"Baghead"
Metromix was there—eating tacos for breakfast, checking email with the Austin Convention Center’s free WiFi and listening to filmmakers answer audience queries after their packed screenings.
Here are five of the best things an orange badge got festival attendees in to see:
First time documentarian Celia Maysles premiered "Wild Blue Yonder," a movie where she digs into her family’s history in search of her father, filmmaker David Maysles ("Grey Gardens"). After her dad died suddenly when Celia was only 7-years-old, David’s business partner and brother, Albert cut all ties. With camera in tow, Celia tries to reconnect with Albert, interview old colleagues and uncover material of her dad in his prime. But as Celia gets closer to knowing more, Albert rescinds access to David’s old footage because at some point, maybe, he might want to make his own movie about his brother. Celia’s struggle with Albert—and herself—is bracingly intimate.
On Sunday evening, a massive crowd wrapped around the block at the downtown Alamo Ritz theater for the single Spotlight screening of "Baghead," directed by the Duplass brothers, who also made 2005 fest winner "The Puffy Chair." SXSW veterans and members of the mumblecore crew, Jay and Mark Duplass made this self-reflective romp about four struggling actors who turn to indie filmmaking to make their mark. Only to almost throw it all away with their fraught love square. "Baghead’s" cast includes SXSW golden girl Greta Gerwig, who also appeared in two other popular movies at the fest, "Nights and Weekends" and "Yeast."
Award-winning documentarian Daniel Junge, whose films have aired on PBS and played various film festivals, first read about murdered Sister Dorothy Stang, a 74-year-old Catholic nun from Ohio, in The New York Times. Junge and his camera crew followed Dorothy's brother David as he returned to the scene of her brutal killing in Brazil’s rainforest. The subsequent film, "Who Killed Sister Dorothy?" focuses on the title subject's unfailing work for the poor and the ecology of Brazil. It won the fest's Audience Award and the Grand Jury Award for documentary features.
The release of any new Harry Potter product becomes a massive media event with fans dressed up in prep school ties and brandishing wands. In "We Are Wizards," a new documentary which premiered in competition at SXSW, Brooklyn-based filmmaker Josh Koury examines five Potter maniacs who use their fandom to make music, draw cartoons and launch web sites. The blonde 7-year-old lead singer of the Hungarian Horntails, a band in the "Wizard Rock" genre, is utterly adorable, but the doc’s stand-out character has to be the kooky evangelical Christian writer who says encouraging children to study the occult with the Potter books will “destroy society.”
Another hot ticket at the festival was the world premiere of "Explicit Ills" by actor-turned-director Mark Webber, which took home both the Audience Award and a Special Jury Award for cinematography. Webber’s drama follows a number of working poor living in Philadelphia as they struggle to eek out a decent standard of living in one of the richest countries in the world. The film’s strong cast includes indie luminaries Paul Dano, Rosario Dawson, Naomie Harris and Lou Taylor Pucci, and indie icon Jim Jarmusch (who previously cast Webber in his last movie, "Broken Flowers") is one of the executive producers.
