RTF at SXSW 2016
The 2016 SXSW Film Festival is coming to Austin, March 11th-19th. This year's lineup includes many films by Longhorns. Please check this page as we update it with RTF at SXSW activities.
Features | Shorts | Panels | Mentor Sessions | Schedule | Reunion Party | Awards
AWARDS
Grand Jury and Audience Award winners:
TOWER
Megan Gilbride, Producer (MFA '04/Lecturer)
- Grand Jury Winner - Documentary Feature
- Louis Black “Lone Star” Award
- Audience Award - Documentary Feature
THE SEND-OFF
Ivete Lucas (MFA '12/former lecturer), Co-Director with Patrick Bresnan;
Kelly Williams (BS '99/former lecturer) & Jonathan Duffy (BS '00), Producers
- Jury Award Winner - Texas Shorts
THE SEER
Laura Dunn (MFA '02), Director
Cinematographer: former RTF student Lee Daniel
- Special Jury Recognition for Cinematography
FEATURES
FESTIVAL FAVORITES
CHEVALIER (Narrative Feature)
Director: Athina Rachel Tsangari (MFA ’97)
In the middle of the Aegean Sea, on a luxury yacht, six men on a fishing trip decide to play a game. During this game, things will be compared. Things will be measured. Songs will be butchered, and blood will be tested. Friends will become rivals and rivals will become hungry. But at the end of the voyage, when the game is over, the man who wins will be the best man. And he will wear upon his little finger the victorious signet ring: the "Chevalier."
RICHARD LINKLATER - DREAM IS DESTINY (Documentary Feature)
Directors: Louis Black (MA '80), Karen Bernstein
Richard Linklater - dream is destiny is a feature-length documentary on the filmmaker Richard Linklater and an unusual look at a fiercely independent film style that emerged from Austin, Texas in the 1990s.
HEADLINERS – NARRATIVE FEATURE
EVERYBODY WANTS SOME
Director/Screenwriter: Richard Linklater
Actor: Tanner Kalina (RTF student)
In Richard Linklater’s anticipated “spiritual sequel” to Dazed and Confused, a group of college friends navigate their way through the freedoms and responsibilities of the wild final weekend of the summer of 1980.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION
THE SEER
Director: Laura Dunn (MFA ’02)
Cinematographer: former RTF student Lee Daniel
Special Jury Recognition for Cinematography
The Seer is a cinematic portrait of farmer and writer Wendell Berry. Through his eyes, we see both the changing landscapes of rural America in the era of industrial agriculture and the redemptive beauty in taking the unworn path. (World Premiere)
TOWER
Director: Keith Maitland (UT alum)
Producer: Megan Gilbride (MFA '04/Lecturer)
Grand Jury Winner - Documentary Feature
Louis Black “Lone Star” Award
Audience Award - Documentary Feature
An animated and action-packed look at America’s first mass school shooting, when the worst in one man brought out the best in so many others. (World Premiere)
NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT
SLASH
Director/Screenwriter: Clay Liford (BS ’97)
Neil is a questioning teen who secretly writes erotic fan fiction about popular sci-fi characters. When his classmate Julia discovers his writing, she leads him down a rabbit hole deep into the world of ‘slash’ fiction. Cast: Michael Johnston, Hannah Marks, Michael Ian Black, Missi Pyle, Jessie Ennis, Peter Vack, Sarah Ramos, Robert Longstreet, Tishuan Scott, Lucas Neff (World Premiere)
DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT
STARVING THE BEAST:
THE BATTLE TO DISRUPT AND REFORM AMERICA’S PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES
Director/Screenwriter: Steve Mims (Lecturer)
The story of money, power and politics and the well organized, yet little noticed, efforts to radically disrupt and reform America’s public universities. (World Premiere)
TEXAS SHORTS
BECOMING BLAIR
Director: Brianna Barsalou (RTF student)
An exploration of the lifestyle and challenges faced by those who are transgender through the lens of one individual, Blair.
JOAN ON THE PHONE
Director/Screenwriter: Kayla Abuda Galang (BS '14)
Joan delivers an overzealous apology in a series of voicemails. (World Premiere)
THE SEND-OFF
Directors: Ivete Lucas (MFA '12), Patrick Bresnan
Co-Producers: Kelly Williams (BS ’99), Jonathan Duffy (BS ’00), Ivete Lucas (MFA ’12)
Best of Texas Shorts
Emboldened by a giant block party on the evening of their high school prom, a group of students enters the night with the hope of transcending their rural town and the industrial landscape that surrounds them.
THE SUPERLATIVE LIGHT
Director: Ben Steinbauer (MFA '07), Screenwriters: Ben Steinbauer, Robert Shults
Documentary photographer, Robert Shults, went from being a homeless dreamer to a home-owning artist after taking photos of the brightest light source in the known universe, a laser in basement of the physics department at UT. (World Premiere)
THUNDER P.
Director/Screenwriter: Steve Collins (MA '03)
An I.T. employee discovers a shameful secret during a routine printer malfunction. (World Premiere)
PANELS
Mobile Ventures’ Identity and Privacy Management
Disruptive innovation has accelerated entrepreneurship but challenged identity and privacy management. Privacy practices that lack transparency or accountability may invite regulatory scrutiny, increase consumer distrust, and undermine competitiveness. A range of mobile ventures have built business on better privacy management to mine and monetize user data. Yet, too much disclosure may decrease data sharing. The public discourse has been dominated by the consumer side of the story, centering on a privacy paradox as users trade privacy for service. Moving beyond, this panel adopts a producer’s perspective with speakers from the public, private, advocacy and education sectors.
Wenhong Chen (Assistant Professor)
Using Virtual Reality and 3D in Storytelling
The University of Texas at Austin is at the forefront of developments in virtual reality and 3-D technology. Experts from UT’s Moody College of Communication discuss their new VR and 3-D initiatives, including a partnership with The Washington Post to create VR content, and the strategies, challenges and implications of creating fiction and non-fiction content using immersive media. Experts will also discuss their project, funded by the Knight Foundation, that has created an open-source virtual reality publishing framework for journalists who lack the engineering skills to publish their own VR content.
Deepak Chetty (MFA '15/Lecturer)
Whether you stumbled into teaching, or it was part of your master plan--you got one leg in filmmaking and one leg in teaching. Making and teaching, teaching and making. The two inform each other. But how do you balance your teaching work with your film in development? This meet-up is for you: filmmakers who are professors, adjuncts, teaching artists, mentors... It’s also for young filmmakers who are curious about how teaching can support and nourish your creative aspirations. Come talk shop, exchange ideas, find your next guest lecturer.
Annie Silverstein (MFA '13/Lecturer)
In The Cut: Editing a Moving Sample
Editing is the final stage of a film's writing. How can editing be used to reevaluate/reshape what you’ve generated during production? Learn tips and strategies from editors who work across all forms and genres to tell engaging and emotionally moving stories. Featuring Emmy and Academy Award nominated editors of films that have screened at major festivals like Sundance, SXSW, Toronto, Berlin and Cannes. We will review samples from up to three works-in-progress (5 mins max length). Participants, please post samples to Vimeo and send links to moderator Kyle Henry at least 12 hrs before panel begins for selection via SXSocial.
David Fabelo (BS '05)
Kyle Henry (MFA '99)
Heavy Metal Parking Lot 30th Anniversary
On May 31, 1986, Judas Priest fans were filmed in their natural environment, a concert arena parking lot in suburban Maryland. Thirty years later, Heavy Metal Parking Lot is considered among the greatest rock and roll documentaries ever recorded. Once only found via underground tape trading, Heavy Metal Parking Lot, launched a “parking lot genre” that continues to resonate today, including sequels, prequels, a cable tv series, and documentary films that were inspired by the 1986 original. In May, the University of Maryland will open a year-long exhibit 'Heavy Metal Parking Lot: The 30-Year Journey of a Cult Film Sensation.' Join filmmakers John Heyn and Jeff Krulik as they discuss the amazing pre-viral video journey of a small rock doc into a definitive cultural touchstone.
Todd Rohal (Lecturer)
A Conversation with Andrew Bujalski and David Lowery
This special conversation teams two restlessly inventive film artists with enviable resumes. Emerging from the community of creatives that developed around SXSW in the mid-2000s, Bujalski and Lowery will deliver invaluable perspective for the next wave of aspiring creatives.
Andrew Bujalski (Lecturer)
David Lowery
A Conversation with Louis Black and Leonard Maltin
Richard Linklater: Dream Is Destiny director (with Karen Bernstein) and SXSW co-founder Louis Black will join friend and veteran critic Leonard Maltin for this special conversation. Sure to engage, with great humor and insight drawn from a shared, longtime love of cinema, this is a can’t-miss session for cinephiles.
Leonard Maltin
Louis Black (MA ’80)
Book signing with Wenhong Chen
Wenhong Chen (Assistant Professor)
Secrets of the A.S.S.: The Kardashian Method to Screenwriting
You’ve been lied to. Everything you’ve learned about screenwriting is wrong.
Field, McKee, Snyder—scam artists! Anyone who says they know the secret to screenwriting is selling something. (1) But don’t despair my little Fey-lets, I’m here to share with you the secret to screenwriting. (2)
That secret: Kim Kardashian!
Everything which earned me fame & fortune, I learned from my buddy Kim (4)—who taught me it’s all about how you use your A.S.S. (5)
Come learn the tricks to turn from a Hollywood pro who knows a thing or two about using his A.S.S. (6)
- Like a book
- I can say this cuz I got nothing to sell (3)
- But my dignity—bidding starts after session
- Kim Mooks—my hairstylist—head of the Kardashian Fan Club
- Why Aristotle is the one teacher who knew what he was talking about
- The best screenwriting book to 1st one to guess the acronym
Brian Davidson (Lecturer/alum)
MENTOR SESSIONS
Paul Toprac (Associate Director for Game Design and Development, Senior Lecturer)
Brian Davidson (Lecturer/alum)
