Doc/Fest Blog
SXSW announces
By Charlie Phillips 05 February, 2010
The doc fans are on fire with the announcement of SXSW's film programme.
It's looking very good - I'm especially excited about Quark Films' world premiere of The People vs George Lucas, chronicling the world's favourite schmaltz-lover and his battle with the people who love him and his films. Another potential blow to a man who's been eclipsed as the King of torturous superficial epics by James Cameron. He's lost his crown and the respect of his fans - see how. You can always trust Quark to deliver the very goods, so I think this will be super special.
A big well done also to Erasing David and American:The Bill Hicks Story, who move from Doc/Fest success to SXSW showings. We're taking great pleasure in their progress.
In the Doc Feature Competition, I'm most intrigued by Marwencol - "After a vicious attack leaves him brain damaged and broke, Mark Hogancamp seeks recovery in “Marwencol,” a 1/6th-scale World War II-era town he creates in his backyard". When we had our MeetMarket submissions last year, I noticed there was a surprising trend for war recreation in the air, and I can't get enough. Immediately unsettling that people can care in so much detail about the significance of war but be so physically divorced from it, it's a malaise of the modern West that's not easy to analyse without patronising it, but it really needs to be done. Hope it lives up to my hopes.
In the Emerging Visions section, which is traditionally where the proper bleeding edge stuff come from, the one I'm drooling after is The Parking Lot Movie - read this and tell me it doesn't sound like a wonder:
It’s not just a parking lot, it’s a battle with humanity.” “The Parking Lot Movie” is a documentary about a singular parking lot in Charlottesville, Virginia. The film follows a select group of Parking Lot Attendants and their strange rite of passage. Something as simple as a parking lot becomes an emotional weigh station for the American Dream
And that's just from me reading the blurbs and constructing my own fantasy films. In many cases, I don't know what to expect and I'm looking forward to being wowed. The great thing with SXSW and Sundance taken together is that they set an agenda for 2010 for the docs that will be talked about all year in the US, so at this stage, many of them remain a magical mystery tour and they can simply impress with their quality and not just their hype. Of course, this is primarily the US exports that we're talking about, and the rest of the world operates on different schedules - not least Europe, where this Autumnal splurge that we're part of is far more important in 'starting' the year.
But nevertheless, I'm really looking forward to SXSW - I'll be there with Doc/Fest's brilliant Tech manager, Mat Steel, and we'll be taking in as much of the Film and Interactive programme as we can possibly stomach without falling over.
In the meantime, to celebrate it being Friday, here's a little movie treat for you over on AP Engine - The Alcohol Years by Carol Morley, in which the artist gets her friends to reveal how annoying she was when she drank too much in early 80s Manchester. It's very funny. Manchester and the 80s are a nasty combo so I don't really blame her.
Take a look round AP Engine whilst you're there - it's pretty ace.