SXSW Film Festival 2008 - Special Screenings
by Andre Soares
SXSW FILM FESTIVAL 2008 - SPECIAL SCREENINGS
The SXSW Film Festival runs March 7–15, 2008
Agile, Mobile, Hostile: A Year With Andre Williams
Director: Eric Matthies and Tricia Todd.
A year in the life of Andre Williams, one of the unsung heroes of the American R&B community, who walks us through the hard life he’s led over five decades of making music. (World Premiere)
Bi The Way
Director: Brittany Blockman and Josephine Decker.
Journeying through the changing sexual landscape of America, BI THE WAY investigates the latest scientific reports and social opinions on bisexuality, while following five members of the emerging "whatever generation"— teens and twenty-somethings who seem to be ushering in whole new sexual revolution. (World Premiere)
The Black List
Director: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. Writer: Elvis Mitchell.
In a film that works as series of living portraits, twenty prominent African Americans of various professions, disciplines and backgrounds offer their own stories and insights on the struggles, triumphs and joys of black life in this country and manage to re-define "blacklist" for a new century in the process. (Regional Premiere)
Body of War
Directors: Ellen Spiro & Phil Donahue.
"Support our troops" has long been a rallying cry for war proponents. But that phrase will never sound the same after you meet Tomas Young, an eloquent former soldier and current war protester. (Regional Premiere)
Dancing Alfonso
Director: Barak Heymann.
Alfonso is the lead dancer in a flamenco troupe, which rehearses in a Tel Aviv suburb After the death of his wife, he begins to obsessively court Sima, a dancer with the troupe, to the displeasure of his children, who are unwilling to accept the fact that their father might be interested in another woman. (U.S. Premiere)
Dear Zachary: a letter to a son about his father
Director: Kurt Kuenne.
After Dr. Andrew Bagby was brutally murdered, the prime suspect (his former girlfriend) announced that she was pregnant with Andrew’s baby. Andrew’s childhood friend began this film as a way for the baby to learn about his father, until things started to take an even more unpredictable turn. (Regional Premiere)
Do You Sleep In the Nude?
Director: Marshall Fine.
Forty years after he blazed across the scene, Rex Reed is still going strong - a brand-name movie critic whose name and face remain easily recognizable, even if his influence has waned. (Regional Premiere)
Don’t Get Me Wrong
Director: Adina Pintilie
Within a stark Romanian psychiatric hospital, patients move stones, help each other perform daily tasks and discuss the existence of God and how to stop the rain. (U.S. Premiere)
Goliath
Director: David Zellner. Writers: David and Nathan Zellner. Starring: David Zellner, Caroline O’Connor, Nathan Zellner.
A recently divorced man tries to find the one aspect of his marriage that still matters to him: his missing cat, Goliath. (Regional Premiere)
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Director: Alex Gibney.
With access to never-before-seen archives, this is a fascinating documentary look at the legendary and undeniable Hunter S. Thompson. (Regional Premiere)
Here Is What Is
Director: Adam Vollick & Adam Samuels.
An invitation to experience a year of creation, looking over Daniel Lanois’ shoulder. His psychedelic past emerges throughout the film as the hyperrealism of the in-studio documentation is contrasted by moments of wild fantasia. (U.S. Premiere)
Here’s Johnny
Director: Kat Mansoor, Adam Lavis and WIll Hood.
Previously renowned for his work in the comics Judge Dredd and 2000AD, Johnny now lives in an increasing state of immobility and frustration. He escapes the confines of his front room by drawing, and through the expression of his brilliant, and sometimes troubled, imagination we learn about the disease that he is forced to co-exist with. (World Premiere)
Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry
Director: Erich Weiss
A feature-length documentary exploring the roots of American tattooing through the life of its most iconoclastic figure Norman "Sailor Jerry" Collins. (World Premiere)
Joy Division
Director: Grant Gee.
The filmmakers investigate why Joy Division’s collective musical genius and singular vision enjoys a larger audience and influence thirty years on.
(U.S. Premiere)
Mongol
Director: Sergei Bodrov. Writers: Arif Aliyev, Sergei Bodrov. Starring: Tadanobu Asano, Honglei Sun, Khulan Chuluun. The first part in a planned trilogy about the epic, violent, and romantic life of Genghis Khan. (Regional Premiere)
The Night James Brown Saved Boston
Director: David Leaf.
A documentary look at the historic James Brown concert, held just days after Martin Luther King’s assassination, when the city of Boston was ready to boil. (Work-In-Progress)
Secrecy
Director: Peter Galison & Robb Moss.
The film is about the vast, invisible world of government secrecy. By filming people from the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, reporters, information seekers, and individuals whose lives have been marked by their encounters with the classification bureaucracy, the film probes secrecy’s relationship to fear, executive power and national security. (Regional Premiere)
The Sweet Lady with the Nasty Voice
Director: Vincent Kralyevich.
This documentary is the culmination of a two-year journey with Wanda Jackson, now 70, in performances across the United States and Europe. (World Premiere)
The Visitor
Director/writer: Thomas McCarthy. Starring: Richard Jenkins.
A college professor becomes embroiled in the lives of a young immigrant couple he discovers squatting in his Manhattan apartment. Confronted with adversity, these strangers become inextricably bound together. (Regional Premiere)
Triage: Dr. James Orbinski’s Humanitarian Dilemma
Director: Patrick Reed.
The former head of Doctors Without Borders returns to Africa, to confront its harsh realities. (Regional Premiere)
We Dreamed America
Director: Alex Walker.
A documentary that delves deep into the dark and hilarious recesses of the British Americana music scene, exploring the gritty underworld of the New British Country movement. (U.S. Premiere)
The Wild Horse Redemption
Director: John Zaritsky.
At a prison in the high desert foothills of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, hard-core criminals are given 90 days to tame wild mustang horses. Most of the inmates who volunteer for the program have never trained a horse before, or even ridden one. (U.S. Premiere)
SXSW Film Festival 2008 - ‘Round Midnight & Lone Start States
SXSW Film Festival 2008 - 24 Bits per Second
SXSW Film Festival 2008 - Emerging Visions
SXSW Film Festival 2008 - Narrative Feature Competition
SXSW Film Festival 2008 - Documentary Feature Competition
SXSW Film Festival 2008 - Spotlight Premieres
Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2008 - London
Berlin Film Festival 2008 - Competition Line-Up
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