The John Sayles Retrospective included screenings of his films Lianna, The Return of the Seacaucus 7, The Brother From Another Planet and Matewan. On March 13, Sayles discussed his work with Louis Black, editor of the Austin Chronicle. He spoke briefly about the inspiration for his film, Sunshine State.
"I was looking in the Lonely Planet Guide to Florida and there was a little thing in it about American Beach, an African-American beach started in the '30s by the fellow who started the African-American insurance company (the largest black-owned business in the '30s)... So that idea kind of built and built, and it's another one of our movies with a cast of thousands. And we got to live on the beach and shoot a movie which is really great, I recommend it."
The red carpet also was rolled out for Austin-based filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro's world premiere of Blade 2 on the closing night of the festival.
"The screening was absolutely fantastic. Everything went perfectly. It was one of the best screenings of my life," Del Toro said. "I've always tried to premiere the movies here where I live, because the first time my film is shown it's important that it be to an appropriate audience."
SxSW provides that type of audience because Austin is a city whose residents embrace music, filmmaking and filmmakers. Del Toro's other art house horror movie,
The Devil's Backbone, premiered in October at the Arbor and Alamo Draft House, before being released in Austin on March 15.
Blade 2, starring Wesley Snipes as a vampire hunter, was released nationally on March 25.
"SxSW is one of my favorite festivals. It's the only festival I've attended that has its foot fully in the future," Del Toro added. "It marries interactive technology, media, music and film, which is the way entertainment will be delivered in the future."
Given this convergence of film, music and technology, it seemed fitting that Roman Coppola, a successful award winning music video director, premiered CQ here. Shot in Paris, Rome and Luxembourg, CQ (as in Seek You) centers around a young filmmaker in the late '60s who wants to make a documentary about his daily life but is instead pulled into working on a science fiction movie. Coppola also wrote the screenplay for CQ, which stars Jeremy Davies, Elodie Bouchez and Gerard Depardieu.
"I've really enjoyed the festival. When my movie screened at the Alamo Theater, it was loose and fun," Coppola said.
On Sunday morning, Coppola helped host a DGA brunch at Shoreline Grill for filmmakers who screened films during the festival. "I've been a proud member of the DGA for the past eight years and I'm very glad to be a part of the organization," he told the packed brunch. He also talked about the many benefits Guild membership has for filmmakers.
Dennis Bishop, a UPM/producer who has overseen such films as The Fast and the Furious, talked about how the DGA's Low Budget Agreement benefits new directors and protects their creative rights. "DGA membership also allows you to hire very qualified people and it pays you residuals when you're between films."
One of the filmmakers in attendance at the brunch was Tim McCanlies, who wrote and directed Dancer, Texas, Pop. 81 which premiered at SxSW in 1999. He has attended many of the DGA's events in the past and broke into a big smile when he proudly said that his next film, Secondhand Lions for New Line, will give him the opportunity to become a Guild member.
DGA director member Peter Bogdanovich was one of the first to put a Texas slice of life onto the big screen in The Last Picture Show. In Austin to present the Texas Hall of Fame Award to Cyd Charisse, he also screened his latest film, Cat's Meow, and talked about his 30-year career as a director, author, actor and film historian.
"I miss Orson Welles daily," he said. It was Orson Welles who suggested that Bogdanovich shoot The Last Picture Show in black and white, which added to the quasi-documentary feel of the film. The Last Picture Show went on to become a critical hit and receive eight Academy Award nominations.
While his mentor and friend Welles had included many of William Randolph's Hearst's scandals in
Citizen Kane, he left out one that wasn't touched until
Cat's Meow. In the fall of 1924, Hearst invited guests aboard his yacht for the weekend, but when they returned to shore, one of the passengers was dead. A shroud of secrecy fell over this event and
Cat's Meow offers one possible version of what happened during that fateful weekend. Bogdanovich shot
Cat's Meow in 31 days, which was a return to his time with Roger Corman where he made his breakthrough film,
Target, in 24 days.
"Most films today wear their expense. You can feel the 300 trucks, dressing rooms, and the lengthy shoots and the many takes. It weighs the film down," he said.
"John Ford said that all of the best things in pictures happen by accident. What he meant is that a director knows what he wants, but the weather may change, a dog may run into the shot and give it some energy," he added. "Ultimately, a director presides over accidents. And accidents are much less likely to happen with big, lumbering Hollywood productions."
