The Beach Bum
The titles for SXSW 2019 are being announced in anticipation of the event running March 8th - March 17th, 2019. We will update the program as new films are revealed.
NARRATIVE FILM COMPETITION
Alice (Josephine Mackerras, France): She did everything right until it all went wrong.
Extra Ordinary (Mike Ahern, Enda Loughman, Belgium/Ireland): Rose, a mostly sweet and mostly lonely small-town driving instructor, must use her supernatural talent to save the daughter of Martin (also mostly sweet and lonely), from a washed-up rockstar who is using her in a satanic pact that will reignite his fame.
Go Back to China (Emily Ting, China/USA): After spoiled rich girl Sasha Li (Anna Akana) blows through half of her trust fund, she is cut off by her father (Richard Ng) and forced to go back to China and work for the family toy business.
Mickey and the Bear (Annabelle Attanasio, USA): Faced with the responsibility to take care of her addict, veteran father, headstrong teen Mickey Peck keeps her household afloat. When she has the opportunity to leave for good, she must choose between familial obligation and personal fulfillment.
Ms. White Light (Paul Shoulberg, USA): Lex Cordova’s business is dying. She has a unique ability to connect with her clients that are terminally ill. It’s just everyone else that she has a problem with. Valerie is a no bullshit woman who loves living her life. Her only way out is thru Lex.
Pig Hag (Sam Probst, Colby Holt, USA): Jodie, a woman in her mid-thirties, struggles with the pressure to find a partner and have children. When she attends a Guns N’ Roses concert, she thinks she may have met a potential match — until he immediately ghosts on her.
Porno (Keola Racela, USA): When a group of naive teens working at a movie theater in a small Christian town discover a mysterious film hidden in its basement, they unleash an alluring succubus who gives them a sex education…written in blood.
Saint Frances (Alex Thompson, USA): At the start of the summer, Bridget has an abortion just as she lands a much-needed job in affluent Evanston, Illinois — nannying a six-year old.
South Mountain (Hilary Brougher, USA): When her teenagers head off to camp and her husband abruptly leaves her to begin a new family, Lila is left to her own curious and chaotic devices for a summer in her rural home in the Catskill mountains.
Yes God Yes (Karen Maine, USA): After an innocent AOL chat turns racy, a Catholic teenager in the early 00s discovers masturbating and struggles to suppress her urges in the face of eternal damnation.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION
Earnie & Joe (Jenifer McShane, USA): Ernie & Joe follows two officers with the San Antonio Police Department mental health unit who are diverting people away from jail and into mental health treatment — one 911 call at a time.
For Sama (Waad al-Khateab, Edward Watts, UK): For Sama tells the epic story of a young woman’s journey through love, war and motherhood across five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria.
Museum Town (Jennifer Trainer, USA): From the ashes of a deserted factory, an ambitious center for contemporary art has emerged. With MASS MoCA, a familiar story of deindustrialization in a rural American town finds an unconventional route to recovery.
Nothing Fancy: Diana Kennedy (Elizabeth Carroll, UK/USA): Award-winning cookbook author, diehard environmentalist and feisty British nonagenarian Diana Kennedy reflects on an unconventional life spent mastering the cuisines of Mexico.
Stuffed (Erin Derham, Canada/USA): Stuffed is a documentary feature film about the surprising world of taxidermy and the passionate artists across the world who see life where others only see death.
Tread (Paul Solet, USA): Pushed to his breaking point, a master welder in a small town at the foot of the Rocky Mountains quietly fortifies a bulldozer with 30 tons of concrete and steel and seeks to destroy those he believes have wronged him.
Vision Portraits (Rodney Evans, USA): A feature-length documentary that chronicles the creative paths of blind and visually impaired artists including a photographer (John Dugdale), dancer (Kayla Hamilton), writer (Ryan Knighton) and the film’s director, Rodney Evans.
We Are The Radical Monarchs (Linda Goldstein Knowlton, USA): Meet the Radical Monarchs, a group of young girls of color at the front lines of social justice. Set in Oakland, the film documents the journey of the group as they form, grow, and earn badges for units like “Black Lives Matter” and “Radical Beauty”.
Well Groomed (Rebecca Stern, USA): Well Groomed travels the humorous, visually stunning world of Competitive Creative Dog Grooming alongside the colorful women transforming their beloved poodles into living sculptures.
Why Can’t I Be Me? Around You (Harrod Blank, Sjoerd Dijk, USA): Rusty, a male race enthusiast, decides at 53 to get breasts. His father cuts his pay, his motorcycle friends abandon him and the women he dates all reject him. Rusty pursues her new identity and only hopes to gain acceptance from others.
HEADLINERS
The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine, USA): The Beach Bum follows the hilarious misadventures of Moondog (Matthew McConaughey), a rebellious rogue who always lives life by his own rules. Co-starring Snoop Dogg, Zac Efron, and Isla Fisher, The Beach Bum is a refreshingly original and subversive.
Booksmart (Olivia Wilde, USA): On the eve of graduating high school, two academic superstars and best friends realize they should have worked less and played more. Determined to not fall short of their peers, the girls set out on a mission to cram four years of fun into one night.
Good Boys (Gene Stupnitsky, USA): The writers of Superbad and the producers of Sausage Party take on sixth grade in Universal Pictures’ Good Boys, an R-rated comedy about three friends on an epic one-day odyssey of bad decisions.
The Highwaymen (John Lee Hancock, USA): Texas Ranger Frank Hamer reflects on what made him a great lawman as he comes out of retirement to hunt down Bonnie and Clyde.
Untitled Seth Rogen/ Charlize Theron Comedy (Jonathan Levine, USA): An ambitious diplomat with a spotless reputation and a hard-partying journalist hilariously redefine “international relations” as they try to keep their red-hot romance under wraps.
Us (Jordan Peele, USA): An original nightmare from Oscar-winner Jordan Peele (Get Out), starring Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke, Us pits an average American family against a terrifying opponent: doppelgängers of themselves.
NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT
Adopt a Highway (Logan Marshall-Green, USA): After being released from prison following a twenty year sentence for a minor offense, an ex-con must learn to navigate the world while coming to terms with his own life which has moved on — all while caring for an abandoned baby he finds in a dumpster.
The Art of Self-Defense (Riley Stearns, USA): The Art of Self-Defense stars Jesse Eisenberg and is set in the world of karate. Eisenberg plays a man who is attacked on the street and enlists in a local dojo, led by a charismatic Sensei (Nivola), in an effort to learn how to defend himself.
Come As You Are (Richard Wong, USA): Three young men with disabilities embark on a road trip to a brothel in Montreal catering to people with special needs to lose their virginity and embrace their independence. Inspired by a true story and remake of the Belgian film Hasta La Vista.
The Day Shall Come (Chris Morris, UK, USA): An impoverished preacher who brings hope to the Miami projects is offered cash to save his family from eviction. He has no idea his sponsor works for the FBI who plan to turn him into a criminal by fueling his madcap revolutionary dreams.
Frances Ferguson (Bob Byington, USA): A small town’s reaction to scandal.
I’m Just F*cking With You (Adam Mason, USA): A young man and his sister endure a night of increasingly frightening practical jokes while spending the night at a secluded motel.
Mother’s Little Helpers (Kestrin Pantera, USA): When Joy Pride, a groovy 70’s burn-out on the caboose of the flower power movement learns she has weeks to live, her estranged children come together to do right by a mother who always did them wrong.
Olympic Dreams (Jeremy Teicher, USA): In the Athlete Village at the Olympic Winter Games, Penelope (Alexi Pappas), a cross-country skier, befriends Ezra (Nick Kroll), a volunteer dentist, after a disappointing finish in her race. Penelope and Ezra share a special but limited time together.
The Peanut Butter Falcon (Tyler Nilson, Michael Schwartz, USA): A young man with Down syndrome runs away from the retirement home where he lives to chase his dream of becoming a professional wrestler.
Pink Wall (Tom Cullen, UK): Six scenes. Six years. Six moments that shaped the relationship of Jenna and Leon. Pink Wall examines what defines us, the pressures of gender expectations, and our perpetual struggle between life and ambition.
Run This Town (Ricky Tollman, Canada): A political aide tries to corral his brash, outspoken boss when a young researcher at a newspaper gets word of a scandal that could make or break both of their careers.
Sword of Trust (Lynn Shelton, United States): A curmudgeonly pawnshop owner and his man-child sidekick team up with an out of town couple to cash in on a family heirloom: a sword believed by alt history conspiracy nuts to be proof that the South won the Civil War.
Villians (Dan Berk, Robert Olsen, USA): When a pair of amateur criminals break into a suburban home, they stumble upon a dark secret and two sadistic homeowners who will do anything to keep it from getting out.
The Wall of Mexico (Zachary Cotler, Magdalena Zyzak, USA/Mexico): A young white handyman, hired by a wealthy Mexican-American family to upkeep their ranch, finds himself caught between disgruntled locals and the family’s outrageously decadent daughters and discovers that something quite unusual is happening at the ranch.
DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT
Any One Of Us (Fernando Villena, USA): Through the inspiring journey of a recovering athlete, Any One of Us offers an unprecedented glimpse into the traumatic world of spinal cord injuries.
Autonomy (Alex Horwitz, USA): A feature documentary about the emerging technology of self-driving vehicles and the big questions they raise: what is control and who do we become as we relinquish it to machines?
Bellingcat — Truth in a Post-Truth World (Hans Pool, Netherlands): Bellingcat — Truth in a Post-Truth World explores the exclusive world of Bellingcat, a highly-skilled and controversial collective of “citizen investigative journalists” dedicated to redefining breaking news in the 21st century.
Breakthrough (Bill Haney, USA): Breakthrough tells the story of a renegade, blues-playing, Nobel prize-winning Texas scientist who created a cure for the world’s deadliest disease. Narrated by Woody Harrelson with a country-blues soundtrack.
Building the American Dream (Chelsea Hernandez, USA): In Texas, construction workers face the deadliest conditions in the country. Building the American Dream follows three immigrant families who are rising up to seek justice and equality in an industry rife with exploitation.
Community First, A Home for the Homeless (Layton Blaylock, USA): Community First, A Home for the Homeless, is a feature documentary about a totally unique concept for mitigating homelessness. Conceived and created in Austin, Texas, Community First! Village is truly transforming the lives of homeless people.
Human Nature (Adam Bolt, USA): A once-in-a-lifetime scientific discovery called CRISPR gives us the power to change what it means to be human. Now it’s up to us to decide how far we should go.
I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth Vs. Michelle Carter (Erin Lee Carr, USA): Teen Michelle Carter’s actions shocked a nation — but what really happened behind closed doors? This HBO special showcases the prosecution’s point of view and alternately the defense’s. Which side do you fall on?
It Started As a Joke (Julie Smith Clem, Ken Druckerman, USA): It Started As a Joke documents the decade-long run of the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival. The film celebrates Eugene’s unique brand of humor and reminds us of the healing properties of comedy – even in the most challenging of life’s circumstances.
Jump Shot (Jacob Ryan Hamilton, USA): Jump Shot uncovers the inspiring true story of Kenny Sailors, the developer of the modern day jump shot in basketball, and how he defined the game, but why the game never defined him.
Kathy Griffin: A Hell of a Story (Troy Miller, USA): In her first ever comedy concert film, Comedian Kathy Griffin details the aftermath of lost work and being the subject of a federal investigation following the release of her now infamous photo depicting President Donald J Trump.
Qualified (Jenna Ricker, USA): In the world of motorsports, the Indianapolis 500 has long been considered the only race. In May 1977, Janet Guthrie — the first woman to attempt Indy — earned herself a spot in the prestigious field of 33.
Red Dog (Casey Pinkston, Luke Dick, USA): In the early 1980’s, the only family that toddler Luke knew were the strippers, bouncers, and outcasts that made OKC’s rowdiest strip club their home.
The River and the Wall (Ben Masters, USA): Five friends venture into the unknown wilds of the Texas borderlands to document the environment before a wall is built. As the wilderness gives way to the bustling Rio Grande Valley, they encounter the unexpected and enter uncharted emotional waters.
Running with Beto (David Modigliani, USA): Follow Beto O’Rourke behind the scenes of his breakaway campaign to unseat Ted Cruz in the US Senate. With intimate access to the candidate, his family and team, the film captures Beto’s rise from a virtual unknown to a national political sensation.
Sunset over Mulholland Drive (Uli Gaulke, Germany): The vital power of creativity — a behind the scenes look into Hollywood’s retirement home.
VISIONS
Becoming Leslie (Tracy Frazier, USA): Becoming LESLIE reveals the inner and bizarre world of Leslie Cochran, a cross-dressing homeless misfit who became the most iconic and unlikely civic symbol of Austin, Texas.
The Garden Left Behind (Flavio Alves, USA): A Mexican trans woman struggles to build a life for herself as an undocumented immigrant in New York City.
J.R. “Bob” Dobbs and The Church of the SubGenius (Sandy K Boone, USA): This film explores the underground movement that has galvanized the imaginative, the artistic, the nerdy, even the deranged – to examine the simmering dystopia in their culture, and do absolutely nothing about it… except, maybe, poke fun at it all.
Jezebel (Numa Perrier, USA): A true story. In the last days of her mother’s life, 19-year-old Tiffany crashes with five family members in a Las Vegas studio apartment. In order to make ends meet, her sister, a phone sex operator, introduces her to the world of fetish cam girls.
Leave the Bus Through the Broken Window (Andrew Hevia, Hong Kong, USA): A broken-hearted filmmaker navigates an unfamiliar city, an international art fair and his personal baggage in this intimate, playful and unexpectedly comedic documentary.
One Man Dies a Million Times (Jessica Oreck, Belarus): Set in the future, a story about seeds and genetic diversity, about growth and decay, about love and war, and about hunger of all kinds.
Red 11 (Robert Rodriguez, USA): Rob, an independent filmmaker, loses his investor’s money only to find out his investors are the Cartel. He checks himself into a medical research facility to pay off his debt, but quickly realizes it won’t be that easy.
Romantic Comedy (Elizabeth Sankey, UK): Musician and writer Elizabeth Sankey investigates the past, present and future of romantic comedies, assisted by a chorus of critics, actors and filmmakers.
Sakawa (Ben Asamoah, Belgium/Netherlands): What human story lies behind the phenomenon of ‘internet fraud’? In Sakawa we meet three Ghanaian youngsters who, out of desperation, turn to internet scamming with the help of black magic.
Tito (Grace Glowicki, Canada): A desperate man seeks refuge from the predators hunting him by befriending a cheerful intruder.
EPISODIC PREMIERES
David Makes Man (Dee Harris-Lawrence): A richly layered, deeply personal work about a 14-year-old prodigy from the projects who is haunted by the death of his closest friend. Set in South Florida, the series is inspired by events in McCraney’s own life, exploring childhood trauma and the power of imagination.
NOS4A2 (Jami O’Brien): NOS4A2 introduces Vic, a young woman who has a supernatural ability to find lost things. This ability puts her on a collision course with the evil and immortal Charlie Manx, a supernatural villain who feeds off the souls of children.
Ramy (Bridget Bedard): Ramy, a first generation American Muslim on a spiritual journey, explores the challenges of being caught in between an Egyptian community that thinks life is moral a test, and a millennial generation that thinks life has no consequences.
Shrill (Alexandra Rushfield): From Executive Producers Lorne Michaels and Elizabeth Banks comes Shrill, a comedy series starring Aidy Bryant (Saturday Night Live) as Annie, a fat young woman who wants to change her life — but not her body. Annie is trying to start her career while juggling bad boyfriends, a sick parent, and a perfectionist boss.
What We Do in the Shadows (Jemaine Clement, Paul Simms): Based on the feature film of the same name from Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, FX’s new comedy What We Do in the Shadows follows vampire roommates who have lived together for hundreds and hundreds of years.
24 BEATS PER SECOND
Amazônia Groove (Bruno Murtinho, Brazil): Leaving Belem and crossing much of the Para State Amazon region, its towns and riverside villages, Amazônia Groove reveals artists and their traditions, faith and mysticism, music and life that pound in the northern region of Brazil.
Bluebird (Brian Loschiavo, USA): Discover the origin stories of megastars like Garth Brooks and Taylor Swift while following emerging singer-songwriters as they chase their dreams inside The Bluebird Cafe, Nashville’s accidental landmark that has altered the course of music history.
The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story (Aaron Kunkel, USA): The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story charts the life and crimes of boy band impresario Lou Pearlman. The film tracks his life from discovering NSYNC and Backstreet Boys, to his perpetration of one of the largest ponzi schemes in US history.
Boy Howdy! The Story of CREEM Magazine (Scott Crawford, USA): Ripping back the curtain on legendary rock rag CREEM Magazine‘s wild and disruptive newsroom; a dysfunctional band of unruly outsiders who weren’t all that different from the artists they covered. (World Premiere)
Brainiac: Transmissions After Zero (Eric Mahoney, USA): The film explores the seminal 90’s band Brainiac from Dayton, OH and its creative force Tim Taylor. Just days before signing a major record contract Taylor was killed in a bizarre auto accident leaving his family and bandmates to pick up the pieces.
Carmine Street Guitars (Ron Mann, Canada): Five Days in the life of Greenwich Village guitar shop Carmine Street Guitars.
The Chills: The Triumph and Tragedy of Martin Phillipps (Julia Parnell, New Zealand): New Zealand music genius Martin Phillipps fights his creative demons, conquers the music world, inspires a generation, and then retreats into depression, addiction and anonymity. (World Premiere)
David Crosby: Remember My Name (A.J. Eaton, USA): David Crosby reflects on his life of music stardom, while forging new paths to relevancy at his age of 77 in this deeply personal documentary.
Everybody’s Everything (Sebastian Jones, Ramez Silyan, USA): Everybody’s Everything is the story of artist Lil Peep (Gustav Ahr) from his birth in Long Island and meteoric rise as a genre blending pop star & style icon, to his death due to an accidental opioid overdose in Arizona at just 21 years of age.
The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash (Thom Zimny, USA): Johnny Cash stands among the giants of 20th century American life. But his story remains tangled in mystery and myth. This documentary brings Cash the man out from behind the legend.
Mr. Jimmy (Peter Michael Dowd, USA): Dowd Akio Sakurai has dedicated his life to honoring Jimmy Page. For 30 years he recreated vintage Zeppelin concerts note-for-note in small Tokyo clubs. Moving to L.A. to pursue his tribute dream, cultures clash and Akio’s idyllic vision meets reality.
Nothing Stays The Same: The Story of The Saxon Pub (Jeff Sandmann, USA): Nothing Stays the Same celebrates the last 30 years of live music in Austin, while also examining the challenges faced by musicians and music venues in one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, all through the lens of the legendary Saxon Pub.
Show Me The Picture: The Story of Jim Marshal (Alfred George Bailey, UK): Jim Marshall was a maverick with a camera. An outsider who captured the heights of Rock’N’Roll music and the seismic changes of an era, from the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, to the civil rights movements and some of the most iconic moments of the 60’s.
Strange Negotiations (Brandon Vedder, USA): A documentary exploring the existential, artistic and family life of musician and former evangelical, David Bazan (Pedro The Lion), set against America’s own crisis of faith highlighted during the 2016 presidential election.
Teen Spirit (Max Minghella, UK): The film follows Violet, a shy teenager who enters an international singing competition with the help of an unlikely mentor. Driven by a pop-fueled soundtrack, Teen Spirit is a visceral and stylish spin on the Cinderella story.
Who Let the Dogs Out (Brent Hodge, Canada): The origin story of the smash hit “Who Let the Dogs Out” goes back further than anyone could have imagined; steeped in legal battles, female empowerment and artist integrity, which beckons the question: will we ever know who let the dogs out?
Wild Rose (Tom Harper, United Kingdom): A musician from Glasgow dreams of becoming a Nashville star.
GLOBAL
Aleksi (Barbara Vekarić, Serbia): A character piece about funny and troubled girl in her 20s, forced to move back in with her overbearing family.
Aurora (Miia Tervo, Finland): Aurora, a commitment-phobic party animal, meets Iranian Amir one night at a hot-dog stand in Lapland. Amir is running from death and Aurora is running from love. They need each other in order to finally stop running.
Being Impossible (Patricia Ortega, Venezuela): A young woman discovers she was submitted to several surgeries to correct her intersexual body as a baby. She has to find her own self outside gender binaries.
Cachada: The Opportunity (Marlén Viñayo, El Salvador): Five Salvadoran saleswomen want to take their cruel life stories to the stage. During the rehearsal process of their play, they’ll discover themselves as victims and victimizers in a cycle of violence that has plagued their families for generations.
Days of the Whale (Catalina Arroyave Restrepo, Colombia): Two young graffiti artists of Medellín defy a criminal gang when they decide to paint the mural of a whale over a threat written in a wall.
La Mala Noche (Gabriela Calvache, Ecuador/Mexico): She is the perfect woman until she decides to be free.
Vai (Nicole Whippy, ‘Ofa-Ki-Levuka Guttenbeil-Likiliki, Matasila Freshwater, Amberley Jo Aumua, Mīria George, Marina Alofagia McCartney, Dianna Fuemana, Becs Arahanga, New Zealand): Vai is a portmanteau feature film by nine Polynesian directors and filmed on seven different pacific islands. It is about the journey of empowerment through culture, over the lifetime of one woman, Vai.
X&Y (Anna Odell, Denmark/Sweden): Swedish director and visual artist, Anna Odell (The Reunion), conducts a social experiment in which she aims to challenge the gender roles that men and women have in the society of today.
SPECIAL EVENTS
How Rednecks Saved Hollywood with Joe Bob Briggs (Joe Bob Briggs): America’s drive-in movie critic uses 200 video clips and photos to tell the 500-year history of the American redneck in a multimedia comedy performance.
Love, Death & Robots (David Fincher, Tim Miller, Josh Donen, Jennifer Miller): Love, Death & Robots, an animated anthology series presented by Tim Miller and David Fincher, is a genre orgy of Not-Suitable-For-Mainstream shorts.
Ra: Path of the Sun God (Lesley Keen): Austin based electronic and experimental label Holodeck Records is partnering with Austin Film Society for a special live re-score screening of the 1990 animated film Ra: Path of the Sun God, a beautiful re-telling of one of Ancient Egypt’s most famous myths.
Rebel Without A Crew: Filmmaking Master Class with Robert Rodriguez: Join Robert Rodriguez as he gives a master-class in micro-budget guerilla filmmaking, featuring behind the scenes moments from his new $7,000 film, RED 11.
Shangri-La (Work-in-Progress) (Morgan Neville, Jeff Malmberg): An intimate look at the creative process through the lens of legendary music producer Rick Rubin.
True Stories (David Byrne): David Byrne‘s 1986 musical comedy, inspired by theater director Robert Wilson, tabloid newspapers, and filmmakers Robert Altman and Federico Fellini, remains a unique artistic vision that celebrates the singular citizens of a fictional Texas town.