Two SXSW 2008 documentary hits, The Matador and Dear Zachary, will begin a limited theatrical run starting October 31. City Lights acquired the former, and Oscilloscope/MSNBC acquired the latter. Both documentaries are different brands of emotional documentary experiences. These are tough films, for tough audiences. See them.
Here are the new, theatrical trailers, for both films:
Then, see Caroline Suh’s documentary, Frontrunners, which opened last week in New York before expanding to cities nationwide. Oscilloscope Pictures acquired the film (which follows a student election at New York’s prestigious Stuyvesant High School) out of SXSW 2008. The film opened to respectable box office at the Film Forum, and has garnered some favorable reviews. For Entertainment Weekly, Lisa Schwarzbaum wrote: “Sophisticated young people at one of New York City’s most prestigious, intellectually elite public high schools campaign to be elected student council president in Caroline Suh’s nice, tight, observant documentary Frontrunners. But this is no real-life comedy à la Election — more like a valuable, teen-scaled version of the presidential election that currently obsesses us. Suh gets out of the way of the candidates, with rewarding results.”
At the film’s premiere party on Friday night, Suh was relieved that the documentary was opening in theaters prior to the Presidential election. I would say it serves as a nice antidote for all the more depressing and muddy politics surrounding the Obama and McCain race. Oscilloscope brings Frontrunners to six more cities on October 24.
(The crew from Frontrunners, during SXSW 2008. Left to right: editor Jane Rizzo, music consultant Michael Tully, director Caroline Suh, and producer Erika Frankel, Photo by Brian Brooks, for indieWIRE.)
IFC Films has decided to release two SXSW 2008 premieres it acquired, back-to-back. Josh Safdie’s The Pleasure of Being Robbed opens this weekend at the IFC Center in New York, while Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig’s Nights and Weekends will open October 10 at the IFC Center. Check them out, they both rocked audiences during this year’s SXSW. Both audiences and critics could not stop buzzing about them. And, as usual, if you don’t live in New York you can catch them on IFC’s VOD channel early. Here are the new trailers for each:
Paul Owens’ SXSW 2008 documentary, Reformat the Planet is making its debut for free online, courtesy of Pitchfork.tv over the next week. Back before we had Guitar Hero and Rock Band, this was the best way to make music with videogames.
Austin-made indie Goliath, by David and Nathan Zellner, is now available in homes across the country. It’s part of IFC’s Festival Direct VOD program, and this is great news. The Zellners are good friends and I’m so happy to see their super-charming feature get a life after a successful festival run (which included SXSW 2008). Check it out, on your Movies on Demand cable channel.
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