Texas
Of Finance and Fantasy: The Aviatrix Takes on Funding in Texas
An interview with filmmaker Toddy Burton reveals the inner-workings of film funding in Texas.
October 23rd, 2008 | Jericho Parms
The state of Texas doesn't exactly bring to mind a thriving artistic community, but The Independent sits down with filmmaker Toddy Burton, the Austin-based director of The Aviatrix, who gives us an inside look on what it's like to produce and fund a film in the Lone Star state.
“Making a movie is like moving a mountain,” says Toddy Burton, the Austin-based filmmaker behind The Aviatrix, a film about a girl struggling with cancer who finds an escape from her troubles by becoming The Aviatrix, a superhero who rockets through outerspace.
Making Room
The highs and lows of directing a cheap thriller
September 1st, 2005 | Kyle HenryI’m the director of the low-budget psychological thriller Room (2005), which premiered at Sundance and had its international debut in the Directors Fortnight at Cannes in May. Room was produced by The 7th Floor along with Jim McKay and Michael Stipe’s C-Hundred Film Corp.
Keeping it Real Weird
Austin’s SXSW Fest is like no other
May 1st, 2004 | Laura NathanLong gone are the days when Austin, Texas was merely a breeding-ground for progressive types, presidential hopefuls, and music junkies. As home to the South-by-Southwest Film Festival (SXSW), Austin has become the independent filmmaker’s Eden. As first time filmmaker Allison Berg explains it, "I thought [SXSW] was one of the best festivals for my film to get into . . .
Double Vision
The University of Texas’s progressive film program
April 1st, 2004 | John PavlusThe so-called “Film Brat” generation of the middle to late 1970s has been blamed for, or credited with, many things regarding independent filmmaking—from sparking off a studio-sanctioned Golden Age (Scorsese, Coppola) to ushering in a studio-sanctioned Dark Age (Lucas, Spielberg).
Cave Paintings, Churches, and Rooftops
Microcinemas come of age
September 1st, 2002 | Angela AlstonWhile the Lumiere brothers originally screened their films in a Paris café, the term microcinema was not coined until 1991 with the naming of Rebecca Barten and David Sherman’s Total Mobile Home Microcinema.
Funder FAQ: Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund
June 1st, 1999 | Michelle CoeWhen and how did the Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund (TFPF) emerge?
Blogging SXSW: The Memorable Moments
A look back at the films and filmmakers that stood out at SXSW '09.
March 28th, 2009 | Steven Abrams
Wrapping up SXSW '09, The Independent's Steven Abrams recalls the moments, both on screen and off, that made the festival memorable and contributed to its success. Abrams recalls a memorable scene in Paul Cotter's stand-out film Bomber (view the trailer here), a glimpse of what its like to be on the "other side" with film critic Gerald Peary's For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism (view the trailer here), and looks at the carefully-selected short films, like Gary Huggins' Happy 95 Birthday Grandpa (view the trailer here).
There is a special moment in Alex Karpovsky's film, Trust Us, This Is All Made Up. Part performance doc, part study in the art of improvisation, the film follows T.J. Jagodowski and David Pasquesi, two seasoned improv veterans, from preparation, to performance, to their reactions after the show.
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Blogging SXSW: Discovering Austin
How Austin and SXSW have become inextricably intertwined.
March 26th, 2009 | Steven Abrams
What Sundance is to Park City, SXSW is to Austin--but instead of skiing and fur-lined hoodies, SXSW boasts BBQ and Wetnaps. The Independent's Steven Abrams, an Austin local, describes how the festival has become an integral part of the city and vice versa, as popular Austin locales are overtaken with world premieres of films like Pierre Laffargue's Black (view the trailer here) and Gary Hustwit's Objectified (view the trailer here).
In its 22 years, South By Southwest has grown from just a music fest into a three-headed monster of Film, Interactivity, and Music, taking over much of downtown Austin for a nine-day blitz of creativity, media, and networking. The convention center, the main hub of the festival, is crowded with people and awash with colors as film posters and marketing brochures land on every table and wall.
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