SXSW: The Fallout, Lily Topples the World, and The End of Us

 by Christopher James

Lily Topples the World won the juried Documentary Feature prize at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival.We are far enough into the 2021 SXSW Film Festival that the Jury awards have been handed out. There were a variety of awards handed out. The Narrative Feature Competition went to The Fallout, and Documentary Feature Competition went to Lily Topples the World. As premieres were lighter in these final days of the festival, today felt like the right day to give both of these winners a chance. Add in a dash of pandemic comedy, in the form of The End of Us, and you have my Day Four at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival...

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SXSW: The cost of work in "Ludi"

by Cláudio Alves

The necessity of money rules our lives. Only the chronically wealthy, blinded by the shining gold of privilege, can wave their hands in denial and say it's not important. Need delineates our lives, and hard work is often the consequence of it, obsessively so. 

For Ludi, the protagonist of Edson Jean's feature directorial debut, work is everything. How could it be any other way when there's a family, back in Haiti, to help? She's bough into the American dream, the song of hard work and just rewards. However, Ludi has failed to realize she's playing the part of Sisyphus in the story of her life…

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SXSW: How It Ends, Alien on Stage, and Violet

by Christopher James

It’s the end of the world as we know it on Day Three of the 2021 SXSW Film Festival.

The festival only continues to heat up with more great films. A buzzy first feature, documentary of a viral sensation and dramedy on the brink of apocalypse comprise my watches on Day Three. The virtual film festival continues to impress, not just in terms of the filmmaking but also in terms of organization. Aside from registration confusions, booking and watching films throughout the week continues to be seamless and stress free. Most of all, it helps make sure the films are presented in the best light possible, short of being in a physical theater...

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SXSW: Portraits of motherhood in "Ninjababy" and "Bantú Mama"

by Cláudio Alves

Motherhood is one of cinema's favorite subjects, ever since narrative pictures emerged as a force to be contended with. One can go so far as saying that ever since the origins of drama, of storytelling, tales of mothers have dominated audiences' attentions, defined cultures, were made into the foundations for moral and religious belief. Perhaps because of such history, such conceptual weight, mainstream cinema rarely attempts to subvert or question the precepts of dramatized maternity. Even in more independent circuits, there's still reverence there, a willingness to prop up the mother figure into a saintly paragon, idealized caretaker, matriarch of humanity.

Because of it, one feels grateful when artists turn their back on all that baggage and decide to subvert what cinematic mothers are, what they look like, what they represent. The irreverent Ninjababy and the beautiful Bantú Mama, both presented at the SXSW film festival, are prime examples of this…

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SXSW: Reviews of "WeWork" and "Language Lessons"

 by Christopher James

Day Two of the SXSW Festival provided even more interesting, high profile premieres. Between a billion dollar flamout and a star-studded movie shot entirely on zoom, it would be hard to find more disparate projects on the second day of the festival. Both WeWork: or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn and Language Lessons were engaging and worthwhile watches in very different ways. One was a grandiose look at the rise and fall of a famous company born out of the ashes of the financial crisis. The other was a heartfelt dramedy where two lonely souls connect via online Spanish lessons...

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