Alex Winter,
courtesy Trouper
Productions Tell us a little about your film.

Downloaded is a feature documentary about the rise and fall of Napster and the birth of the digital revolution. It focuses primarily on the key players around the Napster saga; co-founders Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker and the major players in the music industry, the bands and the technology sector.

While the movie is certainly focused on music downloading, the technology created by these very young and brilliant mavericks also paved the way for other forms of media and information distribution. There is a lot of heated debate around the current paradigm shift in world culture. The movie does not attempt to make an argument for either side of the debate, but to provide some context for these highly charged and complex times, and help create a conversation that may suggest some ways forward.

Why did you start making films?

I had a passionate love for the cinema as a child; Chaplin, Hitchcock, Fred Astaire. I watched movies obsessively and tried to get as close to the greats as I could with an 8mm camera and a handful of third graders.

Have you been to SXSW before? Any tips?

I went for the first time last year, to offer a small peek at Downloaded and conduct a panel. It's a rare feast of a festival, with equal quality in so many areas; the movies, the music, the technology. Get out into all of it. Don't get distracted by the Hill Country BBQ, which is the best in the world and could easily engulf your time in Austin.

Tell us a random fact (or two!) that would help our attendees get a better idea of who you are.

Some of my Acting work: King & I and Peter Pan on Broadway. Lost Boys and Bill & Ted in the movies. Some of my Writer/Director work: MTV's The Idiot Box and Ben 10 on TV. Freaked and Fever in the movies. Lots of TV Commercials and Music Videos.

Click here to read more about Downloaded

Jones, courtesy
Everyone's
Going to Die Tell us a little about your film.

We were trying to escape the British obsession with period dramas, low rent gangster films and social realism. We want to find a way to tell stories that are relevant anywhere. It’s about two people who feel alone. And then for a while, they don’t, and that changes everything. Along the way it’s (hopefully) funny.

Why did you start making films?

It was either that or get a proper job. That’s a verbatim grandmother quote.

Have you been to SXSW before? Any tips? If not, what are you looking forward to?

Before we even wrote the film we were talking about wanting to bring it to SXSW. That sounds like bullshit but it isn’t. There’s not one moment we aren’t looking forward to.

Tell us a random fact (or two!) that would help our attendees get a better idea of who you are.

We were imprisoned in Bexar County Jail, San Antonio.
We spent every day for a month watching monkeys.
We have eight eyes and no I.

Click here to read more about Everyone's Going to Die

Fede Alvarez,
courtesy TriStarTell us a little about your film.

Evil Dead is a twisted reinterpretation of the 1981 horror classic. We set out to make the scariest, most suspenseful, violent, shameless, obscene, and relentless film we could possibly commit to film, without compromises, and I believe we did..

Why did you start making films?

When I was just seven years old, my dad got a VHS camera, and I don't know, right away I was shooting stuff, telling stories, making stop-motion movies with toys. Don't know why, I just couldn't help it I guess..

Have you been to SXSW before? Any tips? If not, what are you looking forward to?

I'm a SXSW virgin. I'm looking forward to premiering my first feature film in a full-house-theater, packed with an audience that really cares about this stuff. It's gonna be a dream come true. That, and visiting the Alamo Drafthouse...

Tell us a random fact (or two!) that would help our attendees get a better idea of who you are.

My favorite movie ever is Back to the Future, and I'm about to buy myself a DeLorean...

Click here to read more about Evil Dead