Below is a list of some of the films which will be previewed in the next week at SXSW in Austin, Texas.
BLUE LIKE JAZZ – Narrative Spotlight
In BLUE LIKE JAZZ, Don (Allman), a pious nineteen-year-old sophomore at a Texas junior college, impulsively decides to escape his religious upbringing for life in the Pacific Northwest at one of the most progressive campuses in America, Reed College in Portland. Upon arrival, Reed’s surroundings and eccentric student body proves to be far different than he could possibly imagine from the environment from which he came, forcing him to embark on a journey of self-discovery to understand who he is and what he truly believes.
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DECODING DEEEPAK – Headliners
Journalist and filmmaker Gotham Chopra spends a year decoding his father Deepak Chopra, resolving the spiritual icon he is to the world vs. the real man known to his family. What starts as an intimate biopic becomes a deeper plunge into the meaning of identity itself.
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ELECTRICK CHILDREN – Emerging Visions
Pregnant by music? On her 15th birthday, Rachel (Julia Garner), a young Mormon girl from a fundamentalist Utah community, discovers a gorvidden cassette tape with rock music on it. Having never heard anything like it, she has a miraculous experience and three months later, claims to have had an immaculate conception from listening to the music. Her parents arrange a marriage, but Rachel runs away to the closest city, Las Vegas, to search for the man who sings on the tape, thinking he has something to do with her mysterious pregnancy. Directed by Rebecca Thomas, the cast includes Julia Garner, Rory Culkin, Liam Aiken, Cynthia Watros, and Billy Zane.
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GIMME THE LOOT – Narrative Competition
Malcolm and Sofia, two determined teens from the Bronx, are the ultimate graffiti-writers. When a rival gang buffs their latest masterpiece, they must hatch a plan to get revenge by tagging an iconic NYC landmark, but they need to raise $500 to pull off their spectacular scheme. Over the course of two whirlwind, sun-soaked summer days, Malcolm and Sofia travel on an epic urban adventure involving black market spray cans, illicit bodegas, stolen sneakers, a high stakes heist, and a beautiful, stoned girl whose necklace is literally their key to becoming the biggest writers in the City. Written & Directed by Adam Leon.
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KILLER JOE – Headliners
When 22-year-old Chris (Emile Hirsch) finds himself in debt to a drug lord, he stumbles on the scheme of hiring a hit man to dispatch his mother, whose $50,000 life insurance policy is supposed to go to his sister Dottie (Juno Temple). Chris hires Joe Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a creepy, crazy Dallas cop who moonlights as a contract killer. When Chris can’t pay Joe up front, Joe sets his sight on Dottie as collateral for the job. Based on the play by Pulitzer and Tony Award winner Tracy Letts, Killer Joe is a garish, sexy, black comedy from Academy Award winning director William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) and stars Emile Hirsch, Matthew McConaughey, Juno Temple, Thomas Hayden Church, and Gina Gershon.
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NO ROOM FOR ROCKSTARS
For 17 years, the Vans Warped Tour has been a punk rock juggernaut, a misfit circus crisscrossing North America every summer as a wandering minstrel show for youth culture. Embracing a powerful, unifying ethic created by its founder Kevin Lyman, the Vans Warped Tour has grown and prospered as the music industry itself imploded and continues to sift through the rubble in search of a new way forward. Along the way, Warped has provided a launching pad for a dizzying array of talent, from Green Day and Blink 182 to Ice-T, Eminem and No Doubt, along with perennial punk legends such as Pennywise, All, Bouncing Souls and Bad Religion.
With more than 300 hours of film shot during the 2010 tour, No Room For Rockstars documents the true stories of modern era rock and roll from every possible angle. From the kids in the van playing parking lots to gain notice, to the veteran stage manager whose life was saved by the tour, to the musician who crosses over to mainstream success while on the road, No Room For Rockstars is cinema vérité story-telling at its finest. A historical retrospective or concert film this is not. No Room For Rockstars is meaningful insight into current state of rock and roll and the zeitgeist of youth culture.
Accompanying the film will be a blazing Greatest Hits compilation of the Vans Warped Tour. The project will also have a significant library of bonus content, some of which will be featured on the No Room For Rockstars mini-site at vans.com/warped and vanswarpedtour.com.
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SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME – Narrative Spotlight
A deadpan fable about time sneaking up; thirty-five years in the life of Max (Keith Poulson), his best friend Sal (Nick Offerman) and a woman they both adore, Lyla (Jess Weixler). The trio stumbles through mandatory but seemingly unfulfilling entanglements, at weddings, funerals, hospitals, eateries, divorce courts and the tool shed. Directed by Bob Byington.
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Jacob Rosenberg’s WAITING FOR LIGHTNING – Documentary Spotlight
From the producers of STEP INTO LIQUID, comes WAITING FOR LIGHTNING, the story of Danny Way, a young boy from a broken home in Vista, CA, whose passion for skateboarding would one day bring him and his creation, a ramp of prodigious and dangerous proportions, across many cultural and ideological boundaries to attempt the impossible: jump China’s Great Wall on a skateboard. It’s a film about how much abuse the body can sustain, how deep you have to dig to survive the betrayals of family, and how high and far dreams can fly. Directed by Jacob Rosenberg.
