[SXSW] Film Festival 2014
[Ruby Hornet will be covering SXSW from March 7th to March 16th. Follow along as we bring you exclusive film reviews, photos, daily features, and interviews with filmmakers, actors, and musicians!]
SXSW may be mostly known for its Music portion of the festival, but the Film half of the events have been building in notoriety over the past few years. While SXSW Film and SXSW Music are two entirely different beasts, they both have their own quirks and charm that keep the SXSW spirit alive throughout the entirety of the festival's duration. Whereas SXSW Music is full of craziness, crowds, and chaos, SXSW Film is more controlled and tempered in terms of its craziness, crowds, and chaos, albeit at a different level. Both Virgil and I (Ge0ff) were out and about last week, taking in as much as Austin and SXSW as we could before the Music crowds came in. Check out some of the photos below that captured some of our downtime in between screenings, some photos from the various film Q&As we attended, and even behind-the-scenes shots of some of the interviews we have lined up for next week. Enjoy!
[SXSW] From Dusk till Dawn: The Series After Party
[Ruby Hornet will be covering SXSW from March 7th to March 16th. Follow along as we bring you exclusive film reviews, photos, daily features, and interviews with filmmakers, actors, and musicians!]
After hitting up the Neighbors premiere Saturday night, Geoff and I went to the From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series after party at Red 7. As we walked through the raining streets of downtown Austin, we contemplated not going (later on, we were really happy we made the decision to go anyways). As we walked into a packed house, we made it through the crowd and to the back patio of Red 7 where Robert Rodriguez's mariachi rock band Chingon were jamming out to "Cancion del Mariachi" featured in Desperado. Further in the back of the venue were people lining up for free Kahuna Burgers and fries. After grabbing a quick burger, I pushed my way through the front to get some photos of the band. Robert had lots of surprises for the crowd, like bringing out snake dancers to accompany the music. After going through a few known songs from his movies, Robert brought out Eiza Gonzalez, who stars in the new TV series based on the film of the same name on the El Rey Network. Eiza came out and played a few Mexican mariachi classics backed by Chingon. Even Machete himself, Danny Trejo, stopped by to show support. Check out some of the photos from that night below.
[SXSW Photos] Robert Rodriguez Museum
Photos by Virgil Solis
Friday, I was lucky enough to be invited to the press opening of the Robert Rodriguez Museum here in Austin during SXSW 2014. The pop-up museum was exhibiting art from acclaimed fantasy/science fiction artist Frank Frazetta, a Sin City masterpiece by Frank Miller, original art by Drew Struzan, new pop artist Sebastian Krüger, and bronzed art sculptures by Clete Shields. In addition, the museum had Sin City character portraits that Mr. Rodriguez worked on with the actors and his mentor artist George Yepes during the filming of Sin City 2. This was definitely one of my highlights of SXSW 2014. On top of the really awesome art that was at the museum, I was going to be able to meet on of my idols.
Robert Rodriguez has been someone who I've looked up to for a very long time and someone who inspired me to chasing a creative career. Growing up in America, we didn't have a lot of creative and cool Latinos to look up to. Robert Rodriguez showed a younger generation of Latinos that we can chase creative jobs, even if you have to donate your body to medicine to fund your first movie. After watching El Mariachi and reading his book Rebel Without a Crew, my brother and I were Rodriguez fans for life. With all these thoughts running through my head, I was hoping I didn't fan out too much and kept some level of professionalism when I met him at the museum. As soon as I walked into the museum, Robert was there talking to other media people about the artwork and other art he was excited for. You can tell that Rodriguez still is a boy at heart as he talked about some of his heroes in art and the awesome work being exhibited.
As the majority of everyone there was a media person from different outlets, everyone wanted a piece of Rodriguez, so I waited patiently for an opportunity to talk to him for one minute to just thank him for his influence and art. When I finally mustard the courage to walk up to him, the media vultures were waiting for him to pounce and get their turn. In the quick second I was given, I asked him if I could take a photo next to the life-size Marv statues. He said sure, and I shot the image, and as fast I hit the shutter button, Robert was being pulled in a different direction to speak to another media person. I barely said thank you, and just like that, my opportunity was over. I stuck around and talked to some great people from his team about the limited edition posters for sale and took in the art a little bit longer before I decided that I was happy with the photo and just the chance to be in the same room as Robert Rodriguez. By the way he treated everyone, he is one of the nicest guys, and I'm sure another opportunity will arise where I will be able to have an actual conversation with Mr. Rodriguez. Until then, enjoy some great art from the museum.
