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The title might give the game away a little, but that doesn’t lessen the impact of How to Create a Sex Scandal. The new Max docuseries, brisk, brief, and damning, makes a convincing case that an East Texas pedophilia case that sent seven people to prison was in fact a frame job, conceived of greed and a badly damaged moral compass, and still not entirely rectified. This is the kind of filmmaking that can affect actual change.

The directors, Julian P. Hobbs and Berndt Mader, build their case carefully,...

Ari Aster, the horror maestro behind Hereditary and Midsommar, is out with Beau Is Afraid on four screens as A24 presents the film in LA (AMC Century City and Burbank) and New York, in Imax on both coasts, followed next week by a regional Imax expansion and into to a wider national rollout April 21.

The film is getting some love from Martin Scorsese, who will join Aster in conversation Monday night after an Imax showing in NYC. Opening weekend will feature Q&As with Aster and cast, which includes Nathan Lane, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Patti LuPone, Amy Ryan and Parker Posey.

The director has a dedicated fan base, and that’s invaluable in looking to break out with the specialty market still tentative compared with the Super Mario Bros-sized rebound of the broader box office. Presales indicate a strong debut.

Deadline’s review calls...

Lifelong friends Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, two comedians famous for pranking local news stations on live television as the fake strongman duo ‘Chop & Steele,’ find themselves in federal court with a vengeful media conglomerate after their latest morning show stunt goes viral. Some folks just cannot take a joke. Drafthouse Films acquired Berndt Mader and Ben Steinbauer's documentary, the Found Footage Fest Doc Chop & Steele. It will be released it as a double feature along with its sister doc, A Life on the Farm, as part of the Fantastic Fest Presents series. We're the first to share with you the trailer and poster for Chop & Steele. You will find the trailer below the acquisition announcement. We have included...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Exclusive: Drafthouse Films has acquired North American rights to the documentary Chop & Steele, about the creators of the Found Footage Festival, announcing plans to release the film in April at Alamo Drafthouse theaters as part of a double bill with another newly-acquired doc, A Life on the Farm.

Chop & Steele premiered at Tribeca in 2022 and went on to a robust North American festival run that encompassed Calgary, Philadelphia, Seattle, Denver, the Heartland International Film Festival in Indianapolis, the Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, Ala., and the San Francisco Independent Film Festival.

In Chop & Steele, Found Footage Festival principals Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, “lifelong friends who tour the country with their popular VHS oddities festival, are slapped with a federal lawsuit after pranking a local news station as ‘strong men’ Chop and Steele. Many notables are featured in the doc, including David Cross, Bobcat Goldthwait, Reggie Watts, and Howie Mandel.

Jamie Meltzer’s True Conviction explores a quasi-detective agency in Dallas (seemingly run out of the the Hickory House BBQ restaurant) founded by three men who were wrongfully convicted of crimes they did not commit. Granted $80,000 for each year of wrongful imprisonment by the government, they take on select cases that resemble their own circumstances where either the punishment does not fit the crime or the physical evidence contradicts the testimony given. The justice system should backstop flawed cases but often does not, and in one case, we learn a convict was given a public defender who showed up in court drunk and could not locate a witness in the room.

Led by Christopher Scott, exonerated after spending 13 years in prison for a crime he did not commit once the actual killer confessed, the agency takes on similar cases as Scott balances his obligations to his once estranged family. He...

A photo posted by Marissa Machado (@mnmachado) on Nov 27, 2016 at 11:50am Pst Ever since Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner were spotted cuddling up together at the MTV EMAs in early November, rumors have been flying that the pair's romance is more than a passing fling. After stepping out together in NYC ahead of Thanksgiving, Joe and the Game of Thrones actress goofed off in a series of fun photo booth pictures while attending a friend's wedding in Malibu, CA. While there, Sophie also hung out with Joe's brother Nick, who jumped in the booth with them. Joe, Sophie, and Nick were also seen the next morning when a fellow wedding attendee snapped an adorable Instagram of the group with his baby girl. "ZaZa was chilling with Sansa Stark when these Jonas Brothers moved in on her convo," he captioned the cute photo. "But she was like, 'y'all can hang with us.

Employing an outsider to disarm subjects deep in Bubba Texas, Booger Red turns to writer/director/actor/provocateur Onur Tukel as its conduit into this world, asking the absurd questions at the heart of a scandal that involves swingers, foster parents and a “sex kindergarten.” Inspired by Michael Hall’s 2009 Texas Monthly article, director Berndt Mader (Five Time Champion) constructs his own documentary/narrative hybrid with Tukel as a reporter named Onur Tukel (although not as himself) in his most restrained role yet.

Playing an Austin-based investigate reporter, he’s dispatched to the small town of Mineola, Texas where the neighborhood swinger’s club is conveniently located across from the town’s newspaper. It’s here where the mysterious Booger Red apparently brought kids he trained in his “sex kindergarten” to perform — an allegation made by a profiteering set of foster parents.

Rather curiously, Mader has insisted many real players...

The Sundance Institute is including a touch of Cannes this week as the likes of Pippa Bianco (her short Share was the 2015 winner of Cannes Cinefondation), Alistair Banks Griffin (Two Gates of Sleep premiered in Directors’ Fortnight in 2010), and the Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza tandem (from Critics’ Week Grand Prize in 2013 for Salvo) are among the dozen selected projects for the 2016 January Screenwriters Lab. The immersive, five-day writers’ workshop takes place just prior to the festival at the Sundance Resort in Utah, January 15-20. Look for several of these projects to one day break into not only Sundance, but other major film fests. Here are the selected people & projects:

The projects and fellows selected for the 2016 January Screenwriters Lab are:

Bull (U.S.A.) / Annie Silverstein (Co-writer/Director) and Johnny McAllister (Co-writer)

In a near-abandoned subdivision west of Houston, a wayward teen runs headlong into her equally willful and unforgiving neighbor,...

Artistic Director Urszula Śniegowska has created a family here of great cineastes and cinephiles. Included is the Austin posse with David Gordon Green receiving the double-barreled Indie Star Award and the European debut of his latest film, "Our Brand is Crisis" with the formidable Sandra Bullock in her ballsiest role ever playing the political strategist, James Carville, as she dictates the terms to her candidate for the President of Bolivia played by my new heartthrob, the Portuguese actor, Joaquim de Almeida. David says he may star in the next film he will direct which will be in Portuguese.

I'm betting on David Gordon Green becoming heir to the throne now occupied by Clint Eastwood as Warner Bros. creates its new brand. Warner Bros. also supplied the Clint Eastwood prints and virtual prints for the Eastwood retrospective. His masterpiece "The Unforgiven" was shown in 35mm. The evolution of Dgg since the Sundance debut (and his own first feature) of " George Washington" in 2000 shows his skill directing both indie and major genres.

The family in the Austin posse includes the grand director Berndt Mader ("Winnebago Man") of "Booger Red" (exec produced by Dgg) with his producer, Irish transplant and immigrant Johnny McAllister who co-wrote with Berndt, and Onur Tukel, the "Turkish Woody Allen" whose own directed and produced " Summer of Blood" debuted at Tribeca last year and was a huge hit at the Champs Elysees Film Festival (this year June 7-14), the sister of Aff who share their child Us in Progress. "Booger Red" is a hybrid documentary/narrative about a veteran reporter who searches for the truth behind the largest purported child sex ring in Texas history. On his journey through the bowels of East Texas, he's forced to confront his own history with abuse while he discovers that the allegations at the root of his investigation might have never happened.

At one of the nightly bar gatherings (which last til 4 am!), Dgg credited Onur for keeping the independent film scene in Austin alive.

Second to receive the double-barreled Indie Star Award with Dgg was Hal Hartley whose humble acceptance of the prize touched us all. He thanked the audience, a new generation for its "fresh" questions, a great pleasure for him after 25 years of doing Q&As. And he thanked the festival for putting on the most complete retrospective of his film ever held.

The Audience Award of Us$10,000 went to the Spectrum film "Dope" by Rick Famuyiwa , one of the freshest films to show in Sundance this year; a delightful, sweet romp with young talents De'aundre Bonds, Kiersey Clemons and Tony Revolori as they follow the orders of dope dealer Rakim Mayers, through the streets of Inglewood California.

The Audience Award of Us$5,000 went to the American Doc film "Transfatty Lives" by Patrick O'Brian. The Awards were funded by festival sponsor, Bny Mellon, wealth management and investments banker to the world. Started by Alexander Hamilton in 1784, Bny Mellon is one of the longest-lasting financial institutions in the world.

Festival Director Roman Gutek has created a great and lasting bond between film artists in U.S. and in Poland. He has also created Europe's largest international film festival, New Horizons, held here in Wroclaw July 25-31 which this year will have a special section of America as depicted by European filmmakers. In addition he has created Europe's largest arthouse multiplex, the New Horizons Theater where these two festivals are held.

Part-time Texan Justin Arnold credits his role as Levi in the indie drama 5 Time Champion as the reason why he had the opportunity to audition for former Austin Film Society staffer Bryan Poyser's latest movie Love & Air Sex, formerly called The Bounceback (Don's review), which opens a weeklong run tonight at Alamo Drafthouse Slaughter during the movie's nationwide roadshow.  

Poyser enjoyed 5 Time Champion, winner of the Texas Filmmaker Award at the 2011 Dallas International Film Festival, Arnold said. This and the friendship between Poyser and the movie's director, Berndt Mader, led to Arnold being cast in Poyser's comedy short The Fickle. 

"Bryan, he's the man," Arnold said. 

But that doesn't mean Arnold wasn't put through a rigorous audition process for Love & Air Sex. 

"(Poyser) put me on the hot seat for about two hours," he said. 

Arnold plays Tim in the Austin-shot comedy that premiered at SXSW 2013. It follows a...

The Berlinale's announced today that its 62nd edition will open on February 9 with the world premiere of Benoît Jacquot's Les Adieux à la reine (Farewell, My Queen). "All the debauchery, betrayal, power and tragedy of Marie Antoinette's court in its last days witnessed by one of her readers," promises distributor Elle Driver, where you'll find a full synopsis and a few words from Jacquot. His film, set in Versailles at the dawn of the French Revolution, features Diane Kruger as the Queen and Léa Seydoux as one of her ladies-in-waiting and is based on Chantal Thomas's award-winning novel. France Télévisions has a two-minute report from the set.

In other news. Ioncinema has begun counting down its "Top 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2012," starting with #100: Léos Carax's Holly Motors.

BAFTA will award its annual Fellowship to Martin Scorsese on February 12.

"Film actress Salma Hayek has been awarded one of...

While Natural Selection may have taken home many awards at SXSW this year, the Austin movie at the fest that Slackerwood contributor Don Clinchy raved about, both in his review and in person, was Five Time Champion. I mean, the review begins with "Oh, if only all movies were such a pleasure to review; the greatest challenge in reviewing Five Time Champion ... may be finding enough superlatives to describe its many charms without being repetitive." And you know Don is not inherently kind to all movies, especially if you read his review of Jack and Jill last weekend.

Fittingly, Don will be moderating the Q&A with filmmaker Berndt Mader tomorrow night, when Five Time Champion returns to Austin. Austin Film Society is screening the film as part of its Best of the Fests series, Wednesday, 11/16 at 7 pm at Alamo Drafthouse Village. Tickets are still available online. The film is...

It's a busy week for special screenings. On Saturday, Austin-shot film Mars plays the Austin Film Society Screening Room as part of the Texas Independent Film Network's touring series. On Sunday, the Paramount is screening two Chris Marker films, Sans Soleil and La Jetee, in conjunction with Arthouse/Amoa's current exhibit "The Anxiety of Photography."

Wednesday is especially crazy: Cinema 41 is showing Agnes Varda's Cleo from 5 to 7 at the Hideout. Doc Nights is screening Nostalgia for the Light at Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar. At Alamo Village, Best of the Fests brings Berndt Mader's Five Time Champion back to Austin, and Slackerwood's Don Clinchy will moderate the Q&A. And Cine Las Americas wraps up its "Literature in Mexican Cinema" series with Santa, based on Federico Gamboa's novel.

And if that's not enough, Don Hertzfeldt will be at Alamo South Lamar on Wednesday and Thursday...

Directors: Bob Ray, Spencer Parsons, Rusty Kelley, Berndt Mader, Amy Grappell, Karen Skloss, Duane Graves, Justin Meeks, Paul Gordon, Johnny Stranger, David Zellner, Nathan Zellner, Jay Duplass, John Bryant, Sam Wainwright Douglas, Ben Steinbauer, Elisabeth Sikes, Mike Dolan, Geoff Marslett, Bradley Beesley, Bob Byington, Clay Liford, Carlyn Hudson, Miguel Alvarez, Scott Meyers, Pj Raval, Chris Eska Writers: Bob Ray, Spencer Parsons, Rusty Kelley, Berndt Mader, Amy Grappell, Karen Skloss, Duane Graves, Justin Meeks, Paul Gordon, Johnny Stranger, David Zellner, Nathan Zellner, Jay Duplass, John Bryant, Sam Wainwright Douglas, Ben Steinbauer, Elisabeth Sikes, Mike Dolan, Geoff Marslett, Bradley Beesley, Bob Byington, Clay Liford, Carlyn Hudson, Miguel Alvarez, Scott Meyers, Pj Raval, Chris Eska Starring: Bob Ray, Chris Doubek, Maggie Lea, Hilah Johnson, Robert Lambert, Leslie Naugle, John Wesley Coleman, Kelli Bland, Justin Meeks, Jonny Mars, Ashley Spillers, Jen Tracy Duplass, Jay Duplass, Chris Trew, Sam Wainwright Douglas, Anna Margaret Hollyman, Luke Savisky,...

In celebration of Slacker's 20th anniversary, local filmmakers are re-creating scenes from the Richard Linklater movie for Slacker 2011, a fundraising project benefitting the Texas Filmmakers Production Fund. The trailer is now available. As we await the August 31 premiere, we're chatting with some of the filmmakers participating in one or more of the short films that will comprise the project.

Today's interview is with Berndt Mader, cinematographer (Winnebago Man), and writer and director of Five Time Champion, which won the Texas Filmmaker Award at the Dallas International Film Festival. Read Don's review from the movies premiere at SXSW this year.

Slackerwood: Which scene from the film did you reshoot?

Berndt Mader: I had the Jerry Deloney and Tommy Pallotta scene where Jerry accosts Tommy on his way out of a coffee shop. He follows him down the street going off about global conspiracies involving the CIA, the moon landing,...

Without Richard Linklater's slice of life film [1] Slacker, the independent film boom of the 1990s might not have happened. Unlike almost anything American audiences had seen before, it inspired a generation of filmmakers to go out and make their own movies. Kevin Smith often credits seeing the film at the Angelika Film Center in New York as his inspiration to make Clerks, the film's success gave Linklater the ability to make Dazed and Confused and so much more. First released in 1991, Slacker celebrates its 20th anniversary this year and the Austin Film Society and the Alamo Drafthouse are teaming up for a remake. In typical Austin and Drafthouse style, though, isn't a by the book remake. There aren't any big special effects or A-list actors. Instead, 23 Austin filmmakers will reshoot scenes using the same dialogue and locations from the original film and string them together as a meta-homage. Read...

Richard Linklater made a splash back in 1991 with his independent low budget film Slacker. The film was unique in its structure and seemingly plotless film, following a single day in the life of an ensemble of mostly twenty-something youths in Austin, Texas. The film followed various characters and scenes, never staying with one character or conversation for more than a few minutes before picking up someone else in the scene and following them. A similar idea was also explored at around the same time in a film called Twenty Bucks, that well followed a 20 dollar bill around for a day.

Now two decades later, the Austin Film Society and The Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas are teaming up with 23 Austin filmmakers to remake Richard Linklater’s critically acclaimed movie to celebrate the film’s 20th anniversary. According to the Austin Film Society [via The Playlist] “Each scene will be recreated, using the original dialogue and...

The Austin Film Society and The Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas are excited to announce that 23 of the most celebrated Austin filmmakers will remake vignettes from Afs Founder & Artistic Director Richard Linklater’s seminal film Slacker. This homage project was conceived by The Alamo Drafthouse team to celebrate Slacker’s 20th anniversary year by bringing the film community together to honor one of Texas’ best homegrown films. Afs came aboard with a stellar group of filmmakers and a Kickstarter-like campaign to raise an additional $60,000 toward the 2011 Texas Filmmakers Production Fund (accepting applications until June 1).

Each scene will be recreated, using the original dialogue and locations (whenever possible), and individual scenes will then be compiled to create the remake, presenting the city’s changing face while showcasing some of its most exciting talent.

Participating Filmmakers & Teams: Miguel Alvarez, Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas, Afs Film Club, Bradley Beesley, John Bryant, Bob Byington, Mike Dolan, Sam Wainwright Douglas,...

The 2011 Dallas International Film Festival Announces

Award Winners

Jess + Moss receives the $25,000 Target Filmmaker Award for Best Narrative Feature

Elevate receives the $25,000 Target Filmmaker Award for Best Documentary Feature

Five Time Champion receives the $20,000 in Cash, Goods and Services for the Mps Studios Texas Filmmaker Award

If A Tree Falls: A Story Of The Earth Liberation Front receives the Environmental Visions Award

Zero Percent receives the $10,000 Embrey Family Foundation Silver Heart Award

The Legend Of Beaver Dam, The Robbery and Paths Of Hate are named winners for Best Short Film, Student Short and Animated Short

Audience Awards go to Snowmen for Narrative Feature, Wild Horse Wild Ride for Documentary and The Legend Of Beaver Dam for Short

Dallas, TX, April 9, 2011 . For the second year running, the .Dallas Film Society Honors. presented by the Arthur E. Benjamin Foundation provided an elegant forum for the awards presentation at the Dallas International Film Festival presented by Cadillac.

Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek

(from the 2011 South by Southwest Film Festival)

Directed/Written by: Berndt Mader

Starring: Ryan Akin, Betty Buckley, Jon Gries, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, Justin Arnold, Jill Blackwood and Noell Coet

There’s an element of Miranda July’s filmmaking (“Me and You and Everyone We Know”) in the voiceover opening of “Five Time Champion.” That’s a good thing. Worms, a make-out session and a boy lying in the middle of a dirt road playing with a rock make for an auspicious start to a feature career.

Berndt Mader won himself some fame with cinematography and an “additional writing” credit on festival favorite “Winnebago Man.” For his first feature, he’s crafted an innocent, well-balanced indie.

Julius (Ryan Akin), described as a fuse waiting to blow, is troubled by his baseball coach’s affair with his taxidermist mother and his girlfriend being brought to school on the...

Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek

(from the 2011 South by Southwest Film Festival)

Directed/Written by: Berndt Mader

Starring: Ryan Akin, Betty Buckley, Jon Gries, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, Justin Arnold, Jill Blackwood and Noell Coet

There’s an element of Miranda July’s filmmaking (“Me and You and Everyone We Know”) in the voiceover opening of “Five Time Champion.” That’s a good thing. Worms, a make-out session and a boy lying in the middle of a dirt road playing with a rock make for an auspicious start to a feature career.

Berndt Mader won himself some fame with cinematography and an “additional writing” credit on festival favorite “Winnebago Man.” For his first feature, he’s crafted an innocent, well-balanced indie.

Julius (Ryan Akin), described as a fuse waiting to blow, is troubled by his baseball coach’s affair with his taxidermist mother and his girlfriend being brought to school on the...

Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Video, SXSW Film Festival, Cinematical

Ready for SXSW? As the festival gears up for its kickoff tomorrow, Cinematical is happy to premiere a peek at Austin native Berndt Mader's first feature film, 'Five Time Champion.' Ryan Akin stars as Julius, a young scientist in the middle of a whirlwind of personal turmoil. His father isn't around, his mother and grandfather could be involved in affairs and his girlfriend is flirting with a rival. When an experiment involving earthworms fails, he becomes overwhelmed with life and sets out on a quest to meet his father.

But the following clip is free of all that coming-of-age turmoil. Instead, Julius gets in trouble for a fight, and gets a lecture rife with baseballs and chewing tobacco. Check it out after the jump.

Continue Reading...

Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Video, SXSW Film Festival, Cinematical

Ready for SXSW? As the festival gears up for its kickoff tomorrow, Cinematical is happy to premiere a peek at Austin native Berndt Mader's first feature film, 'Five Time Champion.' Ryan Akin stars as Julius, a young scientist in the middle of a whirlwind of personal turmoil. His father isn't around, his mother and grandfather could be involved in affairs and his girlfriend is flirting with a rival. When an experiment involving earthworms fails, he becomes overwhelmed with life and sets out on a quest to meet his father.

But the following clip is free of all that coming-of-age turmoil. Instead, Julius gets in trouble for a fight, and gets a lecture rife with baseballs and chewing tobacco. Check it out after the jump.

Continue Reading...

The South by Southwest Film Festival announced its feature film line-up Wednesday, piling heaps of cinematic goodness on an already stellar program that includes Jodie Foster’s The Beaver, Duncan Jones’ Source Code, Ti West’s The Innkeepers, Conan O’Brien’s tour documentary, and the latest Simon Pegg-Nick Frost comedy, Paul, with Seth Rogen.

Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight) returns to the festival with her latest film, Red Riding Hood starring Amanda Seyfried, after the writer-director spoke on a screenwriting panel in 2009.

Plus a few favorites from the Sundance Film Festival last month, like Tom McCarthy’s Win Win, Morgan Spurlock’s The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, and Max Winkler’s Ceremony.

I’m extremely excited, even if I’m already having flashbacks to intense sleep deprivation. Like the last two years, I’ll be on the ground covering as much of the festival as I can within the packed 9 days of screenings,...

‘Tapping into the cultural zeitgeist,’ at SXSW 2011

Austin, Texas – The SXSW 2011 Feature Film Lineup was unveiled Wednesday afternoon. The festival lineup will consist of 130 features, in nine full days of programming, promising to deliver a film-going experience unlike previous years.

With a reputation for taking chances on relatively unknown filmmakers, the SXSW panel of judges carefully picked 130 films from 1,792 feature-length film submissions, (1,323 U.S. and 469 international). The program consists of 60 World Premieres, 12 North American Premieres and 16 U.S. Premieres.

The main competition categories return with eight Narrative Features, and eight Documentary Features, both competing for their respective Grand Jury Prize. New for films in competition this year, are awards for screenplay, editing, cinematography, music, and acting.

(The Midnighters and SXFantastic feature sections, along with the short film program, will be announced next week.)

Here are a few of the Features to be screened, among many others.

Narratives:

The Beaver (World Premiere)

Dir.

Readers of Sound On Sight can be sure that we will indeed be covering the SXSW Film Festival once again. As previously reported, Duncan Jones’ latest film Source Code is opening the festival and there will also be premieres for the documentary Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, Greg Mottola’s Paul, and Jodie Foster’s The Beaver. Now the full line-up has been announced it is incredible.

Hit the jump to check out the line-up, and be sure to visit our site during the event.

The 2011 SXSW Film Festival runs from March 11 – 19th in Austin, Texas.

SXSW Film Announces 2011 Features Lineup

Austin, Texas – February 2, 2011 – The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival is thrilled to announce the features lineup for this year’s Festival, March 11 – 19, 2011 in Austin, Texas. The 2011 lineup continues the SXSW tradition of tapping into the cultural zeitgeist, highlighting emerging talent and breakthrough performances and supporting first-time filmmakers.

The South By Southwest Film Conference and Festival announced this year's features lineup. The festival takes place March 11-19 in Austin, Texas.

There are a total of 130 features screening this year including 60 world premieres, 12 North American premieres and 16 U.S. premieres! This year the a total of 1,792 feature-length films were submitted, which is the most ever.

There are going to be some amazing films shown this yea. Opening night kicks off with Duncan Jones' Source Code (Moon). The fest rolls on with Jodie Foster‘s The Beaver, Greg Mottola‘s Paul, Sundance Grand Prize doc winner How to Die in Oregon, Errol Morris‘ Tabloid, Victoria Mahoney‘s Yelling to the Sky, Azazel Jacob‘s Terri. There will also be a special screening of Catherine Hardwicke‘s Red Riding Hood.

The Midnight and SXFantastic sections will be announced with the shorts program next week.

See the complete lineup below via...

The South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW) just announced their entire 2011 feature film lineup, and there’s isn’t a lot of note, with regards to this blog’s focus.

Titles you should be aware of – all of which we’ve previously profiled on Shadow And Act – include, Victoria Mahoney’s feature film debut, Yelling To The Sky (which will actually make its world debut at the Berlin Film Festival later this month); plus Blacktino, the first feature film from writer/director Aaron Burns, a self-described “blacktino nerd from Austin, Texas,” who got his start at Robert Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios doing visual effects; Benda Bilili, a documentary about a band of homeless, disabled Congolese; and last, but not least, Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey, a documentary about the black man that happens to be the man behind the puppet (which also played at Sundance).

There might be...

The South by Southwest Film Festival has announced their features lineup for the 2011’s Festival, which will take place March 11th to the 19th in Austin Texas. Read the full press release after the jump. SXSW Film Announces 2011 Features Lineup Austin, Texas – February 2, 2011 – The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival is thrilled to announce the features lineup for this year’s Festival, March 11 – 19, 2011 in Austin, Texas. The 2011 lineup continues the SXSW tradition of tapping into the cultural zeitgeist, highlighting emerging talent and breakthrough performances and supporting first-time filmmakers. The Midnighters and SXFantastic feature sections, along with the short film program, will be announced next week. “This is the most exciting moment for us. After a fantastic festival of discovery in 2010, we can finally unveil the line up for this year’s event,” says Film Conference and Festival Producer Janet Pierson. “SXSW prides itself on taking chances, sifting for...

Why do you think the movie studios leave most of what they film on the cutting room floor (or whatever else you call dumped computerized footage today)? Could it be that what is discarded might be so funny that Hollywood is afraid the audience might die laughing and sue? Probably not, but imagine gathering up all the refuse left behind because it would make the films too long or because it "doesn't work" and judge for yourself. You may well find that what was discarded (later recovered) of a Winnebago sales video in 1989 is among the most spirited and profane and comical scrap from anywhere. The celluloid on exhibit in Ben Steinbauer's "Winnebago Man" may be only a small percentage of what photographers Bradley Beesley and Berndt Mader actually caught, but the 1989 video, which was picked up and copied thousands of times and is now featured for the world on YouTube,...