Yet again it has been too long since I last blogged! And I owe apologies to Caroline Haebig, Social Studies Educator and Bradford High School, and her wonderful students Laure Landre, Christopher Maxwell, Alexis Rodriguez, Kate Sherman, and Zach Sullivan. Caroline facilitates a high school film program where talented students create short, silent, sociological films. The films screened publicly Friday, February 18. I heard it was an excellent event, but sadly the antics of some politician in Madison overshadowed the blog I intended to write about those students’ experiences with filmmaking.
That said, it is with great enthusiasm that I am writing again, because I am getting back on the film festival horse (or perhaps the film festival monkey has returned to my back?) this week at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin. It has been over a decade since I attended SXSW, and those were different times. The Real World had yet to shoot there. Quentin Tarantino was the only celebrity one could count on seeing. The condo boom didn’t exist. Sandra Bullock had not moved to Austin, much less opened a restaurant there, and she certainly had not won an Oscar. (Shoot – I’m not sure people even considered her talented in the 1990s.) People actually could get into the music shows with a wristband, and the film festival was just gaining traction.
2011 is a different world. My goal right now is to see at least 12 films in five days, attend one or two panels every day as well, and successfully stalk Pee Wee Herman. I also have between five and ten parties on my “party list” every single day! Austin doesn’t just have a festival: it is a festival. (I saw yesterday that during SXSW, in toto Austin hosts nearly 7,000 parties, bands, films, and other events!) My realistic goal is to hit two to three films or panels per day, one to two parties, and stand in the very back of a room behind a very tall person while struggling to hear Paul Reubens talk about his career. You, my dear readers, obviously will be the first to see how I fare! Stay tuned…
