I have been covering SXSW for four years now. I have always kept strictly to the Interactive side of the fence, but I found that I had increasingly more free time on my hands as similar, if not the same panels were skipped, and there is only so much partying that you can take at my age. So the logical course of action was to take a look at what Film is doing these days. Gaming and the movie industry have acted like bitter rivals for your dollar, however, they can be found quite comfortably in bed together when it comes to creativity and the tools used. There were man movies that cater to my geekside. You know that side of your brain that likes zombies, vampires, and just good, old-fashioned violence. As it is a film festival, you find many experimental movies that you leave rubbing your head wanting that precious time of your wasted life back. Then, there some really great movies that I didn't know existed, followed by premiers of a few "Sure Things" that just haven't released to theaters, yet.
I want to go into each of the movies I came across individually because they deserve that. The SXSW Film Festival was a very huge project to undertake simultaneously with the Interactive portion. There were sacrifices that were made in order to see the most movies. Unfortunately, that meant missing a few movies that I really wanted to see. I very specifically relegated the movies that I would soon be able to see in theaters within the month to the "catch them later" category. I am so glad that I did too. There is some really great stuff out there, as there always is, that is on that bubble between big theater release and straight to DVD. I think I have started a new interest in going to film festivals. I was really a die-hard, theater movie experience only person. I am now very interested to see what I have been missing. Check out some of the movies I caught, and other tales from SXSW 2009 in Austin for more details.
