South
by Southwest 2003 - Day 1 - Friday, 3/7/03
Of course, I can't afford to take an entire week
off from my day gig, but I did manage to take a few
days off and weekends. So I worked Friday, the opening
day of SXSW, because nothing really geared up until
the evening anyway. The best option for a movie at 7pm
was "Go Further" at the Paramount but I wasn't much
interested in that.
I was really tired and hadn't had enough sleep Thursday
night, so I came home and napped and went to the Alamo
for the 9:15 show of "The
Nature of Nicholas."
There were a few people in line even though it
was fairly early, about 40 minutes before the show,
and I settled into my place, second in the passes line.
There were maybe 5 or 6 people in the badges line and
about the same in the General Admission line. Eventually
there was this girl behind me and she started talking
to her friend, who was in the GA line. These looked
like secretaries or something, those young yet already
upper-middle class girls who always smile, always have
every hair in place and look like they get their clothes
at By George on Lamar.
|
"The
Nature of Nicholas" producer Len
Pendergast
|
These girls, as I learned from eavesdropping,
had recently made a film for a Cinemaker event,
probably MAFIA (Make a Film in a Weekend). They
also talked about going to see the free Joe Jackson
show next weekend at Auditorium Shores and it
reminded me of a couple of years ago when I got
to go see Patti Smith for free at SXSW. It also
reminded me that the B52's are supposed to be
playing a show at Stubbs on Wednesday and I'd
dearly love to see that. I don't know if I'll
be able to, there are so many things going on
Wednesday night.
Some other folks were talking about a 7pm
screening and at first I thought they were talking
about "Go Further" but eventually I heard them
mention the next show at the Hideout, so I guess
they went and saw "7th Street." I couldn't tell
what they're feelings about the film was though.
The guy at the head of the badges line and
I somehow worked our way into the conversation
with the secretaries and the midnight showing
of "Bubba
Ho-tep" came up and through talking it out
we remembered it was the one where Bruce Campbell
played Elvis and Ossie Davis plays JFK.
|
He really liked Campbell and it came up that he
had seen him when he'd made an appearance at the Alamo
a few months ago. I then talked about the Crispin Glover
"Willard"
appearance the weekend before.
I had thought that maybe "The Nature of Nicholas"
had some sort of gay theme and I noticed there were
quite a few gay looking guys and lesbian looking girls
hanging about. No one was inordinately cute, however.
We went in a few minutes before 9pm and the place
was probably only about 1/3 full once everyone got seated.
The volunteer house manager, who had dyed his hair with
leopard spots, introduced producer Len Pendergast. He
made a few introductory remarks, without giving anything
away (that you!) and the film started.
The feature was preceded by a SXSW trailer, of
course. SXSW called upon Cinemaker to have their filmmaking
"club" members make Super 8 films to be used as trailers.
This one was pretty funny featuring Mexican gunfighters
getting ready for battle. The dialogue is translated
in subtitles where they mention how Linklater and Rodriguez
are out of commission and now it is "up to us." In other
words, they liken the next generation of filmmakers
in Austin to the past heroes, Linklater, Rodriguez and
a few others. It was clever and cool.
|
"The Nature of Nicholas" was quite complex
and intriguing and the Q&A was rather brief. I
think most of the audience was either stymied
or stunned or still contemplating the film. I
bet if most of them could question Pendergast
tomorrow, they'd have lots to say.
We filed out and I got in the pass line for
"Bubba Ho-tep." It wasn't too long and I decided
to go ahead and try to get into the showing since
I'd missed the 7 o'clock shows. At the end of
the pass line was my old friend Jan, whom I met
at Austin Film Festival and see at festivals and
promo screenings all the time. She's a really
nice lady and we always have fun talking about
movies. She had seen "Nicholas" too, so we spent
a few minutes talking about that film and it helped
me to decide that I really did like it. Jan had
seen "Go Further" at 7 at the Paramount and she
told me that Woody Harrelson and almost everyone
in the film had been there for the screening and
had done a Q&A at the end. Apparently a young
woman got up and tried to make a speech during
the Q&A that reiterated the points of the film
and SXSW Film Programmer Angela Lee had tried
to move the session along and the girl had said,
tearfully, "don't censor me!"
|
Don Coscarelli
- Bubba-Ho-Tep
Director
|
That's where Jan left. I told Jan that that would
have been where I would have yelled, "Censor her!" People
do such stupid things at Q&A sessions sometimes.
They let the badges people in and it seemed like
over 200 people went in. I thought that we would probably
get in but it would be packed. I decided to go ahead
and see the film anyway. The screenings during the week
are usually much more roomy as a lot of people are too
busy to come to stuff. We finally got in and I sat in
the front corner next to the microphone set-up so I
could take pictures if cast and crew showed up. A couple
of cute little lesbian (or so it seemed to me) girls
came and sat by me and there were people standing around
in the aisles still when every seat was taken.
The girls told me that they had seen "Go Further"
too and when I told them about what Jan had told me,
they said that the girl seemed to be quite emotional
and crying but she couldn't seem to get her question
out. They thought that maybe what she was going to do
was ask Harrelson how he felt about being a former television
celebrity when television is responsible for turning
so many young people's minds to mush.
They had also seen "The Revolution will be Televised"
and recommended it highly.
Don Coscarelli
and actor Bob Ivey
|
I asked them to watch my seat and went to
pee. Some hoity-toity snotty old bag who worked
for SXSW was talking to some of the volunteers
and saying that she wanted to give chairs to the
people in the aisles after the Fire Marshall left.
Sure enough, when I got into the lobby, two guys
in Fire Marshall jackets were talking to some
girl. I couldn't tell if she worked for SXSW or
the Alamo. When the screening started, they did
have the people sitting in chairs in the aisles.
I think this is surely against the fire code.
Oh, and I saw Elvis Mitchell, who used to
do an interview show with directors on IFC (I
don't get IFC, so I don't know if he still does
one) walk by about this time, right before the
film started, and he seemed to be looking for
a seat as well. I'm sure they found one for him.
|
A cute waiter boy came and took our order
and the girl couple next to me knew him and called him
Josh. After he left, they told me he used to date one
of their friends who lived at Jester at UT when they
lived there.
The movie started and everything seemed to be going
okay but about an hour into it they stopped it for about
2 minutes while they checked some stuff out. The said
that they were trying to make sure that the print did
not get "stressed," whatever that means.
The Q&A after the film was pretty standard and
after it was over I left with most of the audience.
I grabbed a Texas Triangle because it had Margaret Cho
on the cover and then walked the 7 blocks to my car.
|
On my agenda for tomorrow:
2:15 - Bollywood/Hollywood - Westgate
5:15 - Raising Victor Vargas - Westgate
9:30 - Music Videos - Hideout
12 midnight - Fulltime Killer - Alamo
Lodger2003@SXSW2003
|
Texas
author Joe Lansdale and Don Coscarelli
|
|
