Hipster spring break is finally over. Brightly colored lens-less glasses from the night before—a riotous combination of the culminating night of South by Southwest and the city of Austin’s celebration of St. Patrick’s Day—have been traded out for oversized shades as everybody in the Austin airport sulks behind laptop screens and tall cups of coffee, disappointed that the party is over. Like kids waiting to be picked up by their parents at the end of summer camp.
By the time I sat down for my final film of the festival I was exhausted. A late night screening of the Midnight Audience Award winner “Citadel,” an Irish horror flick about a traumatized father protecting his daughter from a roving gang of not-quite-human hoodlum youths, I didn’t even make it through the opening credits before I nodded off, waking up 20 minutes into the movie. Nine days traversing downtown Austin to see a smorgasbord of fantastic indie flicks, nightly midnight movies and music showcases well into the morning hours, as well as the oh-so-hipster Mason jars of green beer at The Madisons show earlier that day, featuring a former UW creative writing professor on pedal steel guitar, had taken their toll on me.
If there’s one overarching theme I took away from the eclectic selection of films at this year’s festival, it was the Internet, both its practical and thematic rolls in filmmaking.
“King Kelly,” the narrative debut from “Darkon” director Andrew Neel, examines how Internet culture is transforming America’s next generation, quite possibly leading to the decline of Western society. “We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists” documents how the net is redefining political movements and the fundamental idea of what constitutes protest in the 21st century. “frankie go boom” takes a look at life for one of those internet celebrities famous for suffering through humiliating viral videos and the looming threat of an embarrassing sex tape in a world of instant information exchange. “Wikileaks: Secrets and Lies” chronicles the tale of political hacker activist Julian Assange. Even many movies with stories wholly unconnected to the net couldn’t escape the Internet’s reach.
Many films at the festival received major chunks of their funding from donations through the website Kickstarter.com, including feature-length music video film “Girl Walk // All Day,” Grand Jury Prize winner “Gimme the Loot,” “Electrick Children,” and the New York Times best-seller adaptation “Blue Like Jazz.”
The site allows anyone to post an idea for anything and solicit donations from the general public in exchange for a stake in the final product—anything from your name in the credits, to points on the back end.
“Blue Like Jazz” director Steve Taylor doubted the plan when two fans proposed a Kickstarter campaign to raise the extra $125,000 Taylor needed to finish the film. He was so skeptical about how many donations he would actually get, he promised a personal phone call to anyone who donated at least $10 and a spot for their name in the credits as well. The project ended up raising more than double the necessary amount. Taylor had to make over 3000 personal thank-you phone calls, and the credits seemed like they had more names than all three LOTR movies combined. I’ve written a lot about the democratization of moviemaking being ushered in by affordable high-quality digital cameras and online distribution. But never before had I seen such tangible artistic success on such a large scale brought about thanks to outreach on the Internet.
In total an astonishing 33 films at this year’s SXSW received financing to some degree from Kickstarter, revealing just how important crowd-funding is becoming in the world of independent filmmaking. While most of these films still have a tough road ahead of them in securing widespread theatrical distribution, thanks to the Internet that’s no longer the be-all-end-all either. Just because a film can’t generate enough mainstream interest to get into theaters doesn’t mean it will wither on the shelf anymore. With almost zero cost barrier for digital distribution online, more indie films from this year’s festival will likely be available in some form for public consumption within the next year than any other time in the festival’s history.
Is the Internet really changing film that much? Are you excited to see some of the films David has been writing about this last week? Let him know at dcottrell@wisc.edu.
