SXSW Film Festival 2009: Emerging Visions
Awaydays
Director: Pat Holden. Writer: Kevin Sampson
A blade-sharp rites-of-passage that buzzes with the post-punk energy of its late-70s Liverpool setting. Based on the classic novel by Kevin Sampson. Cast: Nicky Bell, Liam Boyle, Stephen Graham, Oliver Lee (North American Premiere)
Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo
Director: Jessica Oreck
Untangling the web of cultural and historical ties underlying Japan’s deep fascination with insects… and what it says about the rest of us. (World Premiere)
Brock Enright: Good Times Will Never Be The Same
Director: Jody Lee Lipes
Artist Brock Enright’s unbridled creative force clashes with the confines of love, family, and industry, as he crafts the most significant show of his career. (World Premiere)
Creative Nonfiction
Director/Writer: Lena Dunham
Reality and fiction are indistinguishable as a college student tries and fails to differentiate her creative writing screenplay from her increasingly awkward social life. Cast: Eleonore Endricks, David Unger, Audrey Gelman, Sam Lisenco, Lena Dunham (World Premiere)
Crude Independence
Director: Noah Hutton
A rumination on the future of small town America through the lens of a humanistic tale of change at the hands of the global energy market and its unyielding thirst for oil. (World Premiere)
Four Boxes
Director/Writer: Wyatt McDill
A snarky social thriller about three suburban nobodies watching a creep named Havoc on a website called fourboxes.tv – Rear Window on the internet. Cast: Justin Kirk, Terryn Westbrook, Sam Rosen (World Premiere)
The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle
Director: David Russo
When Dory’s life seems like it’s going down the drain, a strange “new life” takes shape inside him and he learns that sometimes you don’t have to find meaning, it grows in you. Cast: Marshall Allman, Vince Vieluf, Natasha Lyonne, Tania Raymonde, Tygh Runyan.
Luckey
Director: Laura Longsworth
After sculptor Tom Luckey’s devastating fall through a window, his family must cross delicate lines drawn long ago by divorce and remarriage while Tom, fully paralyzed and wacky personality intact, pursues building his biggest, most complicated sculpture ever. (World Premiere)
Make-Out with Violence
Director: The Deagol Brothers. Writer: The Deagol Brothers, Cody DeVos and Eric Lehning
A rock musical wherein the living love the dead and break into silence instead of song. Cast: Eric Lehning, Cody DeVos, Leah High, Brett Miller, Shellie Marie Shartzer
Modern Love is Automatic
Director/Writer: Zach Clark
A story about an apathetic nurse who moonlights as a dominatrix, her aspiring model roommate and the sad, strange world they live in. Cast: Melodie Sisk, Maggie Ross (World Premiere)
Motherland
Director: Jennifer Steinman
Six grieving mothers journey to Africa in order to test the theory that “giving is healing.” (World Premiere)
My Suicide
Director: David Lee Miller. Writer: David Lee Miller, Eric Adams, Gabriel Sunday, Jordan Miller
An isolated, media obsessed teenager announces he’s going to kill himself for his high school, video production class final project. Cast: Gabriel Sunday, David Carradine, Joe Mantegna, Nora Dunn, Mariel Hemingway (North American Premiere)
Pulling John
Director: Vassiliki Khonsari
The universal story of a champion arm wrestler’s glory in an unsung sport, who after 25 years of success is now burdened with the inevitable transformation of aging. (World Premiere)
RATS and CATS
Director: Tony Ayres. Writer: Jason Gann, Adam Zwar
Ex-soap star Darren McWarren destroyed his career with a series of indiscretions. Now he’s living the live away from the spotlight when a “Where are they now” journalist comes to call. Cast: Jason Gann, Adam Zwar, Anya Beyersdorf, Tony Rogers (North American Premiere)
Sissyboy
Director: Kate Turinski
A juncture in the lives of performance art revolutionaries, the film explores a Portland-based gender-bending drag troupe that has served up their audacity, ambivalence and social commentary throughout the Rose City for over 3 years before hundreds of devoted fans.
Sorry, Thanks
Director: Dia Sokol, Writer: Dia Sokol and Lauren Veloski
Disaster looms when Kira (reeling from a brutal break-up) sleeps with Max (who already has a girlfriend) and Max takes up two new pursuits: an obsessive-tending interest in Kira, and the mystery of whether he may in fact be an ass. Cast: Wiley Wiggins, Kenya Miles, Andrew Bujalski, Ia Hernandez (World Premiere)
Splinterheads
Director/Writer: Brant Sersen
For Justin Frost, a typical day is rolling out of bed at one, practicing improvised karate, and mowing grass for his best friend’s landscaping business. But when a traveling carnival lands in his small town, Justin falls for a sexy con artist and wakes up to the life he has yet to begin living. Cast: Thomas Middleditch, Rachael Taylor, Christopher McDonald, Lea Thompson, Dean Winters (World Premiere)
St. Nick
Director/Writer: David Lowery
A stark, haunting portrait of childhood following the adventures of a runaway brother and sister as they try to survive, all on their own, out on the wintry plains of the great southwest. Cast: Tucker Sears, Savanna Sears, Barlow Jacobs, Mara Lee Miller (World Premiere)
The Time of Their Lives
Director: Jocelyn Cammack
With a combined age of almost 300, Hetty, Rose and Alison are still powerfully engaged in their individual forms of activism – from journalism, to public speaking to anti-war demonstrations – while quietly negotiating the final moments of their lives. (North American Premiere)
Trust Us, This Is All Made Up
Director: Alex Karpovsky
Immortalized in the world of improv comedy, Second City veterans TJ Jagodowksi and David Pasquesi explore the unique partnership and transcendental forces that govern their legendary performances. (World Premiere)
Wake Up
Director: Jonas Elrod
An average 36-year old guy suddenly wakes up with the ability to see and hear angels, demons, auras and ghosts. With his girlfriend by his side, he goes on a journey to figure it all out, and his search becomes a guide to revealing larger truths about the world and everyone in it. (World Premiere)
SXSW Film Festival 2009: Spotlight Premieres
SXSW Film Festival 2009: Documentary Feature Competition
Robert Redford to Be Honored at San Francisco Film Festival
SXSW 2009: Mumblecore Movies Available Via IFC Films
Tribeca 2009: Woody Allen's WHATEVER WORKS Is Opening Night Film