SXSW Film Festival 1995 winners
This year the SXSW Film Festival chose to screen 15 programs in competition from over 250 submissions. The Silver Armadillo Awards recognizes outstanding filmmaking in five categories. Narrative Short and Documentary Short are awarded to films under 50 minutes; Documentary Features and Narrative Features are awarded to works over 50 minutes. The winners of the 1995 SXSW Film Competition were:
Best Narrative Feature
Rhythm Thief, Dir. Matthew Harrison
A confident, no-budget foray into the heart of white-boy urban alienation.
Making full use of a cast of very good actors, Harrison has blended a bleak,
gritty backdrop, convincing characters, and a gripping narrative in his
second feature film. Simon is a poor whiteboy loner who sells bootlegged
tapes of local bands on New York's Lower East Side. The money he makes
barely covers the costs of cheap liquor and kitty litter, the staples of his
meager existence. Simon tries hard to keep his life simple and streamlined
despite the constant pestering of Fuller, a tagalong who begs Simon to teach
him the bootleg game. Simon spends his evenings drinking alone, sifting the
cat's litter box and listening to his neighbors yell at each other through
the walls of his crappy apartment. The monotony is broken only by Cyd,
Simon's casual girlfriend. It seems that Simon is willing to do anything to
keep his miserable routine intact, but when he is accused of stealing a TV,
and the band whose music he has been bootlegging beats him up, Simon finds
himself on the verge of losing what little he has. ...Rhythm Thief is urban
guerrilla filmmaking at its best. Shot on a minimal budget in only 11 days,
This film cuts through all the recent clamor and glamour surrounding
no-budget filmmaking.
...Christan Gaines, 1995 Sundance Film Festival
Narrative Runner Up
The Pornographer, Dir. Patrick Sheane Duncan
A mesmerizing tale of sex, death, art, and emotional blackmail, The
Pornographer is an arresting tour de force by Duncan (84 Charlie Mopic).
Nicholas Cascone is Connie, a struggling young filmmaker who has abandoned
his stylish dreams in favor of the more lucrative avenues provided by adult
entertainment. For studio space, Connie uses the cheap quarters provided by
Greyson - a successful, megalomaniac artist whose emotional life is caught
in an ever-increasing downward spiral. When Connie falls hard for a young
hooker, Greyson is taken aback at the odd turn of events, and sets out to
get a piece of the action himself, no matter what the cost. Filled with
powerful performances (including Margot Kidder as Connie's AIDS-afflicted
ex), The Pornographer is an emotionally harrowing indictment of what one man
will do to be loved.
Best Documentary Feature
The Plutonium Circus, Dir. George Ratliff
A
whimsical, often hilarious look at what happens at the final assembly point
for every nuclear weapon made in America when world peace suddenly breaks
out. Amarillo's Pantex facility, a longtime major player in the nuclear
chess game, has been reduced to dismantling the very same MIVRs and ICBMs
they once crafted with such loving pride. Shot in Amarillo on a limited
budget, this is one of the most interesting and engaging documentaries to
have come out in a long time. Forsaking the alarmist tone of many other such
projects, Ratliff and crew have instead crafted a wonderfully restrained
portrait of not only the Pantex facility and its woes, but also of the
quirky, frontierist town of Amarillo itself. Nestled cozily on the windy
Texas Panhandle, it's an odd, charmingly bizarre place, much like the people
who live there. Interviews with local artisans, politicians, and eccentrics
(notably, Stanley Marsh IV, of Cadillac Ranch fame) elevate this gently
irreverent documentary to the level of The Atomic Cafe, getting the
anti-nuclear message across with sublime wit and graceful good humor.
Documentary Runner Up:
Shotgun Freeway, Dir. Morgan Neville & Harry Pollenberg
Shotgun Freeway posits the theory that Los Angeles is defined by its roads,
and explores the highways and byways of that great American metropolis in
interviews and archival footage that explore LA via its typically atypical
people and places. The artfully shot interviews allow 14 individualistic
Angelenos - like authors Joan Didion and James Elroy, actor/writer Buck
Henry, director John Milius, jazz saxophonist Buddy Collette, Latino
activist Bert Corona, artist David Hockney, real estate agent Elaine Young,
and others - to wax eloquently on their love for and fascination with one of
the great cities of the world. The archival segments illuminate the
California dream that drove the development of this seeming paradise, while
the latter-day footage documents the urban landscape filled with the teeming
contradictions it has become. This documentary is as expansive and vital as
the city it profiles.
Best Documentary Short (tie)
Picasso Would Have Made a Glorious Waiter, Dir. Jonathan Schell
This non-traditional documentary takes a poetic look at the artistry and
struggles of the people who work at Glorious Food, New York's pre-eminent
catering company.
Due West, Dir. Elisabeth Spencer
A stark portrait of the cowboy.
Documentary Short Runner Up
The Minors, Dir. Jonathan Halperin
The dramas of a small town are played out at the minor-league ball park.
Best Narrative Short
Avenue X, Dir. Leslie McCleave
The story of a forgotten neighborhood on Coney Island, its diehard denizens,
and the crossed paths of Eddie and Sonny.
Narrative Runner Up
Chemical Nurse, Dir. Harrison Witt
Strange things happen in a radioactive land
Best Music Video
Lizzy with the Melvins, Chris Burns
Music Video Runner Up
White House Girls with Ed Hall, Heyd Fontenot