SXSW Film Festival 2008: Emerging Visions
SXSW FILM FESTIVAL 2008 – EMERGING VISIONS
The SXSW Film Festival runs March 7–15, 2008
A Necessary Death
Director: Daniel Stamm. Starring: GJ Echternkamp, Matt Tilley, Valerie Hurt, Michael Traynor. "Documentary Filmmaker looking for suicidal individual to follow from first preparation to final act." Cut from 142 video tapes, this project sheds light on the tragedy following the infamous internet ad. (World Premiere)
The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela
Director/writer: Olaf de Fleur. Starring: Raquela Rios, Stefan Schaefer, Olivia Galudo. Raquela is looking for a way out of her tireless job as a "ladyboy" prostitute, which brings her to Iceland with some unexpected outcomes. (North American Premiere)
Ano Una
Director/writer: Jonas Cuaron. Starring: Eireann Harper, Diego Catano. An impossible romance between Molly, a 21 year-old American, and Diego, a Mexican in the throes of puberty. (Regional Premiere)
‘Bama Girl
Director: Rachel Goslins. A charismatic black woman at the University of Alabama runs for Homecoming Queen, going up against a century of ingrained racial segregation, internal black politics, and a secret association of all-white fraternities. (World Premiere)
Bootleg Wisconsin
Director: Brandon Linden. Writers: Brandon Linden, Tim Donovan. Starring: Lepolion Henderson, Angela Harris, Alissa Bailey, Joyce Porter. A married Chicago Public School Teacher spends part of her summer vacation visiting outlet malls across the Midwest. At her penultimate stop, in Pleasant Prairie Wisconsin, she meets a young man who works at the mall. A relationship develops that makes them both question their lives and their futures. (World Premiere)
Flying On One Engine
Director: Joshua Z Weinstein. The documentary story of an Indian-American surgeon who, despite being critically ill himself and living in a one-room Brooklyn apartment, travels back to India every year to perform marathon surgery "camps" where he repairs the cleft lips of 700 children in a week. (World Premiere)
Half-Life
Director/writer: Jennifer Phang. Starring: Sanoe Lake, Alexander Agate, Julia Nickson, Ben Redgrave.
As troubling signs of global cataclysms accelerate, a brother and sister react to their father’s desertion and the powerful presence of their mother’s new boyfriend. (Regional Premiere)
Humboldt County
Director/writer: Danny Jacobs & Darren Grodsky. Starring: Fairuza Balk, Peter Bogdanovich, Frances Conroy, Madison Davenport, Brad Dourif, Chris Messina, Jeremy Strong.
When Peter Hadley, a promising yet disillusioned medical student, stumbles upon an eccentric community of marijuana farmers, his life will never be the same. (World Premiere)
IBID
Director/writer: Russell Friedenberg. Starring: Christian Campbell, Russell Friedenberg, Chris Kriesa, Heather Rae.
Recently escaped from Trinity Psychiatric Center, a pair of patients hit the road on a mission to inscribe an addendum to the Ten Commandments in order to save the world. (World Premiere)
In A Dream
Director: Jeremiah Zagar.
The chaotic story of Julia Zagar and her husband Isaiah Zagar, a renowned mosaic artist, who for the past 30 years has covered more than 40,000 square feet of Philadelphia top to bottom with tile, mirror, paint, and concrete. (World Premiere)
The Marconi Bros.
Director/writers: Marco Ricci, Michael Canzoniero. Starring: Brendan Sexton III, Dan Fogler, Jon Polito, Zoe Lister Jones.
Anthony and Carmine Marconi have been dutifully serving out life sentences in the family carpet business. Their opportunity to escape occurs when they meet the undisputed king of the Long Island wedding video business. (World Premiere)
Medicine For Melancholy
Director/writer: Barry Jenkins. Starring: Wyatt Cenac, Tracey Heggins.
A love story of bikes and one-night stands told through two African-American twenty-somethings dealing with issues of class, identity, and the evolving conundrum of being a minority living in a rapidly gentrifying San Francisco. (World Premiere)
Natural Causes
Directors: Alex Cannon, Paul Cannon, Michael Lerman. Writers: Alex Cannon, Paul Cannon, Michael Lerman, Paul Cannon. Starring: Jerzy Gwiazdowski, Leah Goldstein, Shonda Leigh Robbins, Peter Davenport Swan III. In the wake of a brief, but intense relationship with Shaina, David struggles to find the same connection with Cara, his new flame and Shaina’s former best friend. (World Premiere)
The New Year Parade
Director/writer: Tom Quinn. Starring: Greg Lyons, Jennifer Welsh, Andrew Conway, MaryAnn McDonald.
When Mike and Lisa separate, their children suffer quietly in the middle of the annual Mummer’s Parade. (Regional Premiere)
One Minute to Nine
Director: Tommy Davis.
A haunting and touching documentary look at one family, thrown into the disturbing reality that follows a history of domestic abuse, as one member prepares to serve a jail sentence. (North American Premiere)
The Ostrich Testimonies
Director: Jonathan VanBallenberghe.
The dramatic story of the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch near Tucson, Arizona, where in 2002, two hot-air balloons triggered a stampede of 1,600 ostriches. (World Premiere)
The Pleasure of Being Robbed
Director: Josh Safdie. Writers: Josh Safdie & Eleonore Hendricks. Starring: Eleonore Hendricks, Josh Safdie, Wayne Chin, Francesca & Miranda LaPrelle.
A curious and lost Eleonore looks for something everywhere, even in the bags of strangers who find themselves sadly smiling only well after she’s left their lives. They owe her their thanks. (World Premiere)
Present Company
Director/writer: Frank V. Ross. Starring: Anthony Baker, Tamara Fana Sasha Gioppo, Allison Latta.
Leading very separate lives, Christy and her boyfriend Buddy live together in her parent’s basement with their baby Mikey. As they struggle with the realities of their lives, questions are formed about obligations, consequences, and all the identities we employ to get through the day. (World Premiere)
Woodpecker
Director: Alex Karpovsky. Writers: Alex Karpovsky, Jon E. Hyrns. Starring: Jon E. Hyrns, Wesley Yang, Ken Parham.
Fanatical birdwatchers have descended upon a small town in the Arkansas bayou in hopes of finding the celebrated Ivory Billed Woodpecker. Declared extinct in the 1940s, the bird has apparently been spotted by numerous experts over the past few months. The news is miraculous, yet concrete proof remains elusive. (World Premiere)
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