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The Rice Thresher
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Marisa Levy Thresher staff Attending South by Southwest as an aspiring filmmaker or as a film buff is sort of like entering a Willy Wonka's candy factory of film. Everywhere you look, there are directors you admire, actors you love and critics you respect. But instead of Gene Wilder taking the helm, this wonderland of cinema is in the supportive hands of filmmakers Richard Linklater, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, who have made themselves as much of an institution at the festival as the films. A true sense of community sets this Austin-based festival apart from the Goliath festivals like Sundance and Telluride. Filmmakers, aspiring or working, and even just people interested in the craft are invited to engage in personal workshops with filmmakers, actors and industry professionals. Everyone participating in the festival, from Woody Harrelson to Billy Bob Thornton to Tarantino, is willing to talk shop, gossip or just hang out with you. The first time I went to SXSW, I was a scared sophomore, armed with only my camera and a press badge reading "Rice University." Though I had no idea what the festival would be like, I was completely intimidated. But I was damn determined to make the best of it. I saw 16 movies, I went to every panel discussion featuring anyone whose name I recognized, and I harassed actors, directors and everyone I could get within five feet of. This time around, I decided to take a different approach to the festival. I left my camera at home, I stayed away from all of the commercial films looking to break into the mainstream, and I avoided porn stars like the plague (yes, they come to film festivals and are looking to make friends). Instead, I hunted down the documentaries and short films that seem to thrive on the festival circuit but quickly die out in art-house theaters and university movie screens. Of course, I realize this doesn't make for very interesting reporting. Who wants to read about a documentary transforming modern media and fueling political protests when the odds of that film coming to town are pretty low? Then again, maybe you'll read this article, take an interest and stalk Cactus Video employees until they bring these movies to the shelves:
'Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town' This engrossing documentary by Micha X. Peled details a small town's reaction to the impending construction of a Wal-Mart. Following supporters from both sides of the issue, Peled offers a realistic view of small-town folks attempting to fight corporate America. The film exposes the tactics large corporations use to manipulate citizens and to virtually purchase local government support. I walked away from this film honestly believing that Wal-Mart is a capitalistic cult. Though the film is entertaining, filled with dry, biting wit and sympathetic characters, I was more impressed by the effect the film had on its audience than the film itself. I have never felt more uncomfortable in a movie screening than at this one, due to the audience's passionate reactions. People actually began arguing with each other across the aisles during especially controversial or poignant scenes dealing with citizen empowerment and capitalism in America. If you have any interest in the preservation of small-town America or a mild fascination with dominant corporate cultures (or if you wonder who the hell gave Kathy Lee Gifford a clothing line), I highly recommend this film.
'Karaoke Fever' By far the funniest film at the festival, Karaoke Fever follows the lives of a dozen karaoke performers as they compete to reach Karaoke Fest 2000, the nation's biggest karaoke competition. If you're a fan of Christopher Guest mockumentaries such as Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show, directors Arthur Borman, Steve Danielson and Adam Bardach capture all of Guest's absurdity and fresh insight into human nature while adding a disturbing, shocking look into reality. I was so in awe of the people documented in this film that it was a constant challenge to remind myself that these people were not actors following a script. This film runs the gamut of sympathetic, pathetic and inspiring life stories. Whether the film is admiring the strength of a singing disabled homosexual janitor or mocking the blatant lack of humility displayed by an opera-singing sex-kitten caught marrying her mother's boyfriend, I have neither laughed so hard nor become so emotionally attached to real people probably best suited for "The Jerry Springer Show."
'The Sweetest Sound' Director Alan Berliner is best known for his film Ma Vie en Rose, a fabulous coming-of-age film about an imaginative homosexual boy and his supportive family. No, wait. That film belongs to Belgian director Alain Berliner, not Alan Berliner, a Jewish documentary filmmaker from New York. And his film is about this kind of confusion. In The Sweetest Sound, Berliner attempts to deal with the same-name syndrome - how to define your identity apart from your name when there are a dozen other people in the world walking around with the same moniker. Rather than simply looking up his name on the Internet (a.k.a. "ego-surfing"), Berliner goes so far as to send out inquiries to every Berliner he can locate in the world. His quest culminates in an entertaining and enlightening dinner party to which he invites all 12 of the other Alan Berliners in the world. I always enjoy Berliner's filmmaking style. He is known for incorporating footage from his collection of other people's old home videos and working personal topics into the realm of social issues. You can't escape this film without wondering if your parents damned you by pigeonholing your personality and potential into a name that evokes notions of a geek, an athlete, a preppy white boy or a hippie earth-mother.
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