Episode 214: The SXSW Film Festival (2021 Virtual Edition)

The first fully virtual SXSW Film Festival is in the books and while they are already planning a return to an in-person event in 2022, Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy run down over a dozen films that played this year. It was a remarkable year for female-centric stories including standouts by Barbara Crampton, Olivia Munn and Andrea Risborough. Documentaries introduced us to the world’s greatest domino toppler, those who mounted Alien as a stage production and many of the great women in stand-up comedy. Not everything was played for laughs as there were harrowing stories about Demi Lovato and Selma Blair but spirits lifted with musical tales about Tom Petty and the legendary AIR studios in Montserrat. Ironically as honest and laid bare some of these films were, the duo talk about maybe the least transparent doc of them all about a filmmaker who has been anything but shy throughout their career.

0:00 - Intro

1:21 – Virtual vs. In-Person SXSW

8:38 – The Fallout

15:37 – Introducing, Selma Blair

24:13 – Lily Topples the World

35:54 – Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil

53:14 – Alien On Stage

1:04:58 – Hysterical

1:14:10 – Language Lessons

1:17:05 – Violet

1:22:17 – Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free

1:28:15 – Under the Volcano

1:37:42 – Jakob’s Wife

1:46:56 – When Claude Got Shot

1:51:48 – Here Before

1:54:41 – Clerk

2:12:59 – Steve’s Recommendations (Alone Together, In the Same Breath, Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliche, Subjects of Desire, We Are The Thousand)

2:16:15 – Erik’s Recommendations (Without Getting Killed or Caught, United States vs. Reality Winner, The Lost Sons, Our Father, Spring Valley)

2:20:57 – Outro