SXSW Weekend 01

I showed up at the Thomas Prometric testing center on Saturday to take my MEP exam only to realize that I was a week too early?! It's next Saturday. Defeated as I was at not having another one over with, I decided to sit myself in a matinee movie for the rest of the afternoon. That's when I ran into the SXSW Juggernaut.

The Alamo South, just a dreamy bike-ride-away from my humble abode, happens to have dedicated three of their screens (during various time slots) to the SXSW festival. So when I showed up ready to sit through whatever old movies they had playing, I was delighted to feast upon their fresh, in some cases premiere, faire. So I went ahead and made the impulse purchase of a 70$ film pass for the weekend. Call me crazy, but the Alamo is sooo close and, well, I just caught the fever and it seemed like a great deal given I've got Mondays and Wednesdays free these days.

So at 2:30 yesterday I saw Luckey. It's a doc about a guy who creates large scale climbable sculptures for kids. He suffers an accident at his house that breaks his spinal cord and leaves him a quadriplegic. His son, who's an architect, ends up teaming up with him to keep his business going, enabling the father to continue to keep doing what he loves. This father has done climber sculptures (designing and also building) for many of the most well know children's museums in the US -- he's basically the best of his kind for what he does. There's a lot of amazing stuff in this story: the dynamics between the son, father and father's wife who is closer in age to the son (it seems), when one person in a relationship ends up as care giver to another, the relationship of two designers that have no choice but to rely on each other to accomplish the project (which is difficult and complex)...the list goes on. Anyway, it's a very real story and very fair to all parties. For people who enjoy seeing ideas come to life, these guys both design and build their sculptures so you actually see a lot of how it comes together in the field and how the crazy geometries and forms are conceived. It was very enjoyable for me.

I managed to snag a great parking spot at 9:30 pm downtown and thought the night was going my way. I shared a few drinks with some friends at Casino El Camino and then tried to catch the midnight (11:00pm actually) Texas Shorts showing at the Alamo Ritz...but I didn't get in. :(

So I then hopped back in my car, fighting traffic to get out of downtown (note to self all sxsw trips should be on bicycle), and headed back to the Alamo South, hoping to make it in time to be towards the front of the film pass line for Pontypool. Mission accomplished and with a decent seat (flying solo in these movies helps). Then came the movie. Oh my Science! It's great. Suspenseful! I can't say too much or I'll be a spoiler. There are zombies. There's a curious epidemic that must be figured out which will appeal to the sci-fi and sleuth types. There are great characters and very good acting, including a once-popular radio host who's been relocated to the small hamlet of Pontypool. I highly recommend it.

Well, I'm half way through the weekend as I write this and am happy to say that the features, docs and shorts I've gotten to enjoy have been thoroughly diverse in taste and subject, which I think is good. More on my day-two later, but on a separate note, two people in line behind me this morning mentioned that I might enjoy the book World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War or WWZ which is actually the next book on our book club's list...I'm enjoying the zombie coincidences.