by Jackie Richard

From the opening scene, Eden forces the audience to travel inside a dark world few of us ever willingly go. Eden is loosely based on the true life experiences of a teenage girl plucked from a seedy bar and held captive for over two years in the early 90s, long before human trafficking was openly acknowledged as a real epidemic. The more time goes by, the more she is forced to build relationships with her captors, both as a day-to-day survival mechanism and as a strategy to plan her escape. While she does eventually outsmart her oppressors, her harrowing experiences will forever leave her scarred.

The film stars former ‘Real World: San Diego’ reality star turned aspiring thespian Jamie Chung, Matt O’Leary, and Beau Bridges. Director Megan Griffiths was rightfully awarded the SXSW Chicken & Egg Emergent Narrative Woman Director Award for her smart and delicate approach to such a seedy subject matter. Her main objective was to make a watchable film so that the audience danced just up to the line of grotesque but not obscene, where they could feel deep sadness and compassion for the protagonist without feeling like the film was borderline pornographic.

I was pleasantly surprised with the daring performances, especially newcomer Jamie Chung, who was awarded a Special Jury Recognition for her gripping portrayal of Eden.

What a privilege it was for the audience to meet the “real life” Eden, who bravely joined the cast and crew onstage for the Q&A. Judging from her emotional reaction to watching the film, the filmmakers did justice to her story, although she did remark “the script was quite watered down; I wish I had it as easy as Eden did..” (which to the audience did not look the least bit easy).

Griffiths and her scriptwriter made some really wise decisions by keeping the plot steadily moving along without dwelling too much on the graphic nature of the story. This also leads to a handful of climatic encounters where you have no clue how Eden will react or what decision she will make when pushed to the brink, leading you to question “what would I have done differently than Eden?” To which my gut tells me, probably nothing.

Death to the Movies will be arriving in Austin, TX tomorrow to report on SXSW. Be sure to check-in frequently this week for reviews and updates. There are a lot of films we’re excited for this year so stay tuned!

You can also follow us on twitter for more #SXSW coverage: @death2themovies

The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival is thrilled to announce the features lineup for this year’s Festival, March 9 – 17, 2012 in Austin, Texas. We are also pleased to reveal the world premiere of Emmett Malloy’s documentary Big Easy Express as our Closing Night Film, which follows a train ride unlike any other with Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros and Old Crow Medicine Show.Big Easy Express will screen on Saturday, March 17. The program will also include the world premiere of Colombia Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures’ 21 Jump Street, screening in the Centerpiece slot on Monday, March 12. The 2012 lineup continues the SXSW tradition of celebrating ambitious experimentation with risk takers both in front of and behind the camera, and a deep immersion into cultural touchstones. The Midnighters feature section and the Short Film program will be announced on February 8.

Over the course of nine days, 130 features will screen at SXSW 2012. In addition to nine full days of film screenings, SXSW Film will ultimately feature over 100 informative and entertaining panels, workshops, mini-meetings and mentor sessions. Previously announced panels include A Conversation with Joss Whedon, a dialogue with Lena Dunham, Judd Apatow and more on the HBO series Girls, A Conversation with Cliff Martinez, Drive composer, and The Business of Kevin Smith among others. The final conference lineup will be announced February 15. Visit www.sxsw.com/film for more information and updates.

The 2012 SXSW Film Festival will feature:

NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION

This year’s 8 films were selected from 1,112 submissions. Each film is a World Premiere.

 Films screening in Narrative Feature Competition are:

Booster

Director/Screenwriter: Matt Ruskin

When Simon’s brother is arrested for armed robbery, he is asked to commit a string of similar crimes in an attempt to get his brother acquitted.

Cast: Nico Stone, Adam DuPaul, Seymour Cassel, Kristin Dougherty, Brian McGrail (World Premiere)

Eden

Director: Megan Griffiths, Screenwriters: Richard B. Phillips, Megan Griffiths, Story by: Richard B. Phillips & Chong Kim

A young Korean-American girl, abducted and forced into prostitution by domestic human traffickers, joins forces with her captors in a desperate plea to survive. Cast: Jamie Chung, Matt O’Leary, Beau Bridges, Jeanine Monterroza, Scott Mechlowicz (World Premiere)

Gayby

Director/Screenwriter: Jonathan Lisecki

Jenn and Matt, best friends since college who are now in their thirties, decide to have a child together, the old-fashioned way – even though Matt is gay and Jenn is straight. Cast: Jenn Harris, Matthew Wilkas, Mike Doyle, Anna Margaret Hollyman, Jack Ferver (World Premiere)

Gimme the Loot

Director/Screenwriter: Adam Leon

When Malcolm and Sofia’s latest graffiti masterpiece is buffed by a rival gang, these two determined Bronx teens must hustle, steal, and scheme to get spectacular revenge and become the biggest writers in the City. Cast: Tashiana Washington, Ty Hickson, Meeko, Zoe Lescaze, Sam Soghor

(World Premiere)

Los Chidos(Germany / Mexico / USA)

Director/Screenwriter: Omar Rodriguez Lopez

The Gonzales family tries hard to hold on to their beautiful Latino traditions of misogyny and homophobia when a tall, white, industrialist stranger appears, challenging their place in the exploitative food chain. Cast: Kim Stodel, María De Jesús Canales Ramírez, Manuel Ramos, Cecillia Gutiérrez, (World Premiere)

Pilgrim Song

Director: Martha Stephens, Screenwriters: Martha Stephens, Karrie Crouse

A pink-slipped music teacher ponders his stalled relationship and place in the world during an arduous trek across Kentucky’s Sheltowee Trace Trail.Cast: Timothy Morton, Bryan Marshall, Karrie Crouse, Harrison Cole, Michael Abbott Jr.(World Premiere)

Starlet

Director: Sean Baker, Screenwriters: Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch

The film explores the unlikely friendship between 21-year-old Jane (Dree Hemingway), and 85 year-old Sadie (Besedka Johnson), two women whose worlds collide in California’s San Fernando Valley.

Cast: Dree Hemingway, Besedka Johnson, Stella Maeve, James Ransone, Karren Karagulian

(World Premiere)

The Taiwan Oyster

Director: Mark Jarrett, Screenwriters: Mark Jarrett, Jordan Heimer, Mitchell Jarrett

Two Ex-Pat Kindergarten teachers in Taiwan embark on a quixotic odyssey to bury a fellow countryman. Cast: Billy Harvey, Jeff Palmiotti, Leonora Lim(World Premiere)

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION

This year’s 8 films were selected from 845 submissions. Each film is a World Premiere.

Films screening in Documentary Feature Competition are:

Bay of All Saints

Director: Annie Eastman

As the last of the notorious water slums is demolished in Bahia, Brazil, will three single mothers face homelessness or rally for a better life? (World Premiere)

Beware of Mr. Baker

Director: Jay Bulger

Ginger Baker is the original rock ‘n roll madman junkie drummer superstar who everyone thought was dead but somehow survived 50+ years of heroin abuse, disastrous experiments and 5 marriages on 4 continents. (World Premiere)

The Central Park Effect

Director: Jeffrey Kimball

The film reveals the extraordinary array of wild birds who grace Manhattan’s celebrated patch of green, and the equally colorful, full-of-attitude New Yorkers who schedule their lives around the rhythms of migration. (World Premiere)

Jeff

Director: Chris James Thompson

A documentary about the people around Jeffrey Dahmer during the 1991 summer of his arrest for the murder of 17 people in Milwaukee. (World Premiere)

Seeking Asian Female

Director: Debbie Lum

When an American man with “yellow fever” meets a Chinese woman half his age online, documenting their attempt to build a marriage from scratch reveals hilarious and troubling complications for the couple and the filmmaker. (World Premiere)

The Sheik and I

Director: Caveh Zahedi

Commissioned by a Middle Eastern Biennial to make a film on the theme of “art as a subversive act,” independent filmmaker Caveh Zahedi (I am a Sex Addict) is threatened with a fatwa. (World Premiere)

The Source

Directors: Jodi Wille, Maria Demopoulos

The Source Family was a radical experiment in ’70s utopian living. Their popular restaurant, rock band, and beautiful women made them the darlings of Hollywood; but their outsider ideals led to their dramatic undoing. (World Premiere)

Welcome To The Machine

Director: Avi Zev Weider

Upon fathering triplets, filmmaker Avi Zev Weider explores the nature of technology, seeking answers about what it means to be human. (World Premiere)

HEADLINERS

Big names, big talent: Headliners bring star power to SXSW, featuring red carpet premieres and gala film events with some major and rising names in cinema.

Films screening in Headliners are:

21 Jump Street

Directed by: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, Screenplay by: Michael Bacall, Story by: Michael Bacall & Jonah Hill

Police officers Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) get sent back to high school as undercover cops in the action-comedy 21 Jump Street. Cast: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle, with Ice Cube(World Premiere)

BIG EASY EXPRESS

Director: Emmett Malloy

Emmett Malloy’s latest film invites us aboard a train ride unlike any other with Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros and Old Crow Medicine Show.

(World Premiere)

The Cabin in the Woods

Director: Drew Goddard, Screenwriters: Joss Whedon & Drew Goddard

Five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods. Bad things happen. If you think you know this story, think again. From fan favorites Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard comes The Cabin in the Woods, a mind-blowing horror film that turns the genre inside out. Cast: Kristen Connolly, Fran Kranz, Anna Hutchison, Chris Hemsworth, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, and Bradley Whitford (World Premiere)

Decoding Deepak

Director: Gotham Chopra

Filmmaker Gotham Chopra spends a year on the road decoding his father and spiritual icon Deepak Chopra. (World Premiere)

Girls

Director/Screenwriter: Lena Dunham

Created by and starring Lena Dunham (Tiny Furniture), the HBO show is a comic look at the assorted humiliations and rare triumphs of a group of girls in their early 20s.

Cast: Lena Dunham, Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke, Zosia Mamet, Adam Driver (World Premiere)

The Hunter(Australia)

Director: Daniel Nettheim, Screenplay by: Alice Addison, Novel by: Julia Leigh, Original Adaptation by: Wain Fimeri

A mercenary is dispatched from Europe to the Tasmanian wilderness by a mysterious biotech company to search for the last surviving Tasmanian tiger.

Cast: Willem Dafoe, Frances O’Connor, Sam Neill (U.S. Premiere)

Killer Joe

Director: William Friedkin, Screenwriter: Tracy Letts

Agarish, Southwestern tale – a violent black comedy about a desperate Texas debtor (Hirsch) who plots to kill his mother with help of his family (Haden Church, Gershon).  They hire a crazy Dallas cop who moonlights as a contract killer (McConaughey) to do the job, but Killer Joe asks for their teenage daughter (Temple) as a retainer. The film is based on Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Letts’ (August: Osage County) award winning play. Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Gina Gershon, Juno Temple, Thomas Haden Church(U.S. Premiere)

MARLEY(UK / USA)

Director: Kevin Macdonald

The definitive life story of Bob Marley – musician, revolutionary, legend – from his early days to his rise to international superstardom. Made with the support of the Marley family, the film features rare footage, incredible performances and revelatory interviews with the people that knew him best. Directed by Academy-Award-Winner Kevin Macdonald. (North American Premiere)

NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT

High profile narrative features receiving their World, North American or U.S. Premieres at SXSW.

Films screening in Narrative Spotlight are:

The Babymakers

Director: Jay Chandrasekhar, Screenwriters: Peter Gaulke, Gerry Swallow

Unable to impregnate his wife, Tommy and friends rob a sperm bank – to get Tommy’s long-ago donated sperm back. The crazy plan goes hilariously awry and shows how far a couple will go to create a new life.

Cast: Paul Schneider, Olivia Munn, Kevin Heffernan, Wood Harris, Nat Faxon (World Premiere)

Crazy Eyes

Director: Adam Sherman, Screenwriters: Adam Sherman, Dave Reeves & Rachel Hardisty

Just another story about love.

Cast: Lukas Haas, Madeline Zima, Jake Busey, Tania Raymonde, Regine Nehy (World Premiere)

Do-Deca-Pentathalon

Director/Screenwriter: Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass

Two brothers compete in their own private 25-event Olympics.

Cast: Mark Kelly, Steve Zissis, Elton LeBlanc (World Premiere)

Fat Kid Rules The World

Director: Matthew Lillard, Screenwriters: Michael M.B. Galvin, Peter Speakman

Troy, a depressed overweight teenager, gets sucked into the punk rock world by Marcus, a charming street musician. But when Troy discovers Marcus’ drug addiction, he suddenly must figure out the true boundaries of friendship.

Cast: Jacob Wysocki, Matt O’Leary, Billy Campbell, Lilli Simmons, Dylan Arnold(World Premiere)

frankie go boom

Director/Screenwriter: Jordan Roberts

a flick by bruce about his little brother frank who’s a crybaby fuck who shouldn’t do lame-ass embarrassing shit if he dozn’t want people 2 see it

Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Chris O’Dowd, Lizzy Caplan, Ron Perlman, Chris Noth (World Premiere)

Hunky Dory(UK)

Director: Marc Evans, Screenwriter: Laurence Coriat

From the producer of Billy Elliotcomes this funny, coming of age film featuring songs from artists such as David Bowie, Lou Reed, The Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel, Dusty Springfield and Electric Light Orchestra. Cast: Minnie Driver, Aneurin Barnard, Danielle Branch, Robert Pugh, Haydn Gwynne

(North American Premiere)

In Our Nature

Director/Screenwriter: Brian Savelson

Taking place over a single weekend, an estranged father and son accidentally end up in the same country house with their two girlfriends.

Cast: Zach Gilford, Jena Malone, John Slattery, Gabrielle Union(World Premiere)

Keyhole(Canada)

Director: Guy Maddin, Screenwriters: Guy Maddin, George Toles

I’m only a ghost… but a ghost isn’t nothing.

Cast: Isabella Rossellini, Jason Patric, Udo Kier, Kevin McDonald, Tattiawna Jones (U.S. Premiere)

See Girl Run

Director/Screenwriter: Nate Meyer

What happens when a 30-something woman allows life’s “what ifs” to overwhelm her appreciation for what life actually is. Disregarding her current obligations, she digs into her romantic past in hopes of invigorating her present.

Cast: Robin Tunney, Adam Scott, Jeremy Strong, William Sadler, Josh Hamilton (World Premiere)

Small Apartments

Director: Jonas Åkerlund, Screenwriter: Chris Millis

When Franklin Franklin accidentally kills his landlord, he must hide the body; but, the wisdom of his beloved brother and the quirks of his neighbors, force him on a journey where a fortune awaits him. Cast: Matt Lucas, Billy Crystal, James Caan, Johnny Knoxville, Juno Temple(World Premiere)

Somebody Up There Likes Me

Director/Screenwriter: Bob Byington

Time flies for everyone: Thirty-five years in the life of Max, his best friend Sal, and a woman they both adore. A deadpan fable about time sneaking up on and swerving right around us.

Cast: Keith Poulson, Nick Offerman, Jess Weixler, Stephanie Hunt, Kevin Corrigan(World Premiere)

DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT

Shining a light on new documentary features receiving their World, North American or U.S. Premieres at SXSW.

Films screening in Documentary Spotlight are:

$ELLEBRITY

Director: Kevin Mazur

Renowned celebrity photographer, Kevin Mazur, gives us an all access pass to the life behind the velvet rope and in front of the camera.  Candid, revealing and bold interviews with Jennifer Aniston, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Lopez, Elton John and more, take us inside the blurred lines of privacy, pliable journalism, celebrity, fame and what it feels like to be consumed. (World Premiere)

America’s Parking Lot

Director: Jonny Mars

Pull up a front row seat as two die-hard fans of ‘America’s Team’ spend their last season with the Dallas Cowboys at historic Texas Stadium, and scramble to preserve their place in America’s Parking Lot. (World Premiere)

The Announcement

Director: Nelson George

On Thursday, November 7, 1991, Earvin “Magic” Johnson made the stunning announcement that he was HIV-positive and would be retiring from basketball immediately. The Announcementgets to the core of Magic’s incredible personal journey. (World Premiere)

Beauty Is Embarrassing

Director: Neil Berkeley

A funny, irreverent and inspirational look into the life and times of one of America’s most important artists, Wayne White. (World Premiere)

Brooklyn Castle

Director: Katie Dellamaggiore

Amidst financial crises and unprecedented public school budget cuts, Brooklyn Castletakes an intimate look at the challenges and triumphs facing members of a junior high school’s champion chess team. (World Premiere)

Code of the West

Director: Rebecca Richman Cohen

Frames a high stakes showdown in the halls of the Montana State Legislature. The future of medical marijuana is at stake. (World Premiere)

Degenerate Art: The Art and Culture of Glass Pipes.

Director: M. Slinger

A true document of the art and culture of glass pipe-making. It is the first film to ever bring to light this invisible sub-culture in a comprehensive and well-informed format. (World Premiere)

Girl Model

Directors: A. Sabin, David Redmon

Young Russian girls join a modeling agency to seek work in Japan, but get caught up in an unregulated system that reveals an unseemly side of the fashion industry. (U.S. Premiere)

Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters

Director: Ben Shapiro

Acclaimed photographer Gregory Crewdson’s 10-year quest to create a series of haunting, surreal, and stunningly elaborate portraits of small-town American life — filmed with unprecedented access as he makes perfect renderings of a disturbing, imperfect world. (World Premiere)

Just Like Being There

Director: Scout Shannon

Through the eyes of Daniel Danger, Jay Ryan, and the gig poster community, Just Like Being Therefocuses on poster artists, the music they commemorate, MONDO film posters, fans, bloggers, galleries, collectors and everything in between. (World Premiere)

Scarlet Road(Australia)

Director: Catherine Scott

The film follows the extraordinary work of Australian sex worker, Rachel Wotton. Impassioned about freedom of sexual expression and the rights of sex workers, she specializes in a long over-looked clientele – people with disability. (North American Premiere)

Trash Dance

Director: Andrew Garrison

A choreographer finds beauty and grace in garbage trucks, and against the odds, rallies reluctant city trash collectors to perform an extraordinary dance spectacle. On an abandoned airport runway, two dozen sanitation workers — and their trucks — inspire an audience of thousands. (World Premiere)

Waiting For Lightning

Director: Jacob Rosenberg

From the producers of Step into Liquid, comes the story of visionary skateboarder Danny Way, who jumped China’s Great Wall and created a new movement in sport. (World Premiere)

Wikileaks: Secrets & Lies(UK)

Director: Patrick Forbes

The in-depth story of Wikileaks told by all the key players. Sulphurous, personal and moving, it documents history in the making at the lawless frontier of new technology and mainstream media. (North American Premiere)

WONDER WOMEN! The Untold Story of American Superheroines

Director: Kristy Guevara-Flanagan

This documentary examines the fascinating evolution and legacy of Wonder Woman and introduces audiences to a dynamic group of real life superheroes who continue to fight the good fight both on and off the screen. (World Premiere)

EMERGING VISIONS

Audacious, risk-taking artists in the new cinema landscape that demonstrate raw innovation and creativity in documentary and narrative filmmaking.

Films screening in Emerging Visions are:

Black Pond(UK)

Directors: Tom Kingsley, Will Sharpe, Screenwriter: Will Sharpe

An ordinary family is accused of murder when a stranger dies at their dinner table. Stars BAFTA-winner Chris Langham and British Comedy Award Winner Simon Amstell. Cast: Chris Langham, Simon Amstell, Amanda Hadingue, Colin Hurley, Will Sharpe (North American Premiere)

Dollhouse(Ireland)

Director/Screenwriter: Kirsten Sheridan

Five street teens break into a house in a rich Dublin suburb for a night of partying. But games are twisted into something more emotional and ultimately out of control through a series of surprising revelations. Cast: Seana Kerslake, Johnny Ward, Kate Stanley Brennan, Shane Curry, Ciaran McCabe (North American Premiere)

Eating Alabama

Director: Andrew Beck Grace

A quest to eat locally becomes a meditation on community, the South and sustainability. Eating Alabamais a story about why food matters. (World Premiere)

Electrick Children

Director/Screenwriter: Rebecca Thomas

Rachel, a 15-year-old fundamentalist Mormon, believes she’s had an immaculate conception by listening to rock and roll. She flees to Las Vegas to escape an arranged marriage, seeking answers to her mysterious pregnancy.

Cast: Julia Garner, Rory Culkin, Liam Aiken, Billy Zane (North American Premiere)

Extracted

Director/Screenwriter: Nir Paniry

A scientist is trapped in the memories of a criminal and must solve a crime in order to get back home to his family.

Cast: Sasha Roiz, Dominic Bogart, Jenny Mollen, Nick Jameson, Brad Culver(World Premiere)

Francine(Canada / USA)

Director/Screenwriter: Brian M. Cassidy, Melanie Shatzky

Academy-Award-winner, Melissa Leo, plays Francine, a woman struggling to find her place in a downtrodden lakeside town after leaving behind a life in prison.

Cast: Melissa Leo, Keith Leonard, Victoria Charkut (North American Premiere)

Funeral Kings

Director/Screenwriter: Kevin Mcmanus, Matthew Mcmanus

For three 14-year-old boys at St. Mark’s Middle School, it’s always a good day for a funeral.

Cast: Dylan Hartigan, Alex Maizus, Jordan Puzzo, Charles Odei, Kevin Corrigan(World Premiere)

Hard Labor(Brazil)

Director/Screenwriter: Juliana Rojas, Marco Dutra

Helena prepares to open her own business: a neighborhood grocery store. She hires a maid. But when her husband Octavio is suddenly fired from his job, Helena is left to support the family alone.

Cast: Helena Albergaria, Marat Descartes, Naloana Lima, Marina Flores (U.S. Premiere)

La Camioneta – The Journey of One American School Bus

Director: Mark Kendall

On a 3,000-mile adventure across the borders between the Americas, La Camionetafollows the journey of one out-of-service American school bus as it is repaired, repainted and resurrected into a Guatemalan camioneta. (World Premiere)

The Last Fall

Director/Screenwriter: Matthew A. Cherry

An NFL journeyman struggles to deal with life’s complexities after his professional career is over at age 25.

Cast: Lance Gross, Nicole Beharie, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Harry Lennix, Keith David

(World Premiere)

Leave Me Like You Found Me

Director/Screenwriter: Adele Romanski

Big trees, broken hearts. The story of a lovesick couple’s breakup & makeup while camping in the wilds of California. Cast: Megan Boone, David Nordstrom(World Premiere)

PAVILION

Director/Screenwriter: Tim Sutton

Max, a quietly troubled 15-year-old, leaves his lakeside town to live with his father on the sun-blasted fringe of suburban Arizona. What begins in a calm and lush environment ends in a drastic, frayed confusion. Cast: Max Schaffner, Zach Cali, Cody Hamric, Addie Barlett, Aaron Buyea(World Premiere)

Sun Don’t Shine

Director/Screenwriter: Amy Seimetz

Two lovers, on the back roads of Florida, do very bad things.

Cast: Kate Lyn Sheil, Kentucker Audley, AJ Bowen, Kit Gwinn, Mark Reeb(World Premiere)

Sunset Stories

Directors: Silas Howard, Ernesto Foronda, Screenwriter: Valerie Stadler

When May returns to LA and runs smack into JP, the man she left behind, past and present collide sending them on a twenty-four hour journey in search of what they lost.

Cast: Monique Curnen, Sung Kang, Joshua Leonard, Mousa Kraish, Michelle Krusiec(World Premiere)

Tchoupitoulas

Director: Bill Ross, Turner Ross

Three young brothers’ immersive journey into the sensory wonders of the New Orleans night.

(World Premiere)

Thale(Norway)

Director/Screenwriter: Aleksander L. Nordaas

The film revolves around huldra, a mythical, tailed creature, found by two crime scene cleaners in a concealed cellar. Someone’s been keeping her down here for decades, for reasons soon to surface. Cast: Silje Reinåmo, Jon Sigve Skard, Erlend Nervold, Morten Andresen(North American Premiere)

Wildness

Director/Screenwriter: Wu Tsang

A magical-realist portrait of the Silver Platter, a historic bar in Los Angeles that provides a safe space for Latin/LGBT immigrant and queer art communities to come together in love and conflict.

WOLF

Director/Screenwriter: Ya’ke Smith

A family is shaken to the core when they discover their son has been molested. As they struggle to deal with the betrayal, their son heads towards a total mental collapse.

Cast: Irma P. Hall, Mikala Gibson, Jordan Cooper, Shelton Jolivette, Eugene Lee(World Premiere)

To see the complete list click HERE

For more information, visit http://www.sxsw.com/film.

The Jury and Audience Award-winners of the 2011 South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival were announced tonight at the Festival’s Awards Ceremony, hosted by comedian Owen Egerton in Austin, Texas.  Feature Films receiving Jury Awards were selected from the Narrative Feature and Documentary Feature categories.  New for 2011, films in competition were also eligible for  Jury Awards for Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Score/Music, Best Screenplay (narratives) and Breakthrough  Performance  (narratives). Films in these categories, as well as Spotlight Premieres, Emerging Visions, Midnighters, Lone Star States and 24 Beats Per Second, were also eligible for 2011 SXSW Film Festival Audience Awards. Only Narrative and Documentary Feature, Spotlight Premieres and Emerging Visions Audience  Awards  were  announced  tonight.  Lone  Star  States,  24  Beats  Per  Second and Midnighters Audience Awards will be announced separately on Saturday, March 19.

SXSW also announced the Jury Award-winners  in Shorts Filmmaking  and Film Design Awards, and Special Awards,  including the Louis Black Lone Star Award, the SXSW Chicken & Egg Emergent Narrative Woman Director Award and the SXSW Wholphin Award.  Details can be found at www.sxsw.com/film.

“It’s been completely exciting to witness the overwhelming appreciation and acclaim for the 2011 SXSW Film lineup,” said Film Conference and Festival Producer Janet Pierson. “The unique combination creative talents from music, film and technology all in the same environment has once again set an electric backdrop for our films, and across the board, the combustion of new talent, fresh perspectives, and the engaged community has been exhilarating.  We are happy our Awards can honor even a sliver of the wide-ranging talent we were privileged to host this year.”

The 2011 SXSW Film Festival Juries consisted of:

• Narrative Feature Competition: Roger Ebert, Logan Hill, Michelle Satter
• Documentary Feature Competition: Mark Olsen, Lisa Schwarzbaum, Sky Sitney
• Narrative Shorts: Jon Korn, Jay Van Hoy, Rose Vincelli
• Documentary Shorts: Brad Beesley, Jay Duplass, Amanda Micheli
• Animated Shorts: Austin Kleon, Bill Plympton, Alison Willmore
• Music Videos: Tom Blankenship, John Kunz, Ron Mann
• Texas Shorts: Victor Diaz, Megan Gilbride, Adam Roffman
• Texas High School Shorts: Cole Dabney, Marcy Garriott, Bart Weiss
• Title Design: Ian Albinson, Jenny Lee, Tommy Pallota, Ron Pippin, Kurt Volk
• Poster Design: Craig Crutchfield, Craig Denham, Marc English, Tim League, Charlie Loft, Danny Parker
• Louis Black / Lone Star: Marjorie Baumgarten, Elvis Mitchell, Robert Wilonsky

For the 2011  SXSW Film Festival,  140 features, consisting of 66 World Premieres, 15 North American Premieres and 15 U.S. Premieres, were selected from a record  1,792  feature-length film submissions composed of  1,323  U.S.  and  469  international  feature-length films.  153  shorts  were selected from 3,089 short film submissions.  The nearly 300 films were selected from 4,911 overall submissions; a record

Death to the Movies will be attending SXSW for its second year. There are so many films to look forward to this year including new works from Monte Hellman, Todd Rohal, Azazel Jacobs, Ti West, Duncan Jones, Greg Mottola, Joe Swanberg, Michael Tully, Mike Mills, Errol Morris, Takashi Miike, and Werner Herzog… in 3D!?

Among Herzog’s venture into 3D, the 2011 SXSW Film Festival will feature:

NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION

96 MINUTES
Director & Writer: Aimée Lagos
Four young lives. One night. One terrifying event. These 96 minutes will change everything.
Cast: Brittany Snow, Evan Ross, Christian Serratos, J. Michael Trautmann, and David Oyelowo
(World Premiere)

A Year in Mooring
Director: Chris Eyre, Writer: Peter Vanderwall
In his first leading dramatic role, Josh Lucas walks an isolated line between solitude and redemption.
This quiet cinematic journey tells a of tale grief, solace and peace. Cast: Josh Lucas, Ayelet Zurer,
James Cromwell, Jon Tenney, Taylor Nichols (World Premiere)

American Animal
Director & Writer: Matt D’Elia
Jimmy – eccentric, delusional, dying – feels betrayed when roommate James gets a job. During one
night of drinks, drugs and women, a classic battle of wills ensues as James prepares for work and
Jimmy goes mad. Cast: Matt D’Elia, Brendan Fletcher, Mircea Monroe, Angela Sarafyan
(World Premiere)

Charlie Casanova (Ireland)
Director & Writer: Terry McMahon
A ruling class sociopath knocks down a working class girl in a hit-and-run and uses a deck of playing
cards to determine his fate. Cast: Emmett J. Scanlan, Leigh Arnold, Damien Hannaway, Ruth
McIntyre, Tony Murphy (World Premiere)

FLY AWAY
Director & Writer: Janet Grillo
A poignant yet humor filled story about a single mother of a teenager with autism, confronting her
child’s future. What will sustain her daughter, and herself? A parent/child love story, when love means
letting go.  Cast: Beth Broderick, Ashley Rickards, Greg Germann, JR Bourne, Reno (World Premiere)

HAPPY NEW YEAR
Director & Writer: K. Lorrel Manning
A war torn marine returns home to face his fiercest battle yet — the one against himself.
Cast: Michael Cuomo, JD Williams, Monique Gabriela Curnen, Tina Sloan, Alan Dale (World
Premiere)

Natural Selection
Director & Writer: Robbie Pickering
When a dutiful, albeit barren, housewife discovers that her ailing husband has an illegitimate son, she
sets out to find the young man and reunite him with her husband before he dies.
Cast: Rachael Harris, Matt O’Leary, Jon Gries, John Diehl (World Premiere)

Small, Beautifully Moving Parts
Directors & Writers: Annie J. Howell & Lisa Robinson
Technology-obsessed Sarah Sparks is pregnant and ambivalent, afraid she relates better to machines
than to people. Looking for answers, she hits the road in search of her estranged mother, now living
off the grid. Cast: Anna Margaret Hollyman, André Holland, Sarah Rafferty, Susan Kalechi Watson,
Mary Beth Peil (World Premiere)

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION

A Mouthful
Director: Sally Rowe
Considered a rising star of haute cuisine, Paul Liebrandt found his career stalled in New York’s
austere environment post 9/11. Paul struggles over the next decade as he tries to make his way back
to the top. (World Premiere)

Better This World
Directors: Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega
Two childhood friends from Midland, Texas cross a line that changes their lives forever. The result:
eight homemade bombs, multiple domestic terrorism charges and a high stakes entrapment defense
hinging on a controversial FBI informant. (World Premiere)

The City Dark
Director: Ian Cheney
The film chronicles the disappearance of darkness, following astronomers, cancer researchers,
ecologists and philosophers in a quest to understand what is lost in the glare of city lights. (World
Premiere)

DRAGONSLAYER
Director: Tristan Patterson
Killer Films presents the transmissions of a lost kid, falling in love, in the suburbs of Fullerton,
California.  Featuring skateboarding, the usual drugs, and stray glimpses of unusual beauty.
(World Premiere)

FIGHTVILLE
Directors: Michael Tucker & Petra Epperlein
A documentary about the art and sport of fighting: a microcosm of life, a physical manifestation of that
other brutal contest called the American Dream. (World Premiere)

Kumaré (U.S.A/India)
Director: Vikram Gandhi
A documentary about a man who impersonates a wise Indian Guru and builds a following in Arizona.
(World Premiere)

LAST DAYS HERE
Directors: Don Argott & Demian Fenton
The film follows middle-aged rocker Bobby Liebling, lead singer of the cult hard rock/heavy metal
band Pentagram, as he leaves his parents’ basement in search of the life he never lived.
(World Premiere)

Where Soldiers Come From
Director: Heather Courtney
From a snowy small town in Northern Michigan to the mountains of Afghanistan and back, the film
follows the four-year journey of childhood friends and their town, forever changed by a faraway war.
(World Premiere)

HEADLINERS

13 Assassins
Director: Takashi Miike, Writers: Shoichirou Ikemiya & Daisuke Tengan
Distressed by the Lord’s murderous rampage, top Shogun official Sir Doi secretly calls on esteemed
samurai Shinzaemon Shimada to assassinate the evil Naritsugu. Outraged by Lord Naritsugu’s vile
acts, Shinzaemon willingly accepts the dangerous mission. Cast: Koji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada,
Yusuke Iseya, Goro Inagaki, Masachika Ichimura

Ain’t It Cool News 15th Anniversary Screening
Harry Knowles will curate a surprise screening in honor of the 15th Anniversary of his popular cult
website Ain’t it Cool News.

The Beaver
Director: Jodie Foster, Writer: Kyle Killen
Two-time Academy Award® winner Jodie Foster directs and co-stars with two-time Academy Award®
winner Mel Gibson in an emotional story about a man on a journey to re-discover his family and re-
start his life.  Plagued by his own demons, Walter Black was once a successful toy executive and
family man who now suffers from depression.  No matter what he tries, Walter can’t seem to get
himself back on track…until a beaver hand puppet enters his life. Cast: Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster,
Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence, Cherry Jones (World Premiere)

Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop
Director: Rodman Flender
Did Conan O’Brien go on tour to connect with his fans or fill a void within himself?  Rodman Flender’s
documentary captures an artist trained in improvisation at the most improvisational time of his career.
(World Premiere)

Paul
Director: Greg Mottola, Writers: Simon Pegg & Nick Frost
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost reunite as two geeks who meet an alien named Paul (Seth Rogen) on a
pilgrimage to America’s UFO heartland.  Their road trip will alter our universe forever. Cast: Simon
Pegg, Nick Frost, Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Blythe Danner, John Carroll Lynch, with
Sigourney Weaver, and Seth Rogen as Paul (North American Premiere)

Source Code
Director: Duncan Jones, Writer: Ben Ripley
When soldier Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he
discovers he’s part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.  In an assignment
unlike any he’s ever known, he learns he’s part of a government experiment called the “Source Code,”
a computer program that enables him to cross over into another man’s identity in the last 8 minutes of
his life. Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, Jeffrey Wright (World Premiere)

SUPER
Director & Writer: James Gunn
In this outlandish dark comedy, James Gunn has created what is perhaps the definitive take on self-
reflexive superheroes. Cast: Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler, Kevin Bacon, Michael Rooker
(U.S. Premiere)

WIN WIN
Director: Tom McCarthy, Writers: Tom McCarthy & Joe Tiboni
Tom McCarthy, acclaimed writer/director of The Visitor and The Station Agent, once again explores
the depths and nuances of human relationships in his new film about the allegiances and bonds
between unlikely characters. Cast: Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Bobby Cannavale, Jeffrey Tambor, Burt
Young, Melanie Lynskey, Alex Schaffer, Margo Martindale, David Thompson

SPOTLIGHT PREMIERES

A Bag of Hammers
Director: Brian Crano, Writers: Brian Crano & Jake Sandvig
An offbeat comedy about two misfit best friends incapable of growing up, whose direction is tested by
an abandoned child, worn beyond his years; together they invent the family they’ve always needed.
Cast: Jason Ritter, Jake Sandvig, Chandler Canterbury, Rebecca Hall, Carrie Preston (World
Premiere)

Becoming Santa
Director: Jeff Myers
In an effort to rekindle his Christmas spirit, Jack decides to spend this season as Santa Claus, but the
role of Kris Kringle is more complex than he thinks. (World Premiere)

Beginners
Writer & Director: Mike Mills
A young man is rocked by two announcements from his elderly father: that he has terminal cancer,
and that he has a young male lover. Cast: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent,
Goran Visnjic, Kai Lennox (U.S. Premiere)

Bob and The Monster
Director: Keirda Bahruth
A highly compelling portrait of outspoken indie-rock hero Bob Forrest, through his life-threatening
struggle with addiction, to his transformation into one of the most influential and controversial drug
counselors in the US today. (World Premiere)

Detention
Director: Joseph Kahn, Writers: Joseph Kahn & Mark Palermo
A downtrodden 17-year-old girl is sent to detention where she must survive a slasher film killer and
save the world in time for prom. Cast: Josh Hutcherson, Dane Cook, Shanley Caswell, Spencer
Locke, Aaron David Johnson (World Premiere)

Elevate
Director: Anne Buford
From a basketball academy in Senegal, to the high-pressure world of American prep schools, the film
documents the extraordinary personal journeys of four particularly tall West African Muslim teenage
boys with NBA dreams. (World Premiere)

Fambul Tok
Director: Sara Terry
Victims and perpetrators of Sierra Leone’s brutal war come together for the first time in an
unprecedented reconciliation program of grassroots truth-telling and forgiveness ceremonies.
(World Premiere)

Fubar: Balls to the Wall (Canada)
Director: Michael Dowse, Writers: David Lawrence, Paul J. Spence
Documentarian Farrel Mitchner explores the lives of headbangers Dean Murdoch and Terry Cahill.
Cast: Paul J. Spence, David Lawrence (U.S. Premiere)

Girl Walks Into a Bar
Director & Writer: Sebastian Gutierrez
A sharp-witted comedy that follows a group of apparent strangers in interlocking stories taking place
in ten different bars during the course of one evening in Los Angeles. Cast: Carla Gugino, Zachary
Quinto, Danny DeVito, Josh Hartnett, Rosario Dawson (World Premiere)

The Innkeepers
Director & Writer: Ti West
Hotel clerks by day, amateur ghost hunters by night, the last two employees of the historic Yankee
Pedlar Inn set out to prove that their place of business is as haunted as its reputation.
Cast: Sara Paxton, Pat Healy, Kelly McGillis (World Premiere)

It’s About You
Director: Kurt Markus
First-time filmmakers, photographer Kurt Markus and son, Ian, document John Mellencamp’s 2009
summer tour and recording of his latest album. This film celebrates the visual beauty and power of
Super8 film and the human voice. (World Premiere)

LBF (Australia)
Director & Writer: Alex Munt
A pop-art film based on the novel “Living Between Fucks” by Cry Bloxsome.  It follows Goodchild, a
young writer back home for his ex-girlfriend’s funeral, The Dead Girl. Love, Loss & Desperation.
Cast: Toby Schmitz, Bianca Chiminello, Gracie Otto, Septimus Caton, April Rose Pengilly
(World Premiere)

The Other F Word
Director: Andrea Blaugrund Nevins
When the most anti-authoritarian among us become the ultimate authorities… we might just have to
use The Other F Word. (World Premiere)

PRESSPAUSEPLAY (Sweden)
Directors: Victor Köhler & David Dworsky
The first real testimony of the digi-creative revolution. It’s an 80 minute global journey capturing how
digital technology and mindset has transformed the concept of art and culture.
(North American Premiere)

Something Ventured
Directors: Dan Geller & Dayna Goldfine
Apple. Intel. Genentech. Cisco. Atari. This film tells the story of a handful of risk-takers who alongside
visionary entrepreneurs created these revolutionary companies, and in the process ignited the
industry known as venture capital. (World Premiere)

Square Grouper
Director: Billy Corben
A colorful portrait of Miami’s pot smugglin’ scene of the 1970s, populated with redneck pirates, a
ganja-smoking church, and the longest serving marijuana prisoner in American history.
(World Premiere)

UNDEFEATED
Directors: Dan Lindsay & T.J. Martin
A volunteer coach helps a neglected inner-city football team in their quest to win the first playoff game
in the high school’s history. (World Premiere)

Yelling to the Sky
Director & Writer: Victoria Mahoney
As her family falls apart, seventeen year old Sweetness O’Hara is left to fend for herself in a
neighborhood where her survival is uncertain. Cast: Zoe Kravitz, Jason Clarke, Antonique Smith,
Gabourey Sidibe, Tim Blake Nelson (U.S. Premiere)

YOU INSTEAD (Scotland)
Director: David Mackenzie, Writer: Thomas Leveritt
Two rival musicians find themselves handcuffed together at the world renowned music festival,
T in the Park, where they are both scheduled to perform. Cast: Luke Treadaway, Natalia Tena, Sophie Wu,
Ruta Gedmintas, Kari Corbett (North American Premiere)

EMERGING VISIONS

Bad Fever
Director & Writer: Dustin Guy Defa
A humorless loner attempts to win the admiration of a drifter with his debut performance at the local
comedy club.  Cast: Kentucker Audley, Eléonore Hendricks, Annette Wright, Allison Baar
(World Premiere)

The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye
Director: Marie Losier
A portrait of the life and work of ground-breaking performance artist and music pioneer Genesis
Breyer P-Orridge (Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV) and his wife Lady Jaye, centered around their
sexual transformations for their “Pandrogyne” project. (North American Premiere)

Bellflower
Director & Writer: Evan Glodell
A love story with apocalyptic stakes. Cast: Evan Glodell, Jessie Wiseman, Tyler Dawson, Rebekah
Brandes, Vincent Grashaw

The Catechism Cataclysm
Director & Writer: Todd Rohal
Father William Smoortser drops his bible into a toilet at a rest stop just before embarking on a day-
long canoe trip, breaking loose all glorious hell. Cast: Steve Little, Robert Longstreet, Walter Dalton,
Miki Ann Maddox, Koko Lanham, Rico

Caught Inside (Australia)
Director: Adam Blaiklock, Writers: Adam Blaiklock & Matt Tomaszewski
A surfing holiday turns deadly when a group of friends fight over a beautiful woman. Cast: Ben
Oxenbould, Daisy Betts, Sam Lyndon, Simon Lyndon, Peter Phelps (North American Premiere)

CONVENTO (Portugal)
Director: Jarred Alterman
Artist Christiaan Zwanikken resurrects deceased wildlife by reanimating the skeletal remains with
servomotors and robotics.  He breeds these new species in a 400-year-old monastery in Portugal,
restored from ruins and converted into his laboratory. (North American Premiere)

The Dish & The Spoon
Director: Alison Bagnall, Writers: Alison Bagnall, Andrew Lewis
In this poignant comedy, Rose (Greta Gerwig), reeling from her husband’s affair, collides and forms
an unexpected bond with a marooned teenager from England (exciting newcomer Olly Alexander) in a
boarded-up Delaware beach town. Cast: Greta Gerwig, Olly Alexander, Eleonore Hendricks, Amy
Seimetz, Adam Rothenberg (World Premiere)

Fuck my life (Chile)
Director & Writer: Nicolás López
Love in the times of Facebook is worst than love in the times of cholera.
Cast: Ariel Levy, Lucy Cominetti, Andrea Velasco, Paz Bascuñan, Leonor Varela (U.S. Premiere)

Green
Director & Writer: Sophia Takal
An intimate friendship between two women dissolves as they are drawn into an irrational, destructive
spiral of jealousy and paranoid fantasy in this haunting examination of the female psyche.
Cast: Kate Lyn Sheil, Sophia Takal, Lawrence Michael Levine (World Premiere)

THE KEY MAN
Director & Writer: Peter Himmelstein
Bobby Scheinman is an insurance salesman struggling to provide for his family. Enter Vincent and
Irving, two con men who convince Bobby to join them for a moneymaking scheme that quickly spirals
out of control. Cast: Jack Davenport, Hugo Weaving, Brian Cox, Judy Greer, Ben Shenkman
(World Premiere)

New Jerusalem
Director: R. Alverson, Writers: R. Alverson & Colm O’Leary
Ike (Will Oldham), an Evangelical Christian, befriends Sean, an Irish immigrant, and attempts to
ensure his salvation. A meditation on the allure and limitations of modern utopian belief. Cast: Will
Oldham, Colm O’Leary, Thomas Bowles, Walter Scott, Roxanne Ferris (North American Premiere)

No Matter What
Director & Writer: Cherie Saulter
The story of Nick and Joey, two best friends living in the crumbling landscape of rural Florida, whose
lives and friendship are changed by the journey to find Joey’s mother. Cast: Matt Webb, Waylan
Gross, Amy Seimetz (World Premiere)

Our Day Will Come (France)
Director: Romain Gavras, Writers: Romain Gavras & Karim Boucherka
Two outcast redheads set off on a roadtrip of hate, violence and self-destruction. The time for revenge
has come… Cast: Vincent Cassel, Olivier Barthelemy (U.S. Premiere)

Riscado (Brazil)
Director: Gustavo Pizzi, Writers: Gustavo Pizzi & Karine Teles
What’s the importance of luck in life? Is luck part of the craft? Cast: Karine Teles, Camilo Pellegrini,
Dany Roland, Otavio Muller (North American Premiere)

Septien
Director & Writer: Michael Tully
A reclusive sports hustler returns home to his family farm after years of absence to reunite with his
two eccentric, unhinged and emotionally damaged brothers. Cast: Robert Longstreet, Onur Tukel,
Michael Tully, Rachel Korine, Mark Darby Robinson

SILVER BULLETS
Director & Writer: Joe Swanberg
Filmmaking and life converge around a werewolf film. Cast: Kate Lyn Sheil, Ti West, Amy Seimetz,
Joe Swanberg, Jane Adams (North American Premiere)

Surrogate Valentine
Director: Dave Boyle, Writers: Dave Boyle, Joel Clark, & Goh Nakamura
Musician Goh Nakamura is hired to teach TV actor Danny Turner how to walk and talk like a rock star
for his new movie. Cast: Goh Nakamura, Chadd Stoops, Lynn Chen, Mary Cavett, Joy Osmanski
(World Premiere)

Turkey Bowl
Director & Writer: Kyle Smith
Ten friends gather to play an annual game of touch football in this real-time comedy.
Cast: Morgan Beck, Adam Benic, Kerry Bishé, Troy Buchanan, Tom DiMenna (World Premiere)

Weekend (England)
Director & Writer: Andrew Haigh
A one-night stand that becomes something else, something important – a (sort of) love story between
two guys trying to take control of their lives. Cast: Tom Cullen, Chris New (World Premiere)

LONE STAR STATES

Apart
Director: Aaron Rottinghaus, Writers: Aaron Rottinghaus & Josh Danziger
Young love is derailed by a rare psychological disorder known as icd-10 F24. Cast: Olesya Rulin,
Josh Danziger, Michael Bowen, Bruce McGill, Joey Lauren Adams (World Premiere)

blacktino
Director & Writer: Aaron Burns
Sad, fat, black, latino, nerd. It doesn’t get any worse than that.  Cast: Austin Marshall, Devyn Ray,
Tiger Sheu, Danny Trejo, Jeff Fahey (World Premiere)

Building Hope
Director: Turk Pipkin
Filmmaker Turk Pipkin’s promise to help build the first high school for a remote African community
connects Americans and Kenyans in this true story. (World Premiere)

Five Time Champion
Director & Writer: Berndt Mader
A film about love, hope, petty theft, adultery, and the boundless opportunities presented by science.
Cast: Betty Buckley, Dana Wheeler Nicholson, Jon Gries, Ryan Akin, Robert Longstreet
(World Premiere)

INCENDIARY: The Willingham Case
Director: Steve Mims
Cameron Todd Willingham:  A martyr for anti-death penalty activists, a ‘monster’ for right-wing
politicians and a flash point for an astonishing twenty-first century fight between science and folklore.
(World Premiere)

Inside America (Austria)
Director & Writer: Barbara Eder
A portrait of six teenagers during their senior year at Hanna High School in Brownsville and “a
relentless, downbeat but convincing indictment of a small Texas high school.” Cast: Raul Juarez,
Aimeé Lizette Saldivar, Zuleyma Jaime, Luis De Los Santos, Carlos Benavides, Patty Barrera
(U.S. Premiere)

My Sucky Teen Romance
Director & Writer: Emily Hagins
In a culture that is currently overrun with romanticized vampires, it is up to four geeky teenagers to
defend their friend and beloved sci-fi convention from a group of very real, blood-thirsty vampires.
Cast: Elaine Hurt, Patrick Delgado, Santiago Dietche, Lauren Lee, Tony Vespe (World Premiere)

Otis Under Sky
Director: Anlo Sepulveda, Writers: Anlo Sepulveda, Anis Mojgani, Roberta Colindrez
Otis is a socially inept web artist who struggles to connect with people. He falls into unrequited love
with Ursula, and his world is turned upside down. Cast: Anis Mojgani, Roberta Colindrez, Tony
Jackson, Jacqueline Leal, Ruth Sepulveda (World Premiere)

WUSS
Director & Writer: Clay Liford
A high school teacher is severely beaten by his own students. Too embarrassed to inform the
authorities, he plots his own revenge. Cast: Nate Rubin, Alicia Anthony, Alex Karpovsky, Jonny Mars,
Tony Hale (World Premiere)

24 BEATS PER SECOND

Benda Bilili! (France)
Directors: Renaud Barret & Florent de La Tullaye
Ricky dreams of making Staff Benda Bilili the best band in Congo Kinshasa.  Roger wants to join
these stars of the ghetto.  Together, they must avoid the pitfalls of the street and believe in music.
(U.S. Premiere)

Foo Fighters
Director: James Moll
The definitive documentary of the last great American rock n’ roll band: chronicling Foo Fighters’ 16
year history from their first club gigs to the recording of their new album in Dave Grohl’s garage.
(World Premiere)

Le Tigre: On Tour
Director: Kerthy Fix
A concert film that follows a feminist electronic band across 4 continents and 10 countries and
provides an unusual peek behind the curtain of the contemporary pop machine. (World Premiere)

Live at Preservation Hall: Louisiana Fairytale
Director: Danny Clinch
The film documents the collaboration between New Orleans’s legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band
and American rock band My Morning Jacket, demonstrating the power of Preservation Hall to inspire
a whole new generation of musicians. (World Premiere)

Love Shines (Canada)
Director: Douglas Arrowsmith
Love Shines follows Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith as he makes his latest studio album
with legendary producer Bob Rock. (U.S. Premiere)

NYMAN IN PROGRESS (Germany/England)
Director: Silvia Beck
A documentary about composer and artist Michael Nyman, who at 65, surprises the world with a new
insight into his creativity. (U.S. Premiere)

Outside Industry: The Story of SXSW
Director: Alan Berg
Four guys living on next to nothing created a music event in the hopes of giving bands a way of
connecting with music insiders. The result was the biggest music industry event in the world.
(World Premiere)

Sound It Out (England)
Director: Jeanie Finlay
A documentary portrait of the very last record shop in Teesside. A distinctive, funny and intimate film
about men, the North of England and the irreplaceable role of music in our lives. (World Premiere)

Taken By Storm: The Art of Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis
Director: Roddy Bogawa
Real? Surreal? Iconic? Impossible? The album art of Storm Thorgerson is so far deeply embedded
into our psyche, it’s hard to believe it all came from one mind. (World Premiere)

UPSIDE DOWN: THE CREATION RECORDS STORY (England)
Director: Danny O’Connor
The definitive and fully authorized documentary of the highs and lows of the UK’s most inspired and
dissolute independent record label – Creation Records. (North American Premiere)

SX GLOBAL
A diverse panorama of international filmmaking talent, including premieres, interactive documentaries
and shorts.

Films screening in SX Global are:

Andante (Israel)
Director & Writer: Assaf Tager
In a post-industrial world people are no longer able to dream. Sarah, the single surviving dreamer,
sets out to the only place that can provide answers to her strange night visions: the dream factory.
Cast: Sarah Adler, David Fire, Liron Levo, Nicole Veronica (North American Premiere)

Armadillo (Denmark)
Director: Janus Metz
Following a group of Danish solders on a 2009 tour of Afghanistan, Janus Metz’s acclaimed
documentary is a gripping, visually stunning probe into the psychology of young men in the midst of a
senseless war.

Beats of Freedom (Poland)
Directors: Leszek Gnoinski & Wojciech Slota
A captivating film about the birth of rock music in Poland.

El Ambulante (Argentina)
Directors & Writers: Eduardo de la Serna, Lucas Marcheggiano and Adriana Yurcovich
A traveler arrives at a village and proposes to make a feature film – but only the villagers will act in the
film.

El Bulli – Cooking in Progress (Germany)
Director: Gereon Wetzel
The starred chef Ferran Adrià is known as the best, most innovative and craziest cook in the world.
Every year, the restaurant closes for six months and Adrià and his creative team retire to their cooking
laboratory in Barcelona, to create a new menu for the following season. Everything is allowed –
except copying themselves.

Heaven Hell (Czech Republic)
Director: David Calek
A documentary film dealing with human diversity that doesn’t necessarily lead to hell even though it
might seem like that from the outsider’s point of view. (U.S. Premiere)

IDFA DocLab presents: New Documentary Narratives

My Life With Carlos (Chile/Germany/Spain)
Director: German Berger-Hertz
The film chronicles the journey of a son (director German Berger-Hertz) trying to learn the truth about
his father, who was killed in 1973 in Pinochet’s Chile.

Reindeer Spotting (Finland)
Director: Joonas Neuvonen
Without moralizing the film shows the real life of a group of friends in the Arctic Circle, dabbling in
petty crime and hard drugs. Disturbing, brutal and beautifully honest. Trainspotting in Santa Land.
(North American Premiere)

Self Made (England)
Director: Gillian Wearing
A diverse group of British people respond to an ad from artist Gillian Wearing. Taking part in an
experiment with Method acting, they find themselves for the first time confronting their innermost
personal truths.

Viva Riva! (Democratic Republic of Congo)
Director & Writer: Djo Tunda Wa Munga
The first major film out of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the story follows fast-living hustler Riva.
While being pursued by Kinshasa’s dangerous underworld, Riva finds himself inextricably drawn to a
gangster’s seductive, kept woman. Cast: Patsha Bay, Manie Malone, Hoji Fortuna, Marlene Longage,
Diplome Amekindra, Alex Herabo (U.S. Premiere)

WAY OF THE MORRIS (England)
Directors: Tim Plester & Rob Curry
Filmmaker Tim Plester journeys from the English village green to the killing fields of The Somme, in
search of a connection with the much-maligned native dance traditions that run deep in his blood.
(World Premiere)

FESTIVAL FAVORITES

Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey
Director: Constance A. Marks
Elmo is one of the most beloved characters among children across the globe. Meet the unlikely man
behind the puppet – the heart and soul of Elmo – Kevin Clash. Narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, this
documentary includes rare archival footage and offers a behind-the-scenes look at Sesame Street
and the Jim Henson Workshop.

CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS (France)
Director: Werner Herzog
Filming in 3D, Herzog captures the wonder and beauty of one of the most awe-inspiring sites on
earth.

Ceremony
Director & Writer: Max Winkler
Sam Davis convinces his former best friend to spend a weekend with him to rekindle their friendship
at an elegant beachside estate but he is forced to realize how complicated love and friendship can be.
Cast: Michael Angarano, Uma Thurman, Reece Thompson, Lee Pace, Jake Johnson

The First Movie (Canada/England)
Director: Mark Cousins
What’s it like to be a child in war – not when the conflict is raging, but when the war tide is out, as it
were, when kids are telling stories or playing games?

Hesher
Director: Spencer Susser, Writers: Spencer Susser & David Michôd
Loud music. Pornography. Burning shit down – just a few of Hesher’s favorite things. And it’s just this
kind of anarchy that’s needed to shake the burdens of sorrow from a boy and his father.
Cast: Natalie Portman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rainn Wilson, Devin Brochu, Piper Laurie

How to Die in Oregon
Director: Peter D. Richardson
The film tells the complex stories of terminally ill Oregonians, their families, doctors and friends, as
they decide whether to end their life by lethal overdose under Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act.

In a Better World (Denmark)
Director: Susanne Bier, Writer: Anders Thomas Jensen, based on a story by Susanne Bier and
Anders Thomas Jensen
Golden Globe® Award winner and Academy Award® nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, and
told from the two very different worlds of an idyllic Danish town and an African refugee camp, a doctor
and his family are faced with conflicts that force them to make difficult choices between revenge and
forgiveness. Cast: Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen, Markus Rygaard, William
Jøhnk Nielsen

Incendies (Canada)
Director & Writer: Denis Villenueve
Academy Award® nominee for Best Foreign Language Film and adaptation of Wajdi Mouawad’s
acclaimed play, Incendies tells the story of two siblings who set out to the Middle East to understand
the life of their deceased enigmatic mother, who has left them with a mystery only they can piece
together. Cast: Lubna Azabal, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette, Rémy Girard

Page One: A Year Inside The New York Times
Director: Andrew Rossi
Unprecedented access to the New York Times newsroom yields a complex view of a media
landscape fraught with both peril and opportunity.

POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
Director: Morgan Spurlock
Morgan Spurlock (Oscar nominee, Super Size Me) explores the world of product placement,
marketing and advertising in POM Wonderful Presents: THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD, a film
fully financed through product placement.

ROAD TO NOWHERE
Director: Monte Hellman, Writer: Steven Gaydos
Illusion is the First of all Pleasures. Cast: Shannyn Sossamon, Tygh Runyan, Dominique Swain, Cliff
De Young, Waylon Payne

Sound of My Voice
Director: Zal Batmanglij, Writers: Zal Batmanglij and Brit Marling
A young couple infiltrate a cult that meets in the San Fernando Valley. Cast: Brit Marling, Christopher
Denham, Nicole Vicius

TABLOID
Director: Errol Morris
Errol Morris further redefines and pushes the boundaries of documentary film with the tale of Joyce
McKinney and the infamous “Case of the Manacled Mormon.”

Terri
Director: Azazel Jacobs, Writer: Patrick deWitt
A moving and often funny film about a big kid in a small town that doesn’t seem to have room for
anyone who is different. Cast: Jacob Wysocki, John C. Reilly, Creed Bratton, Olivia Crocicchia,
Bridger Zadina

Wasted on the Young (Australia)
Director & Writer: Ben C. Lucas
An incident at a high school party sets off a dramatic chain of events and two brothers must place
their lives at the mercy of popular opinion. Cast: Oliver Ackland, Adelaide Clemens, Alex Russell
(U.S. Premiere)

SPECIAL EVENTS

The Cameraman
Directors: Edward Sedgwick & Buster Keaton, Writer: Clyde Bruckman
Buster Keaton plays a bumbling street photographer who tries his hand as a newsreel cameraman to
impress a girl. Austin jazz/rock band Bee vs. Moth plays their original score live. Presented in
partnership with the Alamo Drafthouse.  Cast: Buster Keaton, Marceline Day, Harold Goodwin, Sidney
Bracey, Harry Gribbon

Fubar (Canada)
Director: Michael Dowse, Writers: Dave Lawrence, Paul J. Spence, Michael Dowse
SXSW presents the cult classic Fubar to celebrate the screening of SXSW 2011 Official Selection,
Fubar: Balls to the Wall. Cast: Dave Lawrence, Paul J. Spence, Gordon Skilling, Andrew Sparacino,
Tracy Lawrence

The National Parks Project (Canada)
A stunning collection of short films that represents the breadth of Canada’s artistic talent and diversity
of the country’s landscape, as it’s never been seen before. Cast: Sarah Harmer, Cadence Weapon,
Bry Webb, Melissa Auf der Maur, Sam Roberts (U.S. Premiere)

Red Riding Hood – Special Screening
Director: Catherine Hardwicke, Writer: David Leslie Johnson
Catherine Hardwicke will be present for Q&A following this special screening of her latest film, on
Thursday, March 10 at midnight.  In the film, a werewolf terrorizes a small village, especially when the
people discover that, by day, the beast could be anyone.  And one young woman discovers that she
has a unique connection to the wolf that makes her both suspect…and bait.
Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Billy Burke, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons

The Rime of the Modern Mariner (England)
Director & Writer: Mark Donne
A documentary set to a spellbinding live musical score – which examines the nature of relationship
between a nation state and the seas in a globalized world. Cast: Mark Donne, Carl Barat (The
Libertines), Anthony Rossomando (The Klaxons) (U.S. Premiere)

About South by Southwest Film Conference & Festival
The SXSW Film Conference and Festival is a uniquely creative environment featuring the dynamic
convergence of talent, smart audiences and industry heavyweights. A hotbed of discovery and
interactivity, the event offers invaluable networking opportunities and immersion into the art and
business of the rapidly evolving world of independent film.