Wilson and Chris Maggio

The story of a young girl whose salon appointment catapults her into a nightmarish romp through the depths of her imagination.

Jean-Paul Luc Sabastien Rene

Director: Milena Pastreich

Two fifty-year-old women tan on their living room floor when an unexpected message from their past flies through their window.

Kelp

Directors: Benjamin Dohrmann and Seth Cuddeback

A somber comedy about a married man who becomes infatuated with kelp.

The Mess Hall of an Online Warrior

Director: Dan P K Smyth

A short film about computer game addiction and the effects it has on family life.

Out of Nowhere

Director: Will Lamborn

On the run from a killer, a man tries to escape the desert.

Pancake Breakfast

Director: Adam Locke-Norton

A sarcastic guy realizes that his jokes about his girlfriend cheating may in fact be more truthful than he thought.

Savage

Director: Lisa Jackson

A residential school musical.

Snapshots

Directors: Kate Barker and Andres Rosende

New York City – Seven Stories – One Day.

Storage

Director: Nadia Tabbara

Two Lebanese men with limited English search the streets of Brooklyn for a place of Storage.

Teleglobal Dreamin’

Director: Eric Flanagan

A Filipino call center agent takes her American corporate-trainer boss out on the town, setting off a chain of events with unexpected consequences.

Televisnu

Director: Prithi Gowda

Working at a call center somewhere in India, a young woman’s computer breaks down. In an attempt to fix it, she finds herself in a magical, mythical web of electronic wires where memories, secrets, and hidden desires reveal themselves.

NARRATIVE SHORTS SCREENING WITH FEATURES

Always A Bride

Director: Danny Strauss

Cate can’t control her jealousy when she finds out her best friend is getting divorced.

Annie Goes Boating

Director: Noel Paul

A picnic in a park, in 3D.

Diplomacy

Director: Jon Goldman

Relations between the United States and Iran take an unexpected turn when two senior diplomats and their interpreters meet for a closed-door session.

Loop Planes

Director: Robin Wilby

13-year-old Nick lives with his dad at an amusement park. But today, with the arrival of his mother and a pink-haired girl, Nick is in for the ride of his life.

Lunch Watching TV

Director: Alfonso Nogueroles

A normal day: the eggs, the fries, the beer, the bread, the crisis, the politics, the football… A historical date. Just another day.

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS

Unfiltered slices of life, from across the documentary spectrum.

6

Director: Jeff Bednarz

A portrait of modern day small town America told through the story of two 6 Man Football teams vying for the Texas State Championship.

Big Birding Day

Director: David Wilson

A glimpse into the world of competitive bird watching, as three friends attempt to see as many species as possible in 24 hours.

Mr. Hypnotism

Director: Bradley Beesley

Self proclaimed “Doctor” Dante had a colorful career as a grifter. Mr. Hypnotism chronicles Dante’s stint as Hollywood’s Hypnotist to the Stars and his descent to become one of the most notorious conmen of the 20th Century.

Quadrangle

Director: Amy Grappell

An unconventional documentary about two ‘conventional’ couples that swapped partners and lived in a group marriage in the early 70s, hoping to pioneer an alternative to divorce and the way people would live in the future.

Seltzer Works

Director: Jessica Edwards

The last seltzer filler in Brooklyn fends off the supermarket seltzer take-over and honors this simple drink’s place in history

White Lines and The Fever: The Death of DJ Junebug

Director: Travis Senger

The Bronx, 1983. The hottest club in the city. One of Hip-Hop’s greatest DJ’s ever and his tragic death.

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS SCREENING WITH FEATURES

5 variations on a long string

Director: Peter Esmonde

A short music documentary about the creative life of composer/performer Ellen Fullman, who has spent over 25 years developing, perfecting, and performing on an extraordinary 60-foot-long instrument.

Keep Dancing
Director: Greg Vander Veer

The story of two 90-year old dancers who still meet, twice a week, in a private studio in Manhattan to choreograph and rehearse.

Solitary/Release
Director: Holden Abigail Osborne

Part family portrait, part audacious vision of a future that never was, Solitary/Release is an intimate documentary-fiction hybrid exploring the life of a recovering drug addict on the verge of great change.

ANIMATED SHORTS
An assortment of stories told using a mix of traditional animation, computer-generated effects, stop-motion, and everything in-between. The winner of our Grand Jury Award in this category is eligible for a 2011 Academy Award nomination for Best Animated short.
The Art of Drowning

Director: Diego Maclean

Based on a poem by Billy Collins, The Art of Drowning ponders what awaits us at the end of the line.

Bygone Behemoth

Director: Harry Chaskin

A washed-up movie monster relives his halcyon days.

The Cow Who Wanted to Be a Burger

Director: Bill Plympton

A tragic story of a bovine seduced by advertising down the path of butchers and carnivores.

Down To The Bone

Director: Peter Ahern

A boy. A babysitter. An explosive sneeze. Google it.

The Falcon

Director: Scot Hampton

Composed entirely of parts from disassembled antique/analog cameras, The Falcon follows Howell the Owl (f/256) and Professor Weston (ISO 50) as they journey throughout the Focal Kingdom searching for dinner.

Junko’s Shamisen

Director: Sol Friedman

A young Japanese orphan and her mystical friend exact poetic justice on a malevolent samurai lord.

La Nostalgia del Sr. Alambre

Director: Jonathan Ostos Yaber

A young man’s talent, miles of twisted wire, and a spotlight mix together to produce a show as never seen before.

Off-Line

Director: Tom Gasek

Off-Line is a short animated film that tells about what can happen inside a microwave oven when it is abused. It features a rather curious orange capacitor named “IZ.”

The Orange

Director: Nick Fox-Gieg

Suddenly, a humble citrus fruit is granted absolute power over the universe.

One Square Mile of Earth

Director: Jeff Drew

A series of bar room conversations featuring Bill the Bunny, Gary the Frog, Lucy the Goat, Thad the Bear, Leon the Hippopotamus and Pedro the Squirrel. Fun times await!

Poppy

Director: James Cunningham

A New Zealand soldier finds redemption in the hell of WWI.

The Polish Language

Director: Alice Lyons and Orla Mc Hardy

Using hand-drawn, stop-motion, time-lapse and computer animation techniques, The Polish Language is at once a playful and solemn journey into the sensuality, beauty and subversive power of language.

EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS
A diverse collection of films ranging from the visually stimulating to the intellectually challenging.

The Bellows March

Director: Eric Dyer

Crowds of concertinas live out a cycle of destroy-create-destroy. Dyer’s 3-D printed and hand-painted ‘cinetropes’ come to vibrant life when seen through the shutter of a video camera.

Eulogy

Director: Ben Claremont

A whole life’s story is told in just a few seconds. Eulogy is a film about life, death… and pigeons.

Feeder

Director: Joseph Ernst

A short film that will make you feel sick.

I close my eyes and walk away

Director: Michele Castagnetti

Memories turn into dreams as dreams turn into memories.

I Miss

Director: Annie Dorsen

In this mesmerizing short, a girl is prompted by her mother in the recitation of an intensely romantic poem.

Kids Might Fly

Director: Alex Taylor

A young homeless girl is taken into care. Set in an urban wilderness, this film is an offbeat and touching experimental drama about East London kids.

LoopLoop

Director: Patrick Bergeron

In a train going to Hanoi in Vietnam, the houses boarding the railroad are passing by. Using animation and time shifts this video runs forwards and backwards looking for forgotten details, mimicking the way memories are replayed in the mind.

Meatwaffle

Director: Leah Shore

An old man recalls his strange and bizarre memories

Mamori

Director: Karl Lemieux

Mamori takes its title from a place in the Amazon forest, and captures the textures of tropical vegetation and its various transformations according to the phenomena of light.

Night Mayor

Director: Guy Maddin

From acclaimed fabulist Guy Maddin comes a new quasi-documentary completely unburdened by fact.

ReRun

Director: Asif Mian

An urban odyssey of visual and audio following a young basketball player and his sneakers.

Vertigo

Director: Oscar Berrio

Poetry and video integrated to transmit a stunning aesthetical experience.

MIDNIGHT SHORTS
Bite-sized bits for all of your sex, gore, and hilarity needs.

5 Second Films

Director: Brian Firenzi

A warped-speed, breathlessly bizarre collection of comedic shorts, all exactly 5 seconds long. From the people that brought you Sophie’s Choice.

The Alleyway

Director: Cosmo Jarvis

An experimental film about an alleyway and an old man’s relationship to it.

The Babysitter

Director: Kristen Gray-Rockmaker

When a troubled married couple arrive home from a night out, they encounter a horrifying scene.

Can We Talk?

Director: Jim Owen

Vince gets way more than he bargains for when he dumps his girlfriend . . . again.

Cocoa Loco

Director: Shaka King

A short film about cocoa butter scented lotion, karmic retribution, and the strangers you call family.

Delmer Builds A Machine

Director: Landon Zakheim

An account of the most Important event in recorded history.

Dwight David Honeycutt for Conway School Board

Director: Roland Honeycutt Jr.

Re-edit of my uncle’s old political video footage in order to better convey the man.

Eagles Are Turning People Into Horses

Director: Brian McElhaney

Lyle, too scared to break up with his girlfriend honestly, enacts a scheme to convince her they MUST break up because he is on the frontlines of a vicious battle between man, beast and fowl.

Expiration

Director: Mark Nickelsburg

A lonely man courts danger by drinking a glass of milk just seconds before the expiration date.

Fix My Dick

Director: PJ Raval

A music video for the artist CHRISTEENE featuring DJ Jaunty.

Not Interested

Director: D.W. Young

A spaced out knife salesman makes the house call of a lifetime.

TUB

Director: Bobby Miller

Paul can’t commit. Paul jerks off in the shower. Paul just impregnated his bath tub.

TEXAS SHORTS
An offshoot of our regular narrative shorts program, composed of work shot in, about, or somehow relating to the Lone Star state.

Better Safe than Sorry

Director: Chris Demarais

Pigeon. Squirrel.

The Big Bends

Director: Jason William Marlow

The Big Bends captures the story of a dying man in the desert as he is confronted by a troubled Mexican couple crossing the border.

Depth of Phil

Director: Jack Daniel Stanley

Amidst delusions of saving failed U.S. banks and car companies, an aging homeless man reconnects with a long-lost sweetheart via Facebook in this quirky Austin-set tragicomedy.

El Abuelo

Director: Dino Dinco

El Abuelo is a lyrical portrait of Joe Jimenez, Texan poet and educator, whose words connect the power of a well-ironed crease with attracting the eye of another homeboy.

The GrownUps

Director: Jason Wehling

In The GrownUps, two couples try to regroup after a dinner argument gets out-of-hand.

Honorarium

Director: Steve Mims

The arrival of a controversial figure to speak at a university conference tests the boundaries of social decorum and social duties.

Mnemosyne Rising
Director: Miguel Alvarez

A deep-space transmitter pilot begins to experience unusual flashbacks on his ship when he learns he’s being sent back to Earth.

Now or Never

Director: Aaron Burns

Henry has been in love with his best friend Alexa for years. Today he has decided to tell her not only how he feels, but exactly how deeply he feels it.

Petting Sharks

Director: Craig Elrod

The sea of love is short on sharks.

Rule No. 2

Director: Avram Dodson

Breaking Rule No. 2 leads to relationship trouble, which is bad. But relationship trouble leads to makeup sex, which is good!

Table 7

Director: Marko Slavnic

A couple has an intimate conversation in a restaurant, unaware that their every word is being closely monitored.

Trash Day

Director: Sam Lerma

When you love your trash man, tell him with your garbage.

SX GLOBAL SHORTS
A showcase for cutting-edge documentary shorts from around the world.

The Mystery of Flying Kicks (Australia)

Director: Matthew Bate

Murder, sex, drugs, art, politics…? A film exploring the global mystery of why shoes appear on telephone lines.

Peter in Radioland (Scotland)

Director: Johanna Wagner

A carefully observed study of the director’s father Peter, who stubbornly remains in an analogue world.

Pollphail (Scotland)

Director: Matthew Lloyd

A deserted village in limbo on the west coast of Scotland where two men share an obsession with an imagined future.

Schlimazeltov! (UK)

Director: Christopher Thomas Allen

Maybe some people are just born unlucky? An exploration of luck – does it exist and if so how can you get more of it?

Summer of a Newspaper Kid (Estonia)

Director: Katri Rannastu

9-year old Marten has decided to sell newspapers during his summer holiday. The job, boring and routine at first glance, pushes the kid into the everyday reality of the grownup world, where he meets competition and cheating.

Sunrise Dacapo (12cm/Stehend) (Germany)

Director: Nina Poppe

Nature from the assembly line. An observation on the growing of geraniums in mass production and the coherence of noise and silence. The beauty of nature, apparently perfectly reproduced in artificial surroundings.

Volta (Canada)

Director: Ryan Mullins

Former projectionist Emmanual Agboyame and others tell the story of the Volta cinema and look back on the sense of community it brought out in everyone.

SX GLOBAL SHORTS SCREENING WITH FEATURES

Arsy-Versy (Slovakia)

Director: Miro Remo

A Film about mom and her son Lubos, who conquered the world upside down.

Control (Norway)

Director: Hanne Myren

Control is about the emotions we prefer to keep to ourselves.

Ivan and Ivan (Russia)

Director: Philipp Abryutin

Ivan lives with his grandparents on the tundra, fishing and herding reindeer. He and his grandfather, Ivan senior, have strong bonds both to the land and to each other, but soon, young Ivan must leave.

MUSIC VIDEOS
A range of classic, innovative, and stylish work showcasing the scope of music video culture.

Apes & Androids, “Golden Prize”

Director: That Go

BRONTOSORUS, “Amy”

Director: Pete Scalzitti

Chris Garneau, “Fireflies”

Director: Daniel Stessen

Cinnamon Chasers, “Luv Deluxe”

Director: Saman Keshavarz

The Diagonals, “Clones”

Director: Nick Smith

Fatback Circus, “Brain Damage”

Director: Rodney Brunet

Fires of Rome, “Set in Stone” (M83 Remix)

Director: Matthew Lessner

Grizzly Bear, “Forest”

Director: Allison Schulnik

Height, “Mike Stone”

Director: Justin Barnes

Heypenny, “Copcar”

Director: Joey Ciccoline

Hunter Cross and the Strays, “Twisty Ties”

Director: Paul Ahern

Kevin Devine, “I Could Be With Anyone”

Director: Sherng-Lee Huang

Man Branch, “The Gym Is All She Has”

Director: Matt Leach

N.A.S.A. “Spacious Thoughts”

Director: Mark Lomond

P.O.S. “Drumroll”

Director: Todd Cobery

Passion Pit, “To Kingdom Come”

Director: Mixtape Club

Socalled, “(Rock the) Belz”

Director: Kaveh Nabatian

These United States, “Everything Touches Everything”

Director: Maxwell Sorensen

Truckers of Husk, “Person for the Person”

Directors: Casey Raymond and Ewan Jones Morris

WHY?, “These Hands / January Twentysomething”

Director: Ben Barnes

Writer, “Four Letters”

Director: Brad Kester

FUTURESTATES
What is the America of the future? In this series of fictional shorts presented by ITVS, different filmmakers examine current events by extrapolating them into the future. By embracing elements of speculative and science fiction, each film creates a fantastic new world to make comment on our own.

Mister Green

Director: Greg Pak

A parable about change in which a jaded government undersecretary becomes the unwitting test subject for an experimental program to curb global warming.

Plastic Bag

Director: Ramin Bahrani

Struggling with its immortality, a lost plastic bag ventures through the environmentally barren remains of America as it narrates its search for its master, the young woman who owned and used it in an era long since past.

The Rise

Director: Garret Williams

In the radically altered housing market of the future, an older couple must forego their dreams of retirement and home ownership and in the process, adapt to the ever-evolving definition of the American dream.

Silver Sling

Director: Tze Chun

In the polarized economy of the near future, corporations offer subsidies to their high-ranking female employees to pay for surrogate pregnancies and chemically accelerated births. Here a struggling career surrogate must decide whether or not to carry the child of two potential clients, thus giving up her last chance to have a child of her own.

Tent City

Director: Aldo Velasco

In a world where housing is granted only to the powerful few, a father who makes his living evicting the powerless must choose between his responsibilities as a provider for his family and his moral principles.

Tia & Marco

Director: Annie Howell

When a pregnant border patrol agent discovers an illegal immigrant child hiding in her home, she is forced to question her loyalty to closed borders.

ALAN GOVENAR SPECIAL PRESENTATION

Texas Folklife will present special screenings of the films of a Texas treasure–folklorist, writer, photographer and filmmaker Alan Govenar.

Cigarette Blues (1985)

Co-directed with Les Blank, the film features Sonny Rhodes and the Texas Twisters performing at Eli’s Mile High Club in Oakland, California.

The Devil’s Swing (2005)

The film takes its name from a story people tell in the isolated region of the Texas-Mexico border and reveals the seemingly unrelated worlds of sacred rituals, corridos, drug lords, Pancho Villa and the tragic killing of a nineteen year old boy.

The Hard Ride (1996)

A journey into the little known world of the black ranch rodeo culture of Southeast Texas.

Little Willie Eason and His Talking Gospel Guitar (2005)

Taking place on the street and in the House of God Church south of Miami, the film highlights the man who introduced the pedal steel guitar as an instrument for the expression of faith.

The Microtones of Simon Shaheen (2010)

The film introduces a virtuoso of the Arabic oud and violin, and his Palestinian community in Brooklyn.

The Poetry of Exactitude (2008)

The film delves into the imagination of Lucien Mouchet and the 1/120th scale carousels and fairground scenes that he has been making in Paris, France since 1946.

Stoney Knows How (1981)

Govenar’s first film, is an inside look at the circus and carnival sideshow from the point of view of Old School tattoo master, Leonard St. Clair, disabled by arthritis at the age of four, who joined the circus as a sword swallower as a teenager and tattooed young and old alike for more than fifty years.