austexaughtnine

As I mentioned yesterday, there’s a SXSW Gold Pass that gets you in both the Interactive AND the Film Festivals. There’s a Platinum Pass, too, but I’ve never managed the cost (or energy) for that one. The Film Festival overlaps both the Interactive Festival at the beginning and the Music Festival at the end.  Instead of the Gold Pass, though, you can just opt for the Film Pass only, but you’ll miss out on the panels and parties, getting to attend the films only. Films only, of course, means about 150-200 independent films, premieres, surprise guests, etc.

Back in Aught-4, I bought the Gold Pass. Mild folly on my part, in that I never manage to attend nearly enough of the films. Usually, I’m so exhausted by the end of the Interactive Fest I have no energy for films or music. But I bought into the Gold Pass in Aught-4 and scheduled my time to hit a number of film panels as well as the usual onslaught of interactive activities.

That’s where I ran into my college-freshman-year roommate, Michael Barker, now Co-President of Sony Pictures Classics. Startled me somewhat to see him and I know I shocked him, too, when I said hi after the session. Later, he even introduced me to Elvis Mitchell, but actually, I was too buzzed to be talking with Michael to much notice Elvis.

The thing that tickled me most about running into him at SXSW Film Fest 04 was simply this: That is the perfect job for him and he’s the perfect person for the job.

When I met Michael, I thought I knew movies. I was completely blown away by his encyclopedic knowledge of not just films, but film critics, film historians, back-lot legends and so forth. We both reveled in the plethora of films available at the University (of Texas, natch) where you could catch 2, 3, sometimes 4 movies a night from Thursday through Sunday every weekend. I learned a lot about films that first year, both through viewing and talking with Michael.

Running into Michael again after all these years made the whole fest for me that time. That’s SXSW for ya.

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