Whoa. It’s been six years since I uploaded new content! Logging back in felt like walking into a dusty ass attic. I’m not ready to refresh and update the site entirely, but I’m feeling inspired after this year’s SXSW so I’m going to drop this new post and see what happens. But real quick, where have I been? I’ve now worked at Warner Bros and then NBC Universal as a TV development executive. But I’ve never strayed too far from my film programming roots. Being part of both the indie film community and traditional TV industry informs my perspective, and I love the convergence of the two.
After all these years, my purpose remains the same; to shine a light on fresh voices, mostly Brown. I still like that tagline but the reality is that I’ve always gravitated towards BIPOC and or Queer voices. I love sparking dialogue around craft and who gets to practice it in a way that honors their perspective.
I’ve been going to SXSW for almost a decade and I continue to be in utter awe of the massive programming and incredible organization across Interactive, Music and Film. Sifting through the handy SXSW app with its 4,325 events, it’s easy to feel intimidated and have FOMO on the ground. As tempting as it is was for me to go see the big splashy headliners, and there were so many hotly anticipated films like Monkey Man, Babes, Immaculate, The Idea of You, and performers like The Black Keys, Peso Pluma etc, my north star always directs me to the world premiere feature films without distribution….and whichever Nicolas Cage movie that’s playing. So here goes my SXSW dispatch; part film/panel highlights, part Ted Talk and a dash of travelogue.
THE CATEGORY IS BROWN EXCELLENCE
As in South Asian. These World Premieres rocked my world. No cap.
Eshal Fatima is Yasmeen in Yasmeen’s Element
Karan Soni, and Jonathan Groff in A Nice Indian Boy
Yasmeen’s Element directed by Amman Abassi, written by Amman Abbasi, Jeffrey E. Stern, Sana Jafri
Abassi is a natural filmmaker. As seen in his Sundance debut in 2017 with Dayveon his assuredness with immersing us in someone else’s anxiety and reality is singular. Instead of rural Arkansas, this time we are in the Hunza Valley in Pakistan. This coming of age film about a young girl ardently worried to track down her homework assignment, has far greater meaning and context within this adult world that starts to bleed into hers, and unfolds with a gentle realness that is outstanding
https://www.yasmeenselement.com
CAA is handling
Doin’ It written by Lilly Singh, Sara Zandieh and Neel Patel, directed by Sara Zandieh
You would think it impossible, tonally, for a raunchy sex comedy to also be a family centered story but Doin’ It flips the script on a lot of things, serving tropes upside down with much delight. It’s in the canon of highschool sex comedies like American Pie, sure, but that comparison hardly does it justice and, this is about the teacher trying to get rid of her virginity so she has some reference lol. Lilly plays Maya whose first sexual encounter traumatizes her and the family to go live in India, only to come back as a 30 year old virgin with no frame of reference on how to teach sex education. It’s so lively and sharp. Lilly is a force to reckon with and Sara Zandieh directing her second feature (and who also directs TV) holds and pulls it all together tightly.
WME representing the film.
A Nice Indian Boy, written by Madhuri Shekar and Eric Randall, directed by Roshan Sethi
My whole heart. Adapted from Madhuri Shekar’s play, this film proves that super earnest and corny romantic comedies are what’s needed in this world. Done right that is! The cast is ebullient yet grounded, the writing/directing is on point. Mostly, I’m struck by how the sentimentality has an edge to it, the way it arcs out with Karan Soni’s character who can’t help get in the way of his own happiness. After you see this film you will also want to have a big Indian wedding with loads of family surrounding you and look at your partner and think; “I want for nothing.” Utterly endearing.
We Strangers written and directed by Anu Valia
There is a lot under the hood in Anu Valia’s feature directorial debut, all of which signals Anu’s mastery at conjuring a disconcerting vibe that keeps us on edge and matches how the character of Ray played by Kirby Howell Baptiste might be feeling. Ray works to make ends meet, including cleaning the house of her boss and the neighbor. When she leans into a micro-aggression for her own interest, Ray’s response up until the end and for better or worse, is as measured, elegant and wicked as she can humanely muster. Reminds me of Janicza Bravo’s work. I can’t wait to see everything Anu does in the feature space. She’s already killing it on TV, directing for She-Hulk and the upcoming series Interior: Chinatown.
Ben and Suzanne, A Reunion in 4 Parts, written and directed by Shaun Seneviratne
Also in competition, this directorial feature debut emerged out of a series of short films with the same two actors, Sathya Sridharan and Anastasia Olowin over ten years. A romantic comedy about a couple on vacation, for me this was an engaging look into the emotional whiplash of relationships. I totally related with her conflict, having to balance work and being present for a partner who is there on vacation. Just like in one of thier short films I found online; The Chill of Loneliness , the effort and work to communicate just to be in a relationship long distance vacillates from an easy rapport that gives you a sense as to what attracted them in the first place, to the harder moments that require a lot more effort to communicate and give one another grace and make you think, why in the world are these two together. The film, shot on location throughout Sri Lanka made me feel like I was on the road with them, with the exhilaration and exhaustion colliding on one another.
The Queen of My Dreams, written and directed by Fawzia Mirza
I’m a huge fan of Fawzia’s and I am embarrassed to admit I did not catch it’s U.S. premiere at SXSW. The film debuted at last year’s Toronto Film Festival and is being released in Canada this week! I first met this magnetic multi-hypenate through the Chicago set charming af comedy, Signature Move directed by Jennifer Reeder. Actor/Director/Standup – and above all she’s a phenomenal writer not afraid to portray us fumbling in this world.
Wakhri written and directed by Iram Parveen Bilal
Also not technically a world premiere but I have to give flowers to this one that was inspired by Qandeel Baloch, who was killed in July 2016 by her brother because of her social media presence that he said brought disrespect to the family. The film has been released in Pakistan which is remarkable on its own for confronting the very society this honor killing took place. It’s a testament to the pulsating vigor she imbues in this film, about a teacher who finds her voice, clandestinely online. I really appreciated the portryal of the friendship at the center and of course it’s exhilarating soundtrack.
LATINX
I was happy to attend the second annual La Cena: Austin this year, a curated dinner series designed to create and deepen connections among Latino talent, artists and executives. This dinner was sponsored by MiTu and McDonald’s Spotlight Dorado who awarded three filmmakers last year with $75,000 to make a short film. The winner, Fancy Florez’s Summer Staycation by Marissa Díaz was no surprise to me. Those who know know. Marissa is a fresh, comedic and culturally specific voice I can’t wait to work with. Trust, you’ll be hearing a lot more in the future from this creator.
There were 125 feature length films at SXSW and I count 41 BIPOC directors, so 33%. Give or take; four are co-directors and I googled the shit out of every single director to see how they identify to come up with that approximation.
Six were directed by Latinx (Three of those from the Brazilian community). That’s just under 5%. Which is slightly higher than percentage this year’s UCLA Hollywood diversity report found when they audited the top theatrically released films in 2023 (4 out of 109 so 3.6%). And if we rack focus on the number of U.S Latine directors at SXSW it’s half that, 3 films or 2.4%.
Those familiar with my blog from way back when know I don’t count films as Latinx unless it is authored by a Latinx aka writer/director. That said I saw Cold Wallet because I’m a long time fan of Melonie Diaz and Raul Castillo who star in and are both listed as executive producers. I was surprisingly disappointed with this crypto vengeance thriller because the director Cutter Hodierne showed far more tension and prowess with his last short turned feature, Fishing Without Nets.
I went to see Switch Up because it is produced by Elizabeth Avellan, who was once half of Texas’ power couple with Robert Rodriguez, and to this day co-owner of Troublemaker Studios. Iranian-American director Tara Pirnia helmed this well intentioned but totally flat romantic comedy. From the script to the performances, everything felt diluted (Even the usually outrageous Donnell Rawlings who plays a bit role here was muted!). Notably, it only had one screening at the festival, which by and large was attended by locals and family who embraced the film.
Bob Trevino Likes It written and directed by Tracie Laymon
This one took home both the Jury Award and the Audience Award, and it’s well deserved. Barbie Ferreira and John Leguizamo are executive producers along with producers Edgar Rosa and Felipe Dieppa. In an amazing first leading role for Barbie, you can see her bravely channel arrested development and vulnerability. One could easily feel sorry for her character, but Barbie’s transformative performance and the fact that its based on a true story balances it out. It’s based on Tracie’s own serendipitous friendship forged online when she was going through a rough patch with her father so the crippling loneliness and alienation rings authentic. It truly earns and packs a punch of catharsis in the end. @BobTrevinoLikesIt
THE SIX
The In Between by Robie Flores
Okay full disclosure I did not see this one at the festival, I watched an earlier cut so I’ll keep it brief. I was really taken with the seamless dreamscape it weaves around a place and memories. Rumination is extremely hard to capture cinematically – it rarely has a place to go but this one does. This one feels tethered, like it is an act of tethering oneself to the ephemeral like memories and loved ones.
Kellen Quinn repping the film
Musicá written by Rudy Mancuso and Dan Lagana, directed by Rudy Mancuso
Another full disclosure; I saw a preview screening of this film so I don’t know what the final cut that screened at SXSW might have been. But I will soon. This is an Amazon Original and will be available on Prime on April 4. Everyone might know Brazilian-American Rudy Mancuso is terribly charismatic. His musical savant like talent elevates him to a whole other level of artistry. This film is a magical extension of that flair for whimsy sharing his fantastical interior.
Available on Amazon Prime April 4, 2024.
Omni Loop written and directed by Bernardo Britto
Ok last ‘disclosure’ I swear! – I did see Omni Loop at the festival but I had to run to the airport to catch my flight back to LA so I missed the end – a good 15 minutes. While I am dying to know what happens, I will make myself feel better by telling myself it is a loop after all (lol). Without any spoilers, I do feel confident saying Bernardo has this signature; he imbues an existential wonder to his stories, not quite melancholic, maybe haunting but always probing. Mary Louise Parker does a good job of trying to make sense of it all. It’s about the journey for sure, and perhaps the unpredictability of an impending conclusion. There is something ambitious about a metaphor this big, and that’s why I love it. Also any opportunity to throwback to his 2014 animated short film Yearbook. I never not stop talking about this one. WME is repping
Toll written and directed by Carolina Markovicz
Completing the Brazilian trifecta, Toll is one gem of a movie that’s really stayed with me ever since I saw it last year. This world premiered in Toronto last year. Maeve Jinkings plays a misguided single working mom of an openly gay social media micro influencer played with such bitterly reluctant patience by Kauan Alvarenga. There is a sly vindictive quality in the end that is absolutely delicious.
Luxbox repping the film
Bionico’s Bachata written by Cristian Mojica and Yoel Morales, directed by Yoel Morales
This non stop brazen street antics mockumentary bagged the Audience Award in the Global section. The action, actors and music are indeed electric. We follow Bionico who swears he’s clean (as he smokes shit) while preparing for his girlfriend to come out of rehab. It’s all fun and games until it’s not. Whether lewd or unapologetic, idc, my jaw was often on the floor. And that dembow soundtrack es fuego man.
Malta written and directed by Natalia Santa
I really like this up and coming actor Estefanía Piñeres who plays Mariana, a disenchanted young woman with a grounded yet slightly peculiar nature that drew me in and kept me close (like what Kristen Stewart does to me). There’s a low key levity throughout,signalling her limbo of either resisting the pains of family tension or the urge of peacing out and heading to the Mediterranean.
Cinema Tropical is repping the film
SPECIAL SHOUT OUTS
Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane story, directed by Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee
Talk about integrity. Talk about a badass. Talk about Jackie Shane. Rest in Power. With gorgeous animated reconstructions of the series of phone calls the filmmakers used to tell her story, we are privy to her heartwarming allure recounting her childhood in Nashville and later rise to fame in the 60’s soul scene in Toronto. She had the courage (and nerve!) to never suffer fools or bullies, and to point out the hypocrisy inherent in the music business. Perform at a nightclub where you don’t even allow Black folks? Nope. Maybe she could have rose to the very top had she compromised, but her legacy found its way back to us anyway and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Executive produced by Pageboy Productions and Nia Long.
We Were Dangerous written by Maddie Dai and directed by Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu.
This one took home the Special Jury Award for Filmmaking and I would give it another award for it’s story finesse in how it plays with point of view and serves up the classic heist/escape genre. A period piece set in 1954 on a remote island in NZ this original script follows a group of delinquent young women under the care of a fellow Māori Matron. Not shying away from the dehumanizing Māori cultural indoctrination, the film also rejects any binary by showing us the surprising capacity of women to both antagonize and have each other’s back. The writer Maddie Dai has worked in writers rooms like S2 of Our Flag Means Death (Taika Waititi is an Executive Producer on the film).
Lastly, Gasoline Rainbow from the Russo bros.
Man these white dudes can roll. Like, they shoot pure cinema verite at its finest. In this case, capturing a group of kids on a road trip in the Northwest. Their lens always finds the gravity and cinematic in the every day. There are some shots in here that took my breath away. And I won’t forget what one uncle says to the kids; Adults are just kids without supervision. Take a look at the trailer below. Of course Mubi is distributing this.
DOES SXSW OWN A.I.?
On to panels: It seems like nearly every other panel was some sort of session on Generative AI, Algorithms, Multi-Modal, Language Learning Model. Indiewire was quick to post the audience booing the one bumper where Peter Deng of ChatGPT hands out the A.I can-make-us-more human-kool-aid. Which was in sharp contrast to actual human visionary filmmakers the Daniels admitting they are terrified. After watching about 10 panels on the subject I definitely witnessed this paradox play out. IMO, there is going to be a short stretch of disruption where these tools have a level of accessibility and democratization where different perspectives and priorities can affect how it rolls out….before we revert back to the status quo.
The folks on this panel called Beyond Generative AI: Multimodal Narrative Experiences kept talking about how bummed they were that somebody named Edward Saatchi had to cancel last minute. I never heard of this guy. Until now. Are you ready to get your mind blown? This guy is ‘growing’ intelligent life in a petri dish aka simulation that is. Maybe you read the Forbes article last year about the South Park A.I. generated episode. If you listen to his Ted Talk about SIM Francisco, he starts with dropping Sisyphus. Yea, more like Icarus buddy. Carlos Calva, is similarly running head first into this world of ‘agents’ to reach another frontier of filmmaking and companionship.
Another impressive speaker I didn’t know before this SXSW, is Dr. Joy Buolamwini, author of Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What is Human in a World of Machines. I know, where have I been. Perhaps you have seen the 2020 Netflix documentary, CODED BIAS. She uncovers the harm and threat that AI systems have on vulnerable and marginalized people. It can easily amplify racism, sexism, ableism, and other forms of discrimination. In fact if you need to report harm or in her words being ex-coded you can do so here on the Algorithmic Justice League. Megan and Harry recently awarded her with the NAACP Digital Civil Rights Award. In her perspective, “If you are creating tools that don’t work on the Global Majority, have you really made a good tool in the first place?”
I consider myself a day one fan of this man’s work, Sterlin Harjo, creator and showrunner of Reservation Dogs. He stopped by the Tulsa House on Rainey hosted by Tulsa Office of Film, Music Arts & Culture for a casual chat, sure yea about the business, but better than that, sharing stories about his childhood and how his roots are intrinsic to his storytelling production. I will miss Reservation Dogs but I’m actually excited for this next chapter of his life where we can be gifted with more of his deeply unique perspective. He is currently shooting an FX pilot with Ethan Hawke described as Tulsa Noir, he is developing a project about Alcatraz and Richard Oakes, Mohawk activist, and Olympic Gold athlete Jim Thorpe, brought up in the Sac and Fox Nation in Oklahoma who played a number of sports at the highest level in the early 20th Century.
I got a chance to see my friend Liz Cardenas, award winning producer (7 Days, Never Going Back, Ghost Story) on a panel called Demystifying Distribution about what filmmakers can do to navigate working with film financiers. Among many nuggets of wisdom was try not to operate from a place of fear. Hear the full audio recording HERE.
I also caught Omar Rodriguez Lopez, the El Paso native who’s likely better known for his music projects, Mars Volta and At The Drive-In than his filmmaking. I’ve seen three of his films and they all have a wildly original and frenetic sense of searching to them. He is in post on his next movie and all I know is that it was shot in the Yucatan and produced by Michel Lipkes, filmmaker/producer/programmer. Omar was at the festival as subject of the documentary Omar & Cedric: If this ever gets weird.
LASTLY, TEXAS.
I made a weeklong trip out of this SXSW. BBQ at the original Smitty’s market was a happy welcome to Texas the day I arrived thanks to my pal Robin Lambaria, filmmaker and head of Marfa Film Festival (it’s on hiatus!). It was my first time visiting San Marcos (pop. 45k) and it is cute. They say it’s what Austin was in the 70’s. Robin also took me to the most serene riverbank alongside the San Marcos river aka YAKONA. I lost a chancla but it was worth communing with the Yakona. Check out this beautiful documentary about Yakona that played at the 2014 SXSW Film Festival.
cheap gas 
swag 
San Marcos 
San Marcos view from Kerbey Lane
It’s not too late to tune in to the dialogue spun at SXSW. Head on over to SXSW’s YouTube to catch the keynotes/conversations/sessions. I know I’ll still be catching up. And don’t forget to look at the actual schedule that is still up which contains the audio files for those not video recorded.
For the films mentioned here, make sure to follow the film’s IG for future release updates. And you can save the date and start planning for next year. Dates and presale have already begun!
Director of SXSW Film and TV Festival
If you want a SXSW film fix now, a number of my faves that premiered last year are readily available; Julio Torres’s EL PROBLEMISTA via A24, Kris Mercado’s IF YOU WERE THE LAST available on Peacock, and BOTTOMS by Emma Seligman, an Orion release now available on Prime.
Chicana from Chicago 