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“South by Southwest is like Summer Camp for me – I get to hang out with my friends for a week, and have fun.” This quote from a well-known independent film producer overheard in the press room about sums up the 10-day long party / showcase / convention / festival that is SXSW. With over 1,000 bands and close to 200 films amidst all the meetings, panels, and parties, it’s impossible to drink it all in; but just showing up and taking in what you can is sure to satisfy. Following are a few snapshots of this year’s happenings.

PRESS ON
This documentary project was started by Gillian Grisman (daughter of mandonlinist David Grisman, and producer of Grateful Dawg), when she caught wind of Randolph’s music and was just drawn in to his passion and performance. She takes the viewer into the House of God Church, where Randolph is from, and introduces us to the four founding fathers of the “Sacred Steel” movement, who all mentored him. Like a true gentleman, he is now helping produce and share the limelight with those greats of the movement as his reputation explodes. What makes this documentary so great is that Grisman was there from almost the beginning of Randolph’s career, so we are treated to a real panoramic view of his skyrocket to fame. Like many of the film festival’s screenings, the producer/director was there for a brief Q&A afterwards. When asked about visiting the House of God Church in Orange, NJ she confided, “I’m not a very religious person. I’m spiritual, but I’ve never felt so ‘at home’ in a church.” The film was so inspiring that it was easy for tears of joy to well up in the eyes. Could Randolph’s music be a “new song” that the world has been waiting for? You bet. While this film fest is never only about music, they always find a motherlode of music-related films to unleash upon its viewers.

THE WENDELL BAKER STORY
The Wilson Brothers (Owen, Luke, and lesser known director Andrew) collaborated for the first time here on a hilarious comedy with a ton of familiar faces (like Will Farrell, Eddie Griffin, Kris Kristopherson, and Harry Dean Stanton). Filmed in an around Austin, the local crowd loved seeing all the landmarks in the film, but once the story got rolling the goofy shenanigans provided gut-busting laughter at a quick and consistent pace.

PALINDROMES
Aviva, whose name provides the impetus for the movie’s title, goes through several tumultuous phases in her young life, with each one portrayed by a different actress. This clever device by filmmaker Todd Solondz shocked the audience enough to underline the heavy subject matter of abortion, teenage pregnancy, and Christianity. It was kind of funny to see Solondz skewer so many sides (all of them) surrounding the hot issue of abortion. Aviva’s mom (Ellen Barkin) insists that her 13-year-old daughter get an abortion to take care of this “problem” growing inside of her, and the emotional arguments she uses reveal the vacuous makeup of her appeal. Aviva’s travels take her to an altruistic, large foster family with its own Christian pop band and caricature personalities, which turn criminal as Aviva teams up with her repressed pedophilic interest, Earl, in tracking down a certain abortion doctor with a gun. The outcome shows delicate care in this conflicted girl’s search for love and acceptance in a fallen world.

EDUCATION OF SHELBY KNOX
This was a fascinating study of a young Christian girl which starts with her pledge to remain abstinent at a “True Love Waits” rally. The cameras follow her up-close with her family, church home, school, and activities with the Lubbock Youth Commission. She becomes an activist in her community, in an attempt to change the schools’ policy to provide abstinence-only sex education. It’s interesting to see the resistance she gets and the friends she makes in her quest. While it takes a surprising direction considering popular national opinion, unfortunately only one side of the issue gets the favorable edits and the audience isn’t given much balance to choose from. It was interesting to hear from Shelby, who now attends the University of Texas in Austin, on how she works actively with a pro-choice group on campus. The two directors also fielded questions, and they admitted that they dialogued and influenced her quite a bit in terms of Knox’s transformation from accepting her parents’ conservative views to embracing many liberal causes.

CL.ONE
Here was a sci-fi drama that covered the controversial topic of human cloning and makes for quite a developed story. Shot entirely on DV, the film’s special effects and post-production efforts keep it on par with a tv show, like Battlestar Galactica or Babylon 5; or even older flicks, like Flash Gordon. The most impressive thing I learned after watching this fairly tiring movie was that the first-time indie filmmakers did all this for only $25,000. Quite the feat.

WATERBORNE
Unlike many thriller dramas, this 24-like bio-terrorist threat movie started off after the terrorist act had already poisoned the drinking water of Los Angeles. Instead of showing the terrorists in action, it focused on half a dozen characters and how they dealt with this disaster as it unfolded and threatened to implode the city with humanity’s animalistic fight for survival. Very compelling. It was fun to be handed a bottle of water with the movie’s biohazard symbol on it upon entering; and it was enlightening to hear the director talk about making the film on a low budget in and around Los Angeles.

MURDERBALL
Can you imagine being paralyzed and spending the rest of your life as a quadrapalegic? This documentary started out that way and ended up following the sport of Quad Rugby (originally titled “Murderball,” but toned down for public relations), where those with spinal injuries play rugby in wheelchairs – and not just any wheelchair, but a supped-up heavy metal warrior style armored chair. They crash into each other to gain possession of the ball just as intensely as any other ball sport. It’s a fascinating peek into a serious sport where ordinary people overcome incredible odds to compete. It’s put together well, following Team USA, which features Mark Zupan from Austin, all the way to the Paralympics in Athens. The viewer is almost helpless from rooting the team on like a Rocky story.

SHOOTING LIVIEN
To the untrained eye, the label “Foreign Film” can mean “Don’t watch” in English. While this film was shot in New York City, it feels like a foreign film about a rock band with a self-destructive singer named Livien. His mental illness issues are brought to the forefront in a way that’s both compelling and empathetic. There’s some good original music in the film and it’s always a hoot to see inter-band conflicts and bonding.

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