In this segment Bree Perlman interviews the Co-Directing team from the Documentary, World’s Largest. Amy C. Elliot, and Elizabeth Donius are the creative force behind this fascinating film, and both were kind enough to take a moment out of their busy SXSW schedule to talk about the film’s journey. Go watch the film, but first take a moment to get know the directors. Edited by Aaron Weisinger
In 1996 Rent hit off-Broadway with a controversial thump. Everyone was talking about the the rock musical that showed young artists living in alphabet city struggling with drug addiction and AIDS. I was intrigued but also perplexed: at the time New York was gritty, Alphabet City legitimately “rough”, “Bohemia” was enjoying a resurgence with young “creatives”, a mix of minorities who might have grown up in the city and white kids from Scarsdale and Westport, shirking their parent’s conventional paths in favor of resurrecting a new version of the Beats just east of their original café hangouts (which had been plowed over by Marc Jacobs and Alexander McQueen). The subjects of the musical were my friends; their dreams playing out some tragically, some successfully everyday. Why would you want to sing and dance about them? With that logic I opted out of seeing it back then, skipped it when it hit Broadway, and ultimately passed on the big screen event all the while wondering, Did I miss something? Tuesday night I finally put the curiosity to rest at the Bass Concert Hall.
So became the mantra of ten days lived, loved, and ultimately lost to the increasingly sticky streets of my beloved voodoo city.Or so I thought until I checked out the live music happening in town this weekend. With the Stanton Moore Trio, Big Sam’s Funky Nation, and Mike Dillon’s Go Go Jungle playing at Ruta Maya, Continental, and the Parish respectively, it turns out: this is your life…on jazz fest…in Austin.
Growing up, Adventureland was the “other amusement park”, known less for its rides and more for the “social opportunities” it afforded excitable pre-teen girls who didn’t need much to get excited. It was cooler than the mall and edgier than Parkwood skating rink but not quite as edgy as Laces roller rink where “real making out” could be witnessed first hand in velour purple booths strategically located in dark corners. Adventureland, if you were lucky enough to have been born in June, July, or August, was the place to have your birthday party. It was the place to scope out boys and hope that one of them would scope you back and maybe even win one of those hard cheap toys for you or dare you to try and touch their hand on Gravitron while you spun around to club music you were too young to hear in an actual club. As a kid, Adventureland epitomized every romantic notion of just being alive–an uncomplicated playground of blinking lights and silly tea cups, friends, fun, music, summer…what more could you want?
EOTO, a side project of the String Cheese Incident, is the brainchild of Jason Hann and Michael Travis. They play a new improvised set every night of their tour. Bree Perlman asks them about that process, and the difference between playing with The String Cheese Incident and EOTO. They told her a little about a new sound out of London, “dub step” and it’s sub-genre “grime.”
It’s Thursday and I’m just getting around to wrapping up my ACL experience (the NY Times only put theirs out yesterday so I’m thinking I’m not the only one that needed some time to recover). “Wrap up” means “highlights” which means whipping out the trusty old “category sections” (it’s all particularly effective for a writer whose brain is still functioning at half-mast). Here we go:
“What the ****?” Three words that are repeated throughout the Coen Brother’s latest installation of weirdness by characters forced to inhabit it. And, depending on just what kind of Coen brothers fan you are, you might choose those three words to describe the film itself. Camp 1: You believe Raising Arizona and Big Lebowski are the cinematic equivalent of Jesus and God (respectively) which goes to follow that every other film going forward would be made in God’s likeness but could never be God themselves. You are content to relish in the joy of just having another Coen brother’s film to view. Camp 2: Jesus is supposed to rise again, so, where is he? And incidentally, you are also still waiting for the Messiah and cannot help but express disappointment when yet another impostor shows up at the dinner table. Read the rest of this entry »
Growing up, Adventureland was the “other amusement park”, known less for its rides and more for the “social opportunities” it afforded excitable pre-teen girls who didn’t need much to get excited. It was cooler than the mall and edgier than Parkwood skating rink but not quite as edgy as Laces roller rink where “real making out” could be witnessed first hand in velour purple booths strategically located in dark corners. Adventureland, if you were lucky enough to have been born in June, July, or August, was the place to have your birthday party. It was the place to scope out boys and hope that one of them would scope you back and maybe even win one of those hard cheap toys for you or dare you to try and touch their hand on Gravitron while you spun around to club music you were too young to hear in an actual club. As a kid, Adventureland epitomized every romantic notion of just being alive–an uncomplicated playground of blinking lights and silly tea cups, friends, fun, music, summer…what more could you want?
“What the ****?” Three words that are repeated throughout the Coen Brother’s latest installation of weirdness by characters forced to inhabit it. And, depending on just what kind of Coen brothers fan you are, you might choose those three words to describe the film itself. Camp 1: You believe Raising Arizona and Big Lebowski are the cinematic equivalent of Jesus and God (respectively) which goes to follow that every other film going forward would be made in God’s likeness but could never be God themselves. You are content to relish in the joy of just having another Coen brother’s film to view. Camp 2: Jesus is supposed to rise again, so, where is he? And incidentally, you are also still waiting for the Messiah and cannot help but express disappointment when yet another impostor shows up at the dinner table. 
Awesome interview!
