by Bree Perlman

When we meet Tony Stark he is the quintessential American stereotype—excessive, arrogant, consumer happy. He’s a filthy rich playboy with a child-like perspective on the world. Namely it and all its spoils are his for the taking. A made-in-America James Bond, he’s a little sloppier, a little louder, and after a stint in captivity in Afghanistan, a lot more conscientious about his imprint on the world. American dream turned American hero and the timing couldn’t be better. Our President has failed us. We have failed the world. Bloated consumerism has ravaged our environment, sent our gas prices soaring, our economy to the toilet. Now is the time to reconsider our purpose. Well, at least someone should. Read the rest of this entry »

We patiently awaited the appearance of the “JET PACK MAN.” My mind had been wandering all day. I knew that it would be cool. Tim League spares nothing to make the movie experience something to remember. Add in Harry Knowles and you have magic abrewin. So there we are in this crowd, glaring at contestants who showed up in Iron Man Costumes. They were throwing factoids about for prizes when out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of “JET PACK MAN,” emerging from a cloud of smoke. Right then the years washed away and I was a twelve year old kid entering the fantastic world of summer film. READY TO TAKE THE RIDE AND BELIEVE. Ready to believe in the fantastic. Summer movies have been stepping up for me, sure there have been peaks and falls but that is just the name of the game. This Costumed “JET PACK GUY” whizzing by set my wondernment ablaze and made this movie one step closer. A standing ovation for this stunt sequence is in order. If this wasn’t the best damn precursor to this flick, I couldn’t have imagined a better one. Read the rest of this entry »

OLD SETTLERS HELD TWO MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS AMIDST THE PARADISE-ESUE NORMALCY OF THE EVENT. ABOUT 8 YEARS AGO I HAPPENED ON MY FIRST ONE. AT STONE MOUNTAIN, I BELIEVE. COME SUNDAY AND THEY HAD TO PRY US STRAGGLERS FROM THE GROUNDS. IT WAS THAT GREAT. I DIDN’T WANT IT TO END. SO EVERY YEAR I HEAD BACK. AND EACH TIME I FIND THE MAGIC. THE MUSIC, THE PEOPLE, THE FOOD, THE WEATHER, THE CONVERSATIONS AND DID I MENTION THE MUSIC? THE DAZE HAS LONG BEEN INVOLVED THANKS TO THE LONGTIME SUPPORT OF RANDY COLLIER, JEAN SPIVEY, PROPAGANDA MEDIA AND SO MANY OTHER KIND FOLKS. GOD, I LOVE THIS FESTIVAL.
THE 2 MUSIC STANDOUTS. RIGHT. I GOT WRAPPED UP IN THE MAGIC. THE FIRST WAS THE CAMPGROUND STAGE ON THURSDAZE5 NIGHT WITH THE WAYBACKS. THESE BOYS ARE SMOKIN! IT WAS GREAT TO SEE WARREN CUT LOOSE AMONG HIS HOME FAN BASE. AFTER 3 OR MORE ENCORES, I WANTED MORE. GREAT SHOW. MY SECOND HIGHLIGHT WAS WHEN RALPH STANLEY SANG “OH DEATH” TO THE CROWD. SHIVERS. THE WHOLE CROWD WENT SILENT AND GAVE THE MAN THEIR FULL ATTENTION. A FIELD FULL OF PEOPLE SILENT. IT WAS AMAZING. LOOK FOR 3 BIG INTERVIEWS WE GOT OUT THERE IN THE NEXT ISSUE RELEASE. PLAN TO BE THERE NEXT YEAR, I HOPE T0 BE THERE.

I have attended this festival many times. It has never let me down, either.

This year I only went on Saturday, mostly to see Ralph Stanley. His vocals were riveting and chilling. He only played banjo on one number, but it was enough. I saw Ralph Stanley play banjo. Mark that off my list of things to do in life. A true living legend, his 15 year old grandson (who plays mandolin in the Clinch Mountain Boys) spent about five minutes listing Mr. Stanley’s recent accomplishments Read the rest of this entry »

The campground was packed with RVs, tents, and canvass as we crept into the lot for the first night of the festival. Under the shade of the oaks people gathered greeting friends old and new or made their way towards the main pavilion where the Brave Combo was just setting up. Hula hoops, unicycles, and children played and ran around. The Brave Combo played a rocking set, followed by the Waybacks who rocked our faces off. The Waybacks play again tonight, don’t miss it. Just as we pulled out of the campground it began to rain hammers and nails. I am not sure how the campground fared, but I am sure there was not a dry person anywhere. This morning I awoke to a beautiful sun. The storm has passed and a beautiful weekend of great music and people is ahead.

Old Settlers Music Festival starts tomorrow at the Ben McCulloch campground.  The first act goes on at 4:30.  They will be clearing the campground in the morning and allowing people to begin to set up after the box office opens at 10:00AM.  The only way to get into the campground is with a camping pass.  It should be an amazing weekend.  See ya there! 

FRONTRUNNERS

We sat down with Caroline Suh and Erika Frankel of Frontrunners, a timely, smart, documentary about the student union presidential elections at Stuyvesant high school in NYC. The film is both a microcosm of what is happening in our country as well as a personal, human piece about these kids and their unique school environment.

Director Caroline Suh’s sweet, engaging documentary Frontrunners puts the student union presidential elections at Stuyvesant front and center, right there for all of us to observe, laugh at and talk about later. In fact, it is the conversation afterward that makes Frontrunners such a worthwhile film, as it forces us to look at the much bigger world of elections. Stuyvesant could act as a microcosm for America — the student election carries many of the same detestable themes that we see in the elections for public officials in this country. They deal with issues of racism, sexism and of course, the art of the spin.
AUSTIN DAZE: What was the inspiration for this project?

CAROLINE SUH: When we started out we wanted to make a campaign film but we wanted to do it with a twist. We really loved the old school campaign films like The Perfect Candidate and Primary but we wanted to do something with young people and do something funny. That was one of our goals. So that’s how the film started. We searched around for a real story where there was actually a real election story with teenagers and not just something that we would have to fabricate from nothing where it would really just be a popularity contest and where really no one cares. So we found out that Stuyvesant in New York City had these great elections and we knew about the school because we lived in New York and it’s a very prestigious and competitive school. It kind of just took off from there.

AD: How did you guys meet?

ERIKA FRANKEL: We met years ago actually at PBS working on some projects there. We’ve worked on a few different projects over the years but this is the first feature independent documentary that we’ve worked on. I think we are crazy enough to want to do it again.

AD: How did the students react to the camera?

CS: We were really surprised because they were very unselfconscious around the camera for the most part. Much more so than we would have assumed they would be. I think it’s because it’s that generation of people are much more used to documenting themselves and seeing themselves on videos. They make videos for their classes. They have seen reality television which is totally different than what we were doing but much more part of their culture.

AD: Did you find a difference between the teenagers of today and what you were like when you were a teenager?

EF: I think that what in a way charmed us about the place in some ways. It brings back all the memories about being in the school. The announcements; the buzzer ringing. The atmosphere in the school has this very intense teenager vibe. When you are there you just kind of feel very hyped up and kind of sweaty—it’s very hormonal. We lived by the life of the school, making appointments for 5^th period. It was great.

AD: What’s next for you all?

CS: We’ve been talking about our next projects. Erica may direct a project next and I may direct another project but we love working together so we wanted to be supportive of whatever we do.

EF: We had a fantastic editor who is someone who we also knew from PBS so it was kind of a familial situation. Michael Tully who was our music supervisor is a friend of the editors. We liked the idea of over the years working on our own projects but also working together.

AD: Have you both always wanted to be documentary filmmakers?

CS: I haven’t always wanted to be a documentary filmmaker. At times I’ve wanted to be a writer but I kind of fell in love with documentaries.

EF: I started as an anthropologist. Film was just a medium to look at different cultures.

AD: Do you have any wisdom for other filmmakers just starting out?

CS: We were at the awards ceremony and a couple of people who one said, “You can do it.” And I totally agree with that. I think there is an intimidation factor sometimes and there is a block against starting but I do think that once you start it will take on a life of its own. It really is about the experience of making the film as well as everything after it. At least for us.

AD: How did you go about starting?

CS: We did have all the finances together and we owned a camera and sound equipment. We both work in the industry to make a living but decided we were just going to start doing this and everything kind of fell into place as we started filming. We knew certain things: how many days we were going to shoot and the price of post-production and we had all these ideas of these things but we really just started. These days if you have a camera and equipment you can just do it.

EF: I wanted to say for filmmakers, it’s supposed to be fun. We didn’t go into investment banking. We made a choice to make films because it is fun and we want to share it with people. Keep that in the back of your mind during those hard times.

AD: Can you talk to us about what you were trying to get across with this film?

CS: Yeah, that’s something I wanted to talk about. We really wanted the film to be a campaign film and it also became a slice of life film about the school because we really fell in love with the school and thought it was a really great place. It is a portrait of the school and it’s a campaign film also that’s driven by these great characters that we were lucky to find. We think it’s very, very funny.

AD: They have real personalities.

CS: They are wonderful. I think they all come across very well on film—they are very expressive in their own ways.

AD: Did you find that your perspectives changed at all about campaign film?

CS: It really became very clear to us while we were filming that we had to make it about the school. It’s a very unique place and that is definitely a big part of the story.

AD: Where are you headed after?

CS: We are trying to figure our distribution.

EXPLICIT ILLS

We were lucky to briefly catch up with the writer, Mark Webber (writer), Rosario Dawson and Francisco Burgos to talk about Mark’s beautiful and touching film, Explicit Ills.

AUSTIN DAZE: How are you guys enjoying the film festival so far? How long have you been here?

ROSARIO DAWSON: Just a couple of hours. I had a film that was accepted to screen here last year and it didn’t work out and I was really bummed out because I’ve just heard such wonderful things about this festival for years. I’ve worked in Austin a couple of times and I think it’s a great city. It’s a place, when you think of, that you just know automatically people here love art and they love music and they love movies. Culturally, it’s a place where you want to present something like this. If it does well here it says something really powerful. I think it speaks to a community of people that I feel should see this film and if it does well here it says that in a strong way. More so than I think some other festivals—it’s renowned in that way. So I’m really excited to be here with the project.

AD: Thoughts on SXSW festival?

MARK WEBBER: I’ve been dying to come to this festival for a really long time. Amongst our peers and festival circuit, even being at some of the other ones they talk about this one. So I’m honored to be here. You feel the vibe and it just feels really right for me.

AD: Where did this story come from?

MW: It’s a very personal story for me. I grew up in North Philadelphia next to the badlands—where this film was shot and the two characters live in. It’s a story about love and drugs and poverty and friendship and relationships and the social movement in this country. I wanted to tell this story in a very fragmented way. It builds up and connects in the end in a way that I have experienced so much of life through marching and activism.

RD: I worked with Mark on a film that was Ethan Hawke’s directorial debut called, Chelsea Walls. At that point we were both very young and talked a lot. We were just in this little room in the Chelsea hotel. And that place itself inspired a lot of conversation because it is such an insane space and it is all about these artists who have come from around the world to try and make it there with all the rest. And he (Mark) had spent a lot of years involved in activism because of his mom and they had really harsh times of extreme poverty where they lived out of his car with his mom. So we talked about that then and I talked about how I grew up in a squat on the Lower East Side and there was a period there when we didn’t have water, heat or electricity and my family made do. So we had this really interesting background that made activism and social awareness a very natural thing for us. We really bonded over that. And then we kept in touch and then suddenly I get these calls from Mark saying, “Oh my goodness I’ve got this script that I’ve written and I want you to read it and be a part of it and tell me what you think.” And I jumped on a plane with it. And all of a sudden I’m reading this script on the plane and I’m balling. I’m just crying my eyes out and was so touched by it. I’m reading about this man’s childhood and his home and going, “This is the first movie that you wrote and the way that you want to tell this story is just incredible.” There are these incredible people that are flawed. And they are not always done so honestly, authentically and richly. I was just moved and sent him a text immediately because I wanted to tell him exactly how I felt right after reading the end. Then we talked and I was so honored that he asked me to be a part of it and so touched that this was the story he had to tell. This is authentic coming from him. This isn’t I’m going to tell this story about poor people and maybe it will give me some kind of cred. It is really heartbreaking but it also is really beautiful. He is amazing.

AD: How about your experience with this film? How did you get the part?

FRANCISCO BURGOS: I got the part by just going to this big place and meeting Mark Weber and Mike Lemon. I was trying my best to read the lines but then I made this little mistake and I said, “I made a mistake” to Mark Weber but then he said, “It’s Ok, if you go to the movie that’s how you get the lines.” So then I tried my best to say it perfectly. I came out but then he said sit down and then he called my mother. That’s when he said, “I’m an angel just like I am in the movie.” So that’s when I figured out that maybe I might be called so I went all the way to the Bronx. My mom went to the shop that she works in, this ice cream shop then we went to this store just to eat and then she went to the bathroom and then out of nowhere she heard the phone ring and she picked it up while I was eating French fries and said that I got a callback for the movie.

On the anniversary of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination I propose we each take a look at our past and what is going on in the world today. How far have we come to realizing the “Dream?” Racism, stereotypes, economic and social inequality are as present as our street corners. The war in Iraq still wages and race and gender are a central issue in the current presidential election. We have isolated ourselves in our homes, our friends, and our conversations. We say in response to these that we need a leader to facilitate change, an inspirational figure such as Rev. King, but the truth is, as Rev. King has always championed, it is up to us, the individual to come together and make change happen. On this day we are reminded not only of the sacrifice of Rev. King but his message that we should take responsibility for our own destiny and DO SOMETHING, talk to each other, learn something new, don’t believe everything you hear or see through the media, seek out new points of view, make a stand! I welcome comments, points of view, means to a new understanding. Thank you, and on this day PEACE to you.

La Otra Conquista (The Other Conquest) by Salvador Carrasco is an inteligent and emotional depiction of the horrors the Aztec endured under the heavy hand of the Spanish colonialism. At the stories center is Tepotzlin (Tomas) an Aztec scribe and son of the Aztec emperor who is coerced into converting to Catholicism and the psychological and spiritual rift that conversion creates. The characters are well thought out and wonderfully acted. Executive producer, and tenor, Placido Domingo is featured in the sound-track. The film, originally released in 2000 to much acclaim, is now available on DVD. The special features include interviews with the casts and crew as well as deleted scenes. Check it out!