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On my way out East, I went to SXSW in Austin. It pretty much felt like a dejavu from last year, but differnet people, different films, different photos. =) I saw a ton of movies. Here are my photos from this year: link

At SXSW, my friends Cherie and Chris from Technomadia, and Tynan were giving talks about travel. It was great to see their presentations. After, we had a travel gathering, where I got to meet people like Gary Arndt.

I got to see Mike Ambs, Zadi, Lan, Vu, and Bonny, which is always fun =) At the IndieGoGo party I got to see Slava, and Emily Hagins, who was premiering her film My Sucky Teen Romance at SXSW. I also got to attend the Austin Burning Man gathering at a local park.

I also got to attend the huge Vimeo party, check out the video that Mike Ambs helped with:

I was able to see a ton of movies this year. Most were pretty awesome, but some were super horrible films, films that should have never been made. I guess that is what the movie industry is about, people make what they want. I am not including links to them.

96 Minutes –

A great multi-storyline film. Shot well, well edited.

Dragonslayer –

A interesting documentary, that followed a skateboarder.

Fuck My Life –

a super enjoyable relationship film shot in Chile. It mixed with all sorts of present day relationship things like people inteacting online via facbook etc. It was shot on a 7D.

Apart –

Bizzare film.

Natural Selection –

super well shot. engaging plot. Intense

Hesher –

A crazy crazy film starring Joseph Gordon Levitt of Hit Record. Intense… Natalie Portman also has a role in the film.

My Sucky Teen Romance – directed by my friend Emily Hagins

wow. super fun. well shot. Great comedy about vampires… huge sold out screening. Actually every one of her screenings were sold out. =) Here’s her trailer:

I attended a great panel that included Billy Corben and producer Christine O’malley moderated by IDA board president Eddie Schmidt. I had lunch with Scilla Andreen of Indieflix,  Brian Chirls who made Crowd Controls,  Brian Felsen from CD Baby, and Nic Baisley from Film Snobbery. I saw Micki Krimmel of Neighborgoods, and got to see Bill Erickson at his bday party, April Johnson, a fellow filmmaker, and Shannon Lepere, a fellow jumpshot photographer. Andie Grace and I had lunch, we caught up about the Burning Man documentary I’m getting finished.

SXSW has a great Music portion that lasts for many days. This year, several people I grew up with were performing as part of the official SXSW lineup, Endless Hallway, and Skrillex. Their shows were totally crazy. SXSW is crazy. At night it becomes a huge loud party scene, with a huge mixture of people visiting the festival for films, people visiting for all the music shows, and a ton of local people form Austin just out walking.

Maybe I will finally get all these photos made into a proper picturevideo for this year sorta like what I did for 2008: http://vimeo.com/797750 Thanks again for such a super great SXSW adventure, and thanks Shannon for letting me stay with you guys.

Mike

For several years I have been filmmaker friends with Olivier, but had yet to see his documentary about Burning Man. I loved his other short form videos he made about the Flaming Lotus Girls and have been promoting his screenings of his feature length documentary Dust & Illusions.

On March 6th, I got to finally see the documentary at the LA Cinematheque, with a ton of other Los Angeles Burners. Wow. Some amazing footage. A great look at the history of Burning Man. After the film there was a great Q&A moderated by the LA Burning Man regional coordinator Athena Demos, and included Olivier, John Law, and Michael Michael from the BM Org.

Check out Olivier’s site, he has screenings always upcoming.
http://dustandillusions.com/

DUST & ILLUSIONS. 30 Years of Burning Man History, from the late 1970s until today. An in-depth look at the event and how the philosophies have involved in 30 years.

Here’s Olivier’s trailer

Here’s part 1 from that Q&A

February was fun. I got to join some friends on an epic photowalk at El Matador State Beach.

We had another update on SIMILO. A couple of the truck rigs were completed. Another step towards getting the VFX finished!

I had several friends who were nominated for the Oscars this year. They didn’t win, but it was super awesome wishing them luck.

And with all the crazy rain we have had and the crazy cold temperatures (for LA) we actually got some snow!!!!

In March I get to adventure out to SXSW then out East on a journey to get As The Dust Settles edited. I have never switched so many things around, canceled so many of my plans, and put so many things on hold for any project I have ever done. I have a lot of support, and I hope that all my effort, persistence, and patience will be worth it in the end.

Mike