After the rains of Sunday, it was kind of delightful to throw back the curtains and see sunshine raining down on Austin come Monday morning. And while I had made big plans to see a movie on Monday morning (the film was Audience of One which it seemed that everyone was raving about and which is headed soon to New Directors/New Films), I was unfortunately all too happy to sleep late, knowing that I had my own screening at 4 PM at the Paramount.
When we premiered About A Son in Toronto, Matt Dentler of SXSW came up to me and told me that he wanted to screen the film at SX and that he wanted to show it in the Paramount. Nothing made me happier than this idea, after all, my first film - Gigantic - screened twice at the Paramount when we world premiered in Austin in 2002 and I was very excited at the notion of going there again with this new film.
But nothing quite prepared me for the emotion that I would feel when I sat, off to the side, and Matt introduced me on Monday afternoon. I thought about the last time I had been in this theatre (aside from this year´s screenings) and realized that that was the beginning of a new stage of my life. Since then I have met so many people - great filmmakers, festival programmers, writers, actors - dear friends all, and it had all began at the Paramount five years earlier. When I took the stage, introducing the first screening with our 35mm film print (I said, "you´ll be seeing the film for the first time as it was meant to be seen"), I didn´t have the tearful welling up that I did in Toronto, but I definitely felt the power of the moment.
Later, watching the third act, seeing the two frame quick-cut fleeting image of myself and my daughter, I was slightly overcome. The audience was so engaged with Kurt, laughing at his throwaway lines or his quirks or his uncomfortable anger. It was clear that this screening was the best screening we had ever had for the film. (A second screening, held on Thursday that I missed, was apparently equally emotional, according to Michael Azerrad and Steve Fisk who took over Q&A duties.)
This feeling continued after the film as well, as I had the chance to talk with some folks who I had long wanted to see the film (one a filmmaker that I really respect who has his own history with Seattle music, another a longtime friend who had championed my efforts for months as I was trying to raise funds) as well as some I didn´t expect to see (one a close friend of several people who were intimately connected to Kurt, others who had produced a documentary that I really love and another who programs a world class film festival) and I could see in all of them that they had fully appreciated the emotion of the screening and that they were touched in their own way by the efforts of everyone involved. Later I got to talk with three people who were seeing the film for a second time and who were having new feelings about what they had seen. Add to this, getting to meet one of my producers´wife and child and parents, and you have what continued to be a wonderfully heartfelt day.
Dentler and I at the party for Joe Swanberg´s Hannah Takes the Stairs. As someone else mentioned on their blog, Dentler, as SXSW guru gets all the beers he wants.
The whole day also made me reflect on SXSW´s special place in the US film festival world and particularly on its role in nonfiction. By not exclusively focusing on serious issue-driven films (in other words, by not shying away from documentaries that are funny, pop-cultural and, yes, music-driven), SXSW has, I think, been an incredibly important force in what has happened in non-fiction filmmaking over the past half-decade, perhaps the most important force in changing people´s perception of documentaries as being "incredibly depressing" (oh, no, not Seinfeld again). And while I may not yet be Joe Swanbergian in terms of my SXSW-cred, I´m quite proud to be a 2-time veteran and will wear with honor the title of SXSW Filmmaker for all time.
By the time Tuesday rolled around, I was seriously ready for some panels and some BBQ, neither of which I´d had a chance tackle in my first 3 days in Austin.
The first panel was the all-star Blogging on Film soiree, featuring fellow DocForce members (I´m gonna keep making up names until someone stops me) Agnes Varnum and Joel Heller, as well as superstars Alison Willmore, Mark Rabinowitz, Lance Walker and Paul Harrill. It was a quite enjoyable discussion, even touching on my blogged outrage over the whole Carpetbagger/Grace is Gone controversy. But one thing that I found particularly of interest was the question of what to do when you see a film that you really don´t like. I had tackled this myself just days earlier here on the blog, deciding that I should go ahead and write about the fil in question, since it touched on so many issues of import to me (and which I will deal with again here shortly). The panel seemed to concur, saying that it´s their instinct not to go after a film ("it´s not worth my time," said one) unless it was particularly egregious or somehow fell into the subject matter that they traditionally covered. The audience for the Blogging on Film panel was equally luminous, with Indiewire´s Eugene Hernandez, Anthony Kaufman and Michael Tully all present and accounted for.
After a bit of BBQ and a thunderous rainstorm, I joined filmmaker Doug Pray, IFC´s Evan Shapiro, VH1´s Brad Abramson, The Documentary Channel´s Michael Burns and moderator Elliot Lavine for a panel on Rock Docs. I´m not sure if we solved any of the world´s problems, but we did seem to concur that there´s room for more documentaries about music and musicians but that television may be a better outlet (and funding source) than theatrical - even if you still need theatrical to legitimize the title (so that it not appear to be an artist-generated home video collection).
And from there it was off to the Austin airport with a prayer that I would make it out of town as the rains continued. It was a successful bid and soon I was back home, although briefly, in Los Angeles. Thanks to Dentler, Jarod and all the kids at SXSW for your warm hospitality and for making me feel like part of the family. Sad that I missed films like Billy the Kid, the aforementioned Audience of One, Scott Walker: 30th Century Man and Silver Jew - all of which earned enthusiastic praise from folks I respect. Some of these I will catch at Full Frame next month, others I will be sure to see on the fest circuit, or hopefully, in theatres.
Next stop, Argentina...
I was at the Blogging on Film panel, too, and found it one of the better ones I attended. In fact, I started my film blog as a result! Will you be at Hot Docs this year? I'm intending to expand my usual coverage.
Posted by: James McNally | March 30, 2007 at 05:54 AM