I’ve been trying to figure out how many films I actually can see in nine days. So far my SXSW film calendar has 28 films listed, although some will be impossible for me to attend (I do not think I will be able to see a movie at Alamo South at 10 pm and then drive to Alamo Downtown, and park, for a midnight movie on a weekend). I wish I could have taken the entire week off work so I could see more collections of shorts during the day, but I didn’t decide early enough that I would attend the film festival. I wish I had bought a pass to the film conference, but I’m not a filmmaker and so it didn’t seem to be worth the money for me. (If I can’t get into any of the films I like with my plain little film pass, I will be very sad.) I wish I had a chauffeur to shuttle me from theater to theater.
My boyfriend is going to SXSW Interactive, so we might not see very much of each other for the next week. He got a new laptop last night, just in time for the conference, and he has been trying to set everything up properly so he can take it with him. I haven’t decided if it’s worth it for me to bring my laptop with me. I know Alamo has free wireless, but do I actually need the laptop? Wouldn’t a nice little spiral notebook work just as well? Am I really going to post entries between movies?
The Austin bloggers are arranging for happy hours and dinners and things during the first days of SXSW Interactive. I don’t know anyone else who is going to the film festival. That’s not true. A coworker might buy a film pass and go to some movies with me (I haven’t heard from him lately so I’m not sure) and I think LB is going to the film conference and some of the movies too.
The movie theaters for SXSW are not clustered in one place; they are scattered around town. The Arbor is close to my house; Alamo South and Dobie are both a short drive from downtown (in opposite directions); the other theaters are downtown and you can walk from one to the other if you are athletic and have good shoes. In the daytime. I wouldn’t do it at night alone (well, Paramount to Alamo Downtown, but not ACC). The Paramount and Alamo Downtown don’t have their own parking, so you have to fight everyone else for street parking (which will be impossible during the music festival) or find a pay parking lot that isn’t too terribly pricey (whee). I don’t think Dobie is charging film festival attendees for parking but I can’t say for sure.
If I were going to the film conference, I might have a good chance of meeting other film people and talking (I do not network, sadly) and so forth, but just going to the film festival, there is no central place for attendees to cluster and hang out. But as I’ve said, I don’t think the film conference is worthwhile for me; I would get more out of the interactive conference. The only panel that caught my interest was the one on film blogs (and why are there no women on this panel, when most film blogs I read are written by women?), because I would like to hear what other people have to say about them.
So I am a little envious of my boyfriend because he will have more of a social experience than I will. Okay, neither of us is very social, and I know that I like the idea better than the actuality of these events. We went to an Interactive-related party last year and I hid in a corner on the porch and talked only to people I know. I’m such a wimp.
I realize that what I really want is some good advice about attending the film festival. The only film festival I have ever attended has been Austin Film Festival, which was smaller and I had a free all-access pass (I used to do some work for them) and I didn’t care about seeing a lot of movies back then.
This is my first time attending SXSW, unless you count a single SXSW-related concert I attended back in 1992 (I should tell that story sometime), but that’s hardly the same thing. I know Austin, I know most of these theaters very well (Alamo South is the only one I haven’t been to, but that’s because it opened last week), but I don’t know this film festival at all.
David Nunez wrote some very good guidelines about attending SXSW Interactive. Kramer has some good advice for SXSW attendees who aren’t from Austin (I disagree about Guero’s, though, and would instead suggest y’all take a little drive to Hoover’s for yummy barbecue and home cooking). But I have not found anything helpful anywhere on the Web about attending the film festival. Which venues tend to fill up? If I have a film pass instead of a badge, am I screwed? Do I have to pay to park at Dobie? What is the screen like at ACC? If I see one movie at Alamo Downtown, can I stay in the theater for the next one, or do I have to get out and get in a line again? Is it okay if I keep a camera in my purse (I’m not going to use it in the theater)?
Is there anyone reading who can help me (and any other SXSW film newbies) here? Please post your advice in the comments section. And let me know if you’re going to be in Austin next week and want to say hi. If you see a lil round short-haired chick frowning at a laptop that is adorned with a Cookie Monster sticker, that would be me. (The sticker is on the laptop, not on me.) I only wish I could bring Cookie Monster stickers for everybody.
2 thoughts on “nine days, 200 movies”
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Hey Jette… A great secret in downtown parking: Go east on 7th and turn right into the parking garage of One American Center just before you get to Congress. Pull the ticket and park, go through the lobby of the building and come out on Congress. Easy walk to the Paramount and to the Alamo. When you come back to the lobby of the building (sometimes you have to buzz the guards and say “I’m parked in the garage”) you can tell them you were at the Paramount and they will give you a token. I know there is free parking for the big performances. Thing is, even if it isn’t free parking for the movies or you’re going somewhere else, not to the Paramount, the guard will have you put your name and address on the ticket and they’ll give you a token. There is no requirement that you put your REAL name and address, but even having put the real thing many times, they don’t send a bill or expect anything from you. Nice trick to know for good parking downtown … IF you are going to leave after 8 pm. They have someone taking money in the booth until then.
Pecan
Sorry, too late now. But maybe for next time?
I’ve decided that I either spend all day downtown (taking a bus there and walking) or all day going back and forth between Alamo South and the Arbor (driving). Perhaps in the future I should think of including Dobie in my schedule on driving days. Although it totally sucks for movies with subtitles!
You already know about taking a book, a snack, and water and wearing good walking shoes. I also bring ear plugs and glasses.
My experience is that Alamo Downtown is always full (although I did get in once, with a pass), and that you can usually get into the Paramount, even though it looks crazy. Arbor and the Convention Center are the least crowded–easiest to get in late.
Yep, Alamo South must still be working out some bugs with their food service–the times we ordered just water, but nothing you have to pay for, we never got it (except the time we ordered it three times).
Last year I took vacation from work all week, which I found to be overkill. Because I wasn’t wild about many 11:00 movies last year, this year I decided to work just 8-1. However, that was too much. Lots of 11:00 movies looked good this year, plus, I forgot about needing to sleep!
You do have to be careful about stressing out trying to see as many movies as possible. It happened both years to me. Hey, but I did see 23 movies this year, all but 3 of which I enjoyed, and 9 of which I greatly enjoyed, which is better odds than with regular movies. Last year I wasn’t even motivated to see movies much by the end, but this year I saw better movies and didn’t have this problem.