SXSW 2009: Mumblecore Movies Available Via IFC Films
David Denby on "mumblecore" movies in The New Yorker:
"Mumblecore movies are made by buddies, casual and serious lovers, and networks of friends, and they’re about college-educated men and women who aren’t driven by ideas or by passions or even by a desire to make their way in the world. Neither rebels nor bohemians, they remain stuck in a limbo of semi-genteel, moderately hip poverty, though some of the films end with a lurch into the working world. The actors (almost always nonprofessionals) rarely say what they mean; a lot of the time, they don’t know what they mean. The movies tell stories but they’re also a kind of lyrical documentary of American stasis and inarticulateness. The first mumblecore film, by general agreement, was Andrew Bujalski’s 2002 Funny Ha Ha, a sweet-natured account of a young woman’s post-college blues. But the style wasn’t named until 2005, when the sound mixer Eric Masunaga, having a drink at a bar during the South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW), in Austin, used the term to describe an independent film he had worked on. The sobriquet stuck, even though the filmmakers dislike it. In the films I’ve seen, however, the sound is quite clear. It’s the emotions that mumble."
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Joe Swanberg’s Alexander the Last (photo) is one of three "mumblecore" films screening at the 2009 SXSW Film Festival that will also be available in the United States via IFC Films’ Festival Direct on-demand platform.
IFC’s virtual film festival kicks off this weekend in conjunction with the start of SXSW 2009, thus allowing film lovers to experience the film festival right from their own living room.
In addition to Alexander the Last, the other available mumblecore films are Barry Jenkins‘ Medicine for Melancholy and Joe Maggio’s Paper Covers Rock, plus Matthew Newton’s Australian comedy Three Blind Mice and Javor Gardev’s Bulgarian neo-noir Zift.
All of the films will be available nationwide on-demand for 90 days on most major cable systems and can be ordered in the IFC Films menu within each cable company’s on-demand platforms. Some cable platforms are supposed to have a special SXSW-branded tab.
Tribeca 2009: Woody Allen’s WHATEVER WORKS Is Opening Night Film
Fusion 2009: Los Angeles Gay People of Color Film Festival
Berlin 2009: Isabelle Adjani in SKIRT DAY
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I thought mumblecore referred to movies that you couldn’t understand the dialog.