SXSW first day recap
I caught the somewhat-underwhelming Snakes on a Plane panel yesterday, interesting, but nothing really came out of it except for Mr. Krug’s comment that he’s interested in how to better develop the model where online communities generate not only the buzz for a movie, but also the content. I’ll post more about this in a few minutes, but first the rest of the recap.
I made it to two films yesterday, “Running with Arnold” and “The Gits”
“Running with Arnold” - Being a longtime student of Documentaries, I have a few things to say about this film. First, the whole journalism-expose format has never played well as a feature length approach, mostly because it fails to focus the audience on the narrative component. Second, There was far too much attention paid to culling online sources for the film. I came away with the feeling that me and a buddy could put together nearly the same movie just by searching youtube and revver. Third, much more attention could have been paid to the audio portion of the film - it was very uneven.
Those things being said however, the subject matter was well handled and the film was entertaining, if a little distracting.
The Gits - Now this was one I was looking forward to, especially since I heard they had arranged with Doug Pray (of Hype! and Scratch) to use some of the incredible footage accumulated for the film Hype!. For those of you who don’t know, this film is about Mia Zapata, the lead singer of the band The Gits, who was by all rights one of the best punk rock singers there has ever been. The film does a good job of bringing the uninitiated into the musical and creative space that Mia occupied, and reintroducing her to the masses as the shining star and influence she is. Mia was murdered in 1993, just as The Gits were set to break out. The film does a remarkable job of creating for the audience the sense of loss that was felt throughout the Seattle music scene on her passing.
Saturday will be back to panels and then films in the afternoon.
