Films & Filmmakers I loved at Austin Film Festival 2010

The Austin Film Festival was amazing, as we all knew it would be.  Here are a few of the flicks I managed to catch and my two cents on why I loved them.  I'm no film reviewer, but figured you might want to hear my brief thoughts on each movie I managed to catch.

I'm sure you've heard the hype.  It's all true. It's awesome.  Go see it.  You'll see what I mean.  Natalie Portman shocked me at how frikkin' amazing she was in the role.    It was well worth the long lineup down the street to see Black Swan.

Made in Dagenham - so funny!  I saw this directly following Black Swan, and it was such a lighthearted treat to watch.

Sons of Perdition is a documentary about three boys that leave their polygamous compounds and head out into the world.  Fascinating stuff, very well done.

Okay I'm not a big Monopoly player, but I met the filmmaker and he's a cool guy so I had to go and see his movie.  This doc was a surprisingly sweet movie, and reminded me of the documentary about the kids who go to the National Spelling Bee Championships.  What was that one called again?  Anyway, it was very sweet.  Go and see this doc if you can find it!

This movie was AWESOME.  Seriously, funny movie in a Shaun of the Dead way .  We saw it at the Alamo Ritz, which deserves a post all to itself. 

Mark Potts is a really great guy, so I went to see his film but it was sold out.  Which was pretty sweet for a student film!  He gave me a DVD afterwards so my sister & I watched it when we returned from Austin.  I saw Mark speak on a couple of the panels at AFF and he has some good DIY stuff to say for indie-filmmakers.  I like his "just do it!" approach to filmmaking.  My favourite Mark Potts quote from the panels was his response to the "how did you get your budget?" question - which was simply "Student loans."  Spot on.  The movie is cute, well worth a watch.  Reminded me of Trailer Park Boys.

My sister & I saw A Savior Red on opening night because we really liked the filmmakers.  I especially enjoyed chatting with them daily at the Driskill Pub.  It's definitely an intense flick with a soundtrack that matches the tone really well.  I can see these guys doing really well.

I missed all of Ed Burns' talks, which frankly, was very lame of me!  But my reasoning was that I kept meeting all these cool filmmakers at the Driskill and if they asked me to see their movies, I just had to go & support them & their projects.  Next year, I'll make sure that I set myself some clear objectives so that I don't miss anything I really want to see. 

I met some amazing people at AFF and can't wait to return next year, hopefully with our movie being shown.  That would be very cool.  Watch this space for more news on how our feature film is coming along.  My head is swimming in legal-speak of pre-production, but we're about to shoot our teaser.  I'm stoked to say the least!


What about you?  Any films I should see that you recommend?  I'm particularly interested in independent films, but of course I will take all recommendations.  Thanks!

I love the South

A couple of days ago, as I was reading the Austin Film Festival Program & filling in my calendar with workshops & movies I hope to see next week, my phone rang.  I own a business not related to the production company my sister & I are starting, so I'm fairly used to blowing off telemarketers that call my business trying to sell me something I totally don't need.  So, when I picked up the phone and a Southerner from Go Daddy answered I was pretty close to giving him a quick excuse about how I didn't want more domain names, thank you very much.

But then I remembered that the night before I had purchased 6 domain names for our movie - 3 with the movie's title in various forms (ending in "....movie.com" or just ".com") and 3 for the individuals in our team. My sister, the writer-director, our brother, the musical genius and me, the producer.  So, the guy from Go Daddy wanted to chat about the domain names.  Not so interesting right?  Wait, it gets better.

It turns out that he knew a few guys back in the day who started out from nowhere just like us and two of them made it pretty big while one is still working as a server at a local restaurant. 

He laughed and said, "You know, it was so cool to see them get big in Hollywood like, because these were just regular guys.  I mean, I knew the dog in their movie because it's their mom's dog! These were regular neighborhood kids!" 

So I of course had to ask, "Oh yeah.  Who are they?"  

"Well, have you seen Bottle Rocket?  That was their first movie with the mom's dog I told you about."

"You know the Wilson brothers? You're kidding me." 

What a great conversation we had after that. 

And I felt so excited all day because everyone really does start at the same place we are.  With a whole lotta heart, a bunch of amazing people who believe in us and our project and the focus to get 'er done - we're going love this journey we're on.  If we do manage to make a movie that people actually go & see, I think I'll call that guy from GoDaddy and thank him once again for the conversation about Luke & Owen Wilson and their mom's dog.

Other ramblings & news:

We leave for Austin in 3 days. I've had my toes painted purple for the Oct 20th Wear Purple event and will be sure to don my purple scarf in support of the teenagers out there dealing with homophobia & bullying.  The event was started on facebook by a high school student and now has over 100 000 people RSVP'ed to attend, and I'm hoping I'm not the only one at AFF who knows about it.  Oh wait, my awesome sister is coming and wearing purple too.  We'll be the dynamic purple duo - watch out Austin!

We're stoked for the first night's Film & Food event with Edward Burns.  If I meet him I will probably get too star-struck to even say anything. Ever since I watched the Holiday, I've been in love with his voice.  His movie making, and acting and directing and writing and all that jazz are pretty awesome too.  But I'll admit it, I have a massive crush on his voice.  That's kinda weird right?  Who gets nervous just to hear someone speak?

I'm seeing his new movie, Nice Guy Johnny where Ed will be speaking afterwards.  Will I have to leave the room before he talks just so I don't "Squeeeeeeeee"?