I would like to thank Pepsico Conn3ct for giving me the opportunity to attend this event.  This was an experience that I typically would not have done on my own, but am thrilled that I did.  Before SXSW I despised Twitter and never would have thought to use it.  I now see value in it, specifically for getting exposure on an event or item or getting new valuable information out to the public (not updating the world on your every personal activity or having lame petty arguments between celebrities).

I can now say that I am a fan of independent music and film and plan on continuing to expose myself to these forms of media.  These niche industries are where the most radical form of innovation occurs in the entertainment industry.

This film was especially interesting because it was fully produced by this University of Texas.  I attended the screening at the Paramount (above is the picture of outside the theater).It was the world premier and most of the key actors were present.  A significant portion of the crowd also had a hand in developing the film.  “Dance with the One” is set in Austin, which was the perfect backdrop for the first film produced completely by UT Austin.

I am not going to go deep into the plot because this is a movie that everyone should see and I don’t want to ruin it for anyone.  The premise is that a young adult who grew up in Austin is a drug dealer to support his family.  He obtains the drugs from a close family friend who happens to also be the father of his girlfriend.  He is against using the drugs, it is just a means to support his worthless father and younger brother (their mother passed away before the time line of the script begins).  The primary conflict in the movie is that the main character takes on a job to watch a large quantity of drugs from his boss.  This “stash” goes missing under his watch and pretty much all action in the movie spawns from that.  This is as much as I am going to tell about the plot.

The significance of the title is that you have to play the hand you are dealt or “dance with the one you came with.”  The main character’s father says this to him at a key moment in the movie when emotions come to a head and he is ready to cut ties with his family because they are dragging him down.  There is no evidence of amateur acting or cut corners in this film I would not be at all surprised if it makes it to a theater near you.

What excited  me most about this experience was the fact that nearly the entire cast was present for the screening and a Q & A session afterwards.  Unfortunately that was not the case with Dogtooth… I had waaaayyy more questions for that director!  Here is a picture of the cast fielding questions:

The inside of the paramount was very interesting.  The ceiling was pretty amazing …

The two main takeaways from this post are:

1.  If you get the chance to see this film,  DO IT!

2.  If you get a chance to see a film at the Paramount, DO IT!

Unfortunately not the best view, but in all fairness I did show up at the very end of the show while he was playing “Sideways”.  I am definitely planning to see him perform again when he comes back to Dallas.

Anyways, I digress.. The point of this post is to discuss the file Dogtooth and that is what I am going to do.  If you are conservative or planning on seeing this film and don’t want it to be spoiled for you, DO NOT READ BEYOND THIS POINT!

This film was one of the biggest mind trips I have ever seen. The previews were equally as crazy as the film. The Alamo prides itself on finding old school obscure clips to entertain the audience before a film.  Here are a couple of pictures from one of the absurd animated clips that lead to the feature film:

And now for our FEATURE FILM…

Dogtooth is a foreign film directed by Yorgos Lathimos completely  in Greek (not fully sure on the language) with English subtitles.  The premise is that a man had completely mind warped his wife into raising their three children (all about in their 20’s as the film is set up) leading them to believe that life outside their remote well-fenced-in estate was terrifying and something that would kill them if they tried to leave home.  They were taught that many common words had different meanings (example: sea = a chair), ultimately to keep them from thinking of places and things outside of their prison of a home. The father teaches his children that they can not ever leave home until one of their K-9 teeth falls out… hence the name of the film: “Dogtooth”.  Now we are talking about adults here, nobody’s K-9 falls out without a solid punch to the face or horrible dental hygiene.

This film features extremely explicit sexual content that I am not going to go to much into beyond what is important to the plot.. but ultimately the father pays a woman to come to the house (blindfolded so she can’t find her way back on her own) to have sex with their son.  The film hints to the fact that the three children had another brother who had somehow escaped this horrible prison, even though he was raised the same as these other three siblings.  My guess is the father brings his son a paid sexual partner every 2 weeks to try to keep him from leaving like his elder son who we never meet.

Bringing in this outside woman presents challenges for the parents with regards to keeping their children sheltered from the outside world.  She introduces some outside influences that shape how the kids view their world.  What blows my mind most about this film is my desire to laugh out loud at some of the “cute” ignorant things that these mentally warped young adults do throughout the film.  Somehow the director enables you to lose yourself into this completely degenerate situation to the point where you feel like you are watching innocent little kids play on a playground, growing and developing into young adults.  These “children” were not kids, they should have had fully developed minds and lives.  However, because of their upbringing, they continually look to their father and mother for direction.  The direction they received was deceptive and fully robbed them of a life that we all have been given and deserve. A life of knowing a few simple truths about the world around us that we take for granted.

I am not going to completely spoil the ending but like many other Indie films, Dogtooth ends abruptly and unexpectedly.  I think it ends in an appropriate place and allows for your mind to wander about how this family could possibly end up.  If you have a strong stomach and are a big movie buff, this is a great film to see.  My understanding is that it won a significant award at the Cannes Film Festival in May, 2009.  This film will check your outlook on the world around you and the way you process information you get from any source.. especially your parents!

The creation of Hulu, Vivo and other media players that pair with and support advertisement allows consumers to get their media for free without legal implications or the risk of receiving viruses from bogus files on piracy websites. Vivo focuses on making sure that videos are high quality, secure from piracy and convenient for the consumer.  By delivering music videos to consumers for free, this technology has diminished piracy significantly and has replenished part of the cash stream lost to piracy.  Instead of consumers paying for the entertainment, advertising agencies buy space and pay rights that end up in the hands of the record labels and artists.

This is not the end to the issues being faced by the music industry.  The panel is convinced that they are not even close to where they need to be so that everybody is happy.  Globally things are worse.  The media platforms are simply not capable of being supported in many countries because of loose intellectual property laws.  Because of this, people in these regions simply can’t be exposed to many of the great music and media that is happening around the world.  The panel suggested that highly protected subscription sites may be a possible answer for these regions versus what we have in the United States with YouTube.

The ultimate conclusion is that the business model for the music industry has become EXPONENTIALLY more difficult over the past 20 years with the inception of the internet.  PepsiCo could learn a lot from this industry with many of the challenges we face, in both the beverage and snack industries.  Carbonated beverages have a free alternative, which is tap water.  For snacking, we have competitors that are catching up (not quite there of course … ) in terms of quality, but with reduced prices.  These aren’t exact analogies to getting the identical product for free like pirating music for free versus buying it.  However, going forward in this tough economy we may want to look to the music industry for inspiration in meeting the challenges in this industry.

If that isn’t a great sign of things to come, I don’t know what is.

Jamila and I ran into each other in the lobby and both headed to the Austin Convention Center (ACC) to pick up our id badges.  Just outside we saw an orchestra playing some non-traditional music with their instruments..

This was all just a mild preamble for the night to come.  I had wanted to see the screenings of 5 seconds and Monsters, however they overlapped with Stone Temple Pilots and The XX… two bands I was not going to miss.  Zedric and myself both had the same agenda so we headed to the Austin Music Hall a bit early to make sure we got a decent view of the show.  Standing sort of near the front row before the show we noticed a balcony that looked directly over stage (basically where the band walked out on stage from).  I decided to try my luck with the Platinum Pass we received from CONN3CT and simply walked up there.  I’m not sure if the security guard knew what was going on or if I was supposed to be there, but it was pretty effortless to get back there.  What stood before me was a nearly empty balcony with the best view of a stage I have ever had.  Zedric joined me soon after and from that point on the night was unbelievable.  This was our view of STP:

THIS SHOW WAS AMAZING. .  They played every single hit they ever released and more! They brought out Robby Krieger (guitarist from the Doors!) and did a cover of Road House Blues. I plan to upload some videos soon (the files are massive and are taking really long).

The next stop for Zendric and myself was the bar Mohawk Patio to see the band The XX.  Now after seeing STP the way we did, my night was about as solid as could be (or so I thought).  The XX was highly recommended to me by a few friends, but I had never heard their music.  Somehow Zedric and myself found ourselves in the front row of this concert.. even though we got there 45 minutes before it started.  The GZA from the Wu Tang Clan was finishing up a show just as we arrived and the house was packed.  We weren’t even sure if we would get in, but luckily the crowd cleared out a bit after the GZA finished.  Right after we got in the crowd filled right back up to max capacity.  This is what our view was:

I am definitely a new fan of The XX.  They put on a great show and had a very unique sound mixing the capabilities of a drum machine with smooth vocals from both the guitarist and bassist.  I also have some videos of this show that will be uploaded later..

Anyways, in summary, THIS NIGHT WAS AWESOME! What a great way to kick of SxSW.  I hope the rest of the festival lives up to this first experience.  More to come from music and film panels a bit later.