In approximately 24 hours, the bars and hotel lobbies of Austin will be crawling with filmmakers, actors, publicists, studio weasels, and, lowest of the low, film bloggers. Yes, your Screengrab pals Leonard Pierce and yours truly will be on the scene to bring you up-to-the-minute news, reviews and free booze. No, wait. The free booze is for us. But you’ll reap the benefits when you get to read our semi-drunken posts.
In anticipation of SXSW Film 08, this week’s issue of the Austin Chronicle is jam-packed with coverage. The cover girl is Greta Gerwig, which is entirely appropriate as the leading lady of mumblecore is practically the face of SXSW these days. The 2006 festival featured the premiere of LOL, in which Gerwig made her screen debut (granted, it was only her voice on an answering machine, but it was a start). Hannah Takes the Stairs premiered at the following year’s SXSW, which also showcased Gerwig in an amusing series of promos that screened through the festival.
This year she’s everywhere: Sunday night you can see her in both Baghead (the mumblecore horror movie from the Duplass brothers) and Nights and Weekends (which she co-wrote and co-directed). The following night she’s starring in Mary Bronstein’s Yeast as a “maddeningly oblivious, tyrannical and emotionally stunted young woman.” The Chronicle’s Spencer Parsons talked to Gerwig on the eve of her Austin takeover and found that success hasn’t spoiled her yet. “I still haven't figured out how to make money out of this, but it's more of my life, and it's real, and it's great. Now I think, yeah, it's not impossible, but you've also got to be pragmatic. I'm smarter now about how I earn my money in New York, having a job, and even if I can't fully support myself doing this, I can still do it if I want to, and that's great.”
The issue also contains interviews with Elvis Mitchell, who discusses his documentary The Black List, Crawford director David Modigliani, and the ever-popular Zellner Brothers, who sum up the festival’s appeal perfectly: “South by Southwest takes place during the best time of year, which gives visitors an interesting misconception that Austin's always really pleasant and wonderful to live in [laughs]. Sure the weather is perfect today, but in two months it's going to be hell. But they won't ever experience that.”
