FS at South by Southwest Festival, Austin, Texas

Welcome to Texas…
One epic journey later including an unexpected detour via Dallas, we arrived in Austin for what is one of the most exciting and visionary festivals of the year. The festival covers three key areas of creative media across 10 days – Film, interactive and Music each showcasing new talent and developments in each field and discussions relating to the future of each medium. With constant showcases, shows, screenings and panels, it is impossible to see everything, but we’ll give it our darned best…

Austin, Texas

Friday
The first thing that hits you here is the inescapable presence of technology and constant flurry of twittering – the convention centre is littered with people on laptops – blogging, reporting, seeding… and on the receiving end, we’re getting twitters every second – this is serious information overload. It is fascinating to see how twitter has become such a key tool in arranging your time at the festival – setting up meetings, connecting with other people and planning your schedule.

I Love You, Man premiere

We attended the first couple of introductory panels and caught the opening film, the witty and sharp American comedy I Love you, Man by John Hamburg (writer of Zoolander, Meet the Parents) which went down a real treat to a rapturous audience. The film screened in the exquisitely beautiful Paramount Cinema and was probably the first time Ive ever been ordered to “Turn your f**king cellphone off or you’ll be out on your ass”. Then on to a series of festival opening parties, the key one being in the Buffalo Billiards, which is about as American as you can get.

The Paramount Cinema

Saturday
Saw a couple of the shorts programmes – one of which featured a documentary from our catalogue ‘Peter and Ben‘ by Pinny Grylls which had a great response. After spending time in the Film and Interactive Trade Show – a space for companies to exhibit their latest products and services, we headed over to the Alamo Theatre. This is undoubtedly one of the best cinemas in the US – the owner being a lively character who likes to give his audiences a real experience. Not only can you order food and drinks from the comfort of your cinema seat, if you have a ‘noisy neighbor’ can simply “raise a flag” on your table to have them removed! We were there to watch All Tomorrow’s Parties – a collaborative documentary about the super-cool UK music festival held in Butlin’s resorts. Featuring brilliant footage from the likes of Iggy Pop, Beth Ditto, Nick Cave and Sonic Youth, this very well realised film really captures the essence of the festival – would highly recommend checking out both the film and the festival. The film is produced by Luke Morris, whose shorts you may have seen at one of our events over the past few years – “Heavy Metal Drummer” and “Je T’aime John Wayne“. After the film we caught a live VJ set by UK duo The Eclectic Method before partying on down at 6th Street.

6th Street

Sunday
The morning brought more shorts programmes and a great selection of animation. Fabien attended a panel on the future of branded content and how artists and companies are working together to bring messages to the world (Watch it here) Panellists included representatives from Youtube, Britdoc and the Independent Film Channel.

sxsw panels

The afternoon we partook in the Shooting People pop quiz and a game of egg throwing before watching Jamie Johnson’s “Sounds Like Teen Spirit” which follows three teen/pre-teen singers and one band from across Europe as they compete in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. We were absolutely blown away by the film and would really highly recommend going to see this – it engages brilliantly with the kids and is thoroughly entertaining. Leaving the screening hungry, we went to a party hosted by Film Florida and ate some free fried fish meanwhile Fabien headed out to catch an exclusive 22 minute preview of Sacha Baron Cohen’s new “Bruno” material. After which we headed over to the Winnebago Man premiere party. Although we haven’t had chance to catch the film yet, there has been a lot of buzz around it at the festival – the feature film originates from an infamous youtube clip of a foul-mouthed, frustrated Winnebago salesman. Watch it here

Austin building

Monday
This was the day when the weather literally did a u-turn and went from wet and cold drizzle to glorious sunshine and the city of Austin really cam into its own. Spent the morning at the last day of the trade show followed by a really interesting panel on The Future of DVD and Digital Distribution. Many comments about the inevitable demise of hard goods and how this will affect our sense of ownership and how we will handle media. Headed down to the Filmmaker BBQ run by the Director’s Guild of America to meet directors with films in the festival. Then on to play Rock Band (badly) at a Marketing Mixer on the 17th Floor of the very Metropolis-esque Frost Bank Tower with stunning views across the city. Then on to a British party, followed by a trip South to the San Jose Motel, a gig at the infamous Emo’s, then on to an open air party hosted by US free publication / online magazine – The Onion. Phew

Tuesday
After catching up with some work at the convention center, saw two more programmes of short films – was particularly impressed by these programmes – Reel Shorts 3 with some entertaining US comedies and Global Shorts with some brilliant documentaries. These included some Three Minute Wonders – one by James Lees whose film The Apology Line we represent who had created a brilliantly colourful short about the contents of people’s pockets on the streets of London – James has an incredible ability to divulge some of the most personal stories from complete and utter strangers! Then headed over to Emo’s for the ATP film party featuring live music from The Drones followed by the Film and interactive closing party on the rooftop at Maggie Mae’s.

Austin Sunset

Wednesday
Took a much needed day off to cope with the barrage of information and lack of sleep and decided to indulge in some Texan tradition… we hired a car and drove out to the Austin lakes where we stumbled across a beautiful enclave called The Hippy Hollow. After some swimming and lazing about, we hired a speedboat and jet ski from the eerily abandoned Volente beach and had an hour of high speed adrenaline kicks.

Road trippin

Austin Lakes

Speed boating

What better to do next than to head to a traditional Texan Rodeo… and we were not disappointed! In a stadium full of cowboys and cowgirls, the event began with bucking horses, followed by some lassoing calf action, obstacle races and finally after a laser-show to rival the Superbowl they brought out the bulls – highly entertaining stuff. The event finished with a performance by country and western legend Clay Walker.

Rodeo Austin

To finish the night off, we snuck through the back gate and caught Echo and the Bunnymen at Emo’s who despite sounding a little rough round the edges, proved they still have it.

Thursday
Fabien saw Joe Swanberg’s latest indie feature “Alexander the Last” and I watched experimental shorts, one stand-out film being the brilliant “Cattle Call” by Matthew Rankin and Mark Maryniuk (was that influenced last night’s rodeo by any chance…). Followed by screening ‘Rip: A Remix Manifesto‘ by Brett Gaylor which raised some really current and valid questions about the state of copyright in music and rights ownership. The film’s main protagonist is ‘Girl Talk‘ a mash-up artist creating tracks from samples of existing recordings and Gaylor highlights the flaws in rights control through Girl Talk’s experiences. What really gets to Gaylor, though, is that much of today’s music is derived from previous releases. The Rolling Stones have perhaps inadvertently borrowed riffs from old blues legends and have evaded the long arm of the law. Plus, the Stones have been able to sell these tunes to, say, Nike for commercials use and prosper even more. So the line between inspiration and infringement is often blurred. The film is a real edgy and fascinating glimpse into one of the more pressing issues of our Internet Age.

The evening was spent firing around venues to catch as many bands as possible, these included Akron/Family, Bang Bang Eche, Efterklang and Passion Pit.

Queue for Emo's

Friday
Began the day with a tour around the infamous Flatstock exhibition and had to seriously restrain myself from buying something from every stall, the quality of the designs were so insanely high. Fabien attended a panel called “Brands, Bands and Fans” on how consumer brands around the world use music as an effective platform for delivering a brand experience. Featured speakers from Xbox and Coca-Cola. After a few final meetings we headed over to the Cedar Courtyard to catch Razorlight performing their new-ish material followed by a blinding set by post punk rockers White Lies.

Cedar Courtyard

White Lies @ Cedar Courtyard

Grizzly Bear at Cedar Courtyard

Final dinner at Moonshine we checked out a few more bands including Grizzly Bear and Au Revoir Simone. Highlight of the evening was the set by Gallows, Frank Carter leaping around the venue like a crazed monkey leaving smashed lights and broken bones in his trail. We finished the night off at the Red Bull Party which was somewhat lacking in atmosphere and taking branding perhaps a little too far by insisting on an entry pass in the form of a fake tattoo…

Red Bull tattoo

Gallows

Stimulating, inspiring and exhausting, roll on sxsw 2010 – we are ready for you!

Fabien’s blog from Sundance Part 2

Midnight at the Eccles theatre, over 1000 people are queuing to see ‘The Carter‘ the documentary looking at the rapper Dwayne “Lil’ Wayne” Carter, Jr. A boisterous and young audience fill the waiting tent outside the theatre. I arrive with new festival acquaintance, Annabel who is covering the festival for a belgium newspaper. So cold. we wait over and hour with only the crowd for warmth!

There is a real buzz to this screening, the audience are mostly massive ‘Lil’ Wayne fans who are dressed in hip hop attire. In the cinema, there are shouts and chants of lyrics and whoops! This was by far the most ‘event’ like mood of any screening.

The film was pretty compelling, following Lilwayne on tour in Europe, recording and writing from the back of his tour bus and endless references to his strange addiction to cough syrup.

The next day I wake at 8am, two cups of weak american coffee I head to the festival to see buzz doc titles ‘Afghan Star‘ by British filmmaker Havana Marking about a generation of young Afghans trying to break into democracy through Afghanistan’s own version of “American Idol“.

Afghan Star

The film follows three different families of the contestants battling out for the big prize. A really touching and moving film, a Q&A followed the
film with representatives from ‘Afghan Star‘. Would love to screen the film in the UK. I catch up with Jess Search from Shooting People who pins an ‘I love Kabul’ badge to my jacket. I wear it with pride!

I head to the Racquet theatre to see Lee Daniels ‘Push‘, a really harrowing and brilliant film based on the book by New York writer Sapphire. The films has Maria Carey in a supporting role as a social worker who was surprisingly convincing as well as Lenny Cravitz playing a nurse! The film is tough to watch dealing with abuse and inceste and child pregnancy but strangely the story is uplifting. There is a real honesty to the script and there is an amazing performance from unknown actress Gabourey Sidibe playing the main character Saphire.

I head to see the Shorts 3 programme, highlights are Swedish Director Patrick Eklund’s ‘Instead of Abracadabra‘ and Icelandic ‘Two Birds‘ from Runar Runarsson. ‘Two Birds a hard hitting film of teenage love and excess, Instead of Abracadabra a funny and honest look at a magicians ‘craft’.

Instead of Abracadabra

I head down to the Canadian party on Main Street where I meet old friend Thesy, an actress based in LA and we meander through the bustle. Rita who works for New films international grabs me as she has just met ex-Hole and Smashing Pumpkins bass player Melissa Auf der Maur who is in town with her short film ‘Out of her minds’. We have an excited conversation about film and live music and bringing her to the UK for do a Future Shorts Live event!

The next morning, I sleepily head to the Eccles theatre for a screening of the most anticipated film of the festival ‘I Love You Phillip Morris‘ starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor. The film is a funny, sometimes explicit love story based on the true-life tale of a onetime married police officer turned gay Texan conman, Steven Russell. Overall a pretty good film.

I Love You Philip Morris

I get on the theatre loop bus (these buses are the only way of getting around Sundance as the cinemas are all over the town) and head
to see music video director Mark Webb’s ‘500 Days of Summer‘. A very funny and innovative take at at the Boy Meet Gal, Gal leaves boy, Boy breaks down pic. Really entertaining and Zoe Dechanel shines as Summer.

500 Days of Summer

Amreeka

I head to see a film everyone is talking about ‘Amreeka‘. The film is Director Cherien Dabis debut about Muna Farah and her son who escapes from the hellish West Bank to the what seems an even more hellish small town in Illinois. This is a witty, honest and very moving film about immigration in the US.

Report back soon!

Future Shorts at the Sundance Film Festival 09

Still Jetlagged and woozy from the altitude, I clambered to the only seat left in Eccles, the 1360 capacity main cinema at Sundance Festival. The opening film was Mary and Max, the first feature from FS favourite Harvie Krumpet claymation animation director Adam Elliot. Even darker than the short and hugely ambitious, The story revolved around Mary Dinkle, a lonely 8 year old girl from Melbourne and her relationship with Max Horrowitz a seriously obese isolated man from New York City. A really moving and funny film.

I headed for Main Street and the famous Egyptian theatre where I ran into the man responsible for it all, Robert Redford in a rather dashing black beret, I joined his entourage and ended up in the New Frontiers, a space dedicated to installations and video art. He walked around the space greeting filmmakers for about 15 minutes and headed out.

The legendary Egyptian Theatre

The opening press conference at the Egyptian theatre had Robert Redford in an optimistic mood “This could be a very inspiring time for artists,” he told the crowd. He talked about the first 25 years talking about how the first few years he had to stand outside the screenings hustling people to come in like the guys outside a strip joint.

Robert Redford speaking at New Frontiers

Met this Canadian filmmaker walking down main street who confided that Def Jam /Island records were having a party and their new signing ‘Razorlight‘ was playing! So after persuading the door I was big british music critic, I watched Johnny Borrell and his drummer play to only 100 sundance snow booted hipsters.

The following morning I headed to the Racquet Cinema to see ‘Shorts 2′ programme. Standouts included Vice Founder Gavin McInnes starring ‘Arsehole‘ and a two strong Australian films Miracle Fish and Jerrycan. The latter being executively produced by Nash Edgerton, the fantastic director of Spider and Lucky.

Heading now to see midnight screening ‘The Carter‘ the doc about syrup addicted massive rapper ‘Lil Wayne‘ will report back soon…

Adventures in Short Film DVD reaches #4 in Russian retail chart!

Our first compilation DVD “Adventures in Short Film: Volume One” is currently ranked at an impressive No.4 in the highest sales for huge Russian national retailer Republica, positioning us one place behind Batman…!!

See for yourself: www.respublica.ru/top10

Future Shorts In The Guardian Guide

guardian

FS Romania Launch – 10/10/08

Our Romanian partner Mugur interviewed for TV report

Fabien speaking at the Press Conference

Old cinema in Bucharest

Who's Gonna Save my Soul at the event

One of two cinemas showing the FRESH Programme

Silent Strike - rescore

DJ SEB from Bucharest

Teatrul National Bucuresti the venue for the event

DJ Tayo

And the party kept going till 3am and beyond...

Future Shorts in Clash Magazine

Clash Article on Future shorts

Shorts at the London Film Festival

The Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival kicks off on the 15th October and features some interesting and varied shorts programmes. Some films we can recommend which have been rocking the festival circuit this year are:

From the ‘A Day in the Life’ programme ‘On the Line’ is a brilliant short film from Germany about a security guard’s infatuation with a bookshop clerk with ending with a devastating twist. Lending itself to the title of the programme ‘A Day in the Life’ follows a group of street punks whose lives collide in series of twists of fate and Sam Taylor-Wood’s debut film set in a 70’s haze of teenage discovery ‘Love You More’.

One of the most acclaimed films from the festivals this year and winner of the Special Jury Prize at Clermont-Ferrand has been Win Reygaert’s ‘Mumbler’ about a withdrawn young man living with an isolated existence with his over-bearing mother.

Visit www.bfi.org.uk/lff to see the full programme of shorts, features and special events to be held throughout October

Farewell Nagi Noda

We are all very sad to hear that the hugely talented and inspiring filmmaker and artist Nagi Noda passed away on the 7th of this month at age 35, after complications from injuries caused by a traffic accident the previous year.

We screened her stunningly original video for Yuki’s Sentimental Journey as part of our September 2005 programme and have long supported her work. Her short films have included “Mariko Takahashi’s Fitness Video For Being Appraised as an “Ex-fat Girl” and “A small love story about Alex and Juriet”. She has made numerous music videos for bands such as The Scissor Sisters and Tiga and also directed a television advertisement for Coca-Cola with music by Jack White.

See the last music video she made here for Cut Copy on our youtube channel: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdn0MYDATtE

See more of her work here: www.uchu-country.com/

FUTURE SHORTS AT SECRET GARDEN PARTY 2008

Future Shorts’ second year at the Secret Garden Party involved late night summer fuelled programmes of SUMMER, LOVE and DANCE.   SGP spectators enjoyed an eclectic mix of short film, animation and music videos on a myriad of screens scattered around the site – from Centre Camp and Fish seeks Bicycle tent, to a personal favourite – the silent disco, where I watched whimsical music videos such as Animal Collective’s Leaf House whilst dancing absurdly to a set of headphones.

 

 

Future Shorts’ principal programme, ‘Come the Revolution’, inspired by this year’s festival theme – ‘Revolution’ – proved popular, including the likes of Paintballing and City Paradise.

Secret Garden Party high points – live rescore by the Gypsy band, She’koyokh, to Future Shorts ‘Dreamy Animations’, cycling to disco, the cider tent, Animal Collective + silent disco = WHAM!!, oven baked pizza, and GRACE JONES doing ‘I’ve seen that face before’.

She'koyokh

 

 

 

 

Centre Camp