EP044 – SXSW Chaos Coordinator w/ Claudette Godfrey

03.12.2026 - Season: 1 Episode 44

If you ever wanted to get into the head of a premier festival programmer, this is your chance! Meet SXSW VP of Film & TV, Claudette Godfrey, a self-described Chaos Coordinator and all-around boss. Keith’s flyin’ solo while Ben’s off shooting commercials (allegedly) and you won’t want to miss the chance to walk & doc with Claudette today, on the 40th anniversary SXSW kickoff. An ADHD/OCD whirlwind of ideas and observations, Claudette is a trip—and she’s ready to talk all things SXSW and highlight this year’s best of the fest…

But first we’ll check-in on Claudette’s origin story: native Austinite, UT film student, SX intern in the Matt Dentler days, shorts programmer-extraordinaire under Janet Pierson, and now ascendant head of all things film & television at Austin’s far-reaching culture fest. She’s got intel to share—everything that’s different now that the fest is 7 days instead of 10. She breaks down what actually gets a short film into a festival (pro tip: make an animated or a doc short—there’s just a 0.4% acceptance rate for narrative), why docs are getting “more samey by the day,” and why the overnight success myth is a comfortable lie filmmakers have been telling themselves since the early days of Quentin Tarantino. All that in preparation for the main event as Claudette rapid-fires through the 2026 doc slate with obvious glee: Sea Monkeys, classified Bigfoot footage, penis injections, NDA whistleblowers, the world’s first extinct glacier, and a film about Kentucky weed farmers. Keith confesses he’s in development on seven projects and none of them are close to done, so it’ll be a few years before he’s submitting to the fest. But Claudette supports his idea of making a short…

Plus: thoughts on Ben’s role as Claudette’s film prof; shout out to Trey Edward Schults’ KRISHA and Jeremy Workman’s SECRET MALL APARTMENT; Johnny Cash & Beck & Janis Joplin all at Keith’s first SX (class of ’94); and cameos from future DocWalks guest Sarah Kuck and Pickles the dog!

This episode was sponsored by our good friends at Rambler Sparkling Water. A tasty limestone mineral blend with the perfect level of tight, crispy bubbles. Made in America and proudly supporting American Rivers. Ramble on.

DISCUSSION LINKS

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Introduction and circle of confusion 00:49 Meet Claudette Godfrey, VP of Film and TV at SXSW 02:42 Ben was Claudette’s TA in college 04:13 Why Claudette went producing track instead of directing 06:00 Pulp Fiction, Tarantino, and the dream of being discovered 08:00 Festival producer vs. film producer 09:30 SXSW 40th anniversary and what’s different this year 12:00 Seven days instead of ten, new badge structure 13:30 Claudette’s first SXSW memory: Janice Joplin and Emo’s, 1994 16:30 How SXSW has grown since the shed-in-a-backyard days 19:30 Keith’s mushroom Easter egg and the intern connection 22:00 Shorts programming: what actually gets in 28:00 Animated shorts, acceptance rates, and premiere strategy 30:00 What makes a great short film 33:00 Watch the films at the festivals you want to attend 35:00 Trey Edward Shults and the moment Claudette was bowled over 37:00 Features: docs are getting more samey 40:00 The myth of the overnight success (the Daniels) 43:00 The 2026 SXSW doc slate begins 44:00 SECRET MALL APARTMENT and patience in documentary filmmaking 45:00 MY BROTHER’S KILLER, AMAZING LIVE SEA MONKEYS, CAPTURING BIGFOOT 47:00 CORNBREAD MAFIA, DRIFT, MANHOOD, MY NDA 48:00 SUMMER OF ’94 and the AI DOC 50:00 TIME AND WATER, Sarah Dosa, and the survival of humanity 53:00 SUMMER 2000, THE LIFE WE LEAVE, THE DADS, THE LAST CRITIC 55:00 50% first-time filmmakers, the submission process myths 57:00 Film festival fit: not every great film belongs at every fest 58:00 Lightning round: gateway drug films 59:00 Francis, Pickles, and Keith’s seven projects in development 01:02:00 Outro and teaser for Holly Herrick episode

This seems like a lot of work to edit.

It's more work than it needs to be sometimes.

But we also, well, I've seen ones where y'all are, it's like three of y'all.

Yeah.

Unfortunately, Ben couldn't be here today because he's a little bitch sometimes.

Uh, he's off, he's off making the bacon.

Uh, he is off shooting commercials.

Cool.

For people who pay the bills.

Hey, that's what you gotta do when you're a filmmaker.

That's right.

Here's what we do.

We do a little high five.

Okay.

Super cool.

Yep.

We need to make a, hold on.

I need to look at you.

Yep.

All right.

Yeah.

And then what we do is we, I'm gonna do a quick, I walk around,

we call this circle of confusion.

Okay.

Circle of confusion.

And so at this point in the episode, we don't even know who we're here with.

Okay.

And that's one of my favorite things about these episodes

is like, how do we even start?

But how did they know?

'cause we smacked hands, we did smack hands.

So we're just like two high fiving bros.

Okay, bros. Who are we?

Who are we?

I'm Keith Maitland.

I'm Claudia Godfrey.

That's, I'm sorry.

Claudia Godfrey.

I'm sorry.

You were probably supposed to introduce me.

No, that's okay.

I'm glad that you introduced yourself.

I was standing right here in front of this iconic logo.

Yeah.

And I'm standing here next to this icon of American Film Festivities.

That's CLA Godfrey.

She's the vice president.

I know it sort of makes it confusing because it makes it sound like there's

like a head of the festival, but it's just a corporate, you know, like the

VP thing's a corporate thing, right?

So if the president dies, you're the president.

Well, yeah, for sure.

But also like I am the president of the film and TV festival because people are

always like, oh, so who's your boss?

And I'm like, I don't have one.

I do have one, but not for the film and TV part.

So Claudette Gotry, vice President of Film and TV for South by Southwest and

Film Festival programmer extraordinaire.

That's actually one of the craziest things.

Even at our filmmaker orientations.

We did one in New York and LA this past weekend.

The filmmakers are like, have you seen my film?

And I'm like, what do you think my job is?

Yes, I see all the films.

Yours in about a thousand others?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I do a bunch of other random stuff and so do a lot of other people watch them.

But yes, I definitely watch and program.

Yeah.

The feature films, of course you do.

Okay.

And then I watch all the shorts later, so because they're the best.

Thank you for being here.

Sorry Ben couldn't be here, but I am thrilled to be walking with

Pal Inspiration Mover and Shaker.

Way too busy to be giving us this hour of time today.

When you are seeing this, it is 20 kickoff, three days

till South by Southwest.

It is 23 days for Quad and Me.

In this temporal?

Yes.

Okay.

Great version of, just kidding.

Sorry.

But for you out there at home, so by Southwest is starting tonight?

Yeah, it's tonight.

It's tonight.

It's now.

I'm out there on the street.

Ready to rock, rocking and rolling with Claudia Godfrey.

Do, do, do, do two on your left.

You're listening to Doc Walks with Ben and Keith.

Should we The streets?

Yeah.

Wherever you want.

Nice.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um, but we could walk around.

I mean, I don't know about the vibes, but it's the, I think

if we walk over here it's good.

And then also the capital is literally one block away and it's very beautiful.

I think anybody manicured vibes are gonna be right.

Okay, great.

Well, I've never done this before and I did decide, uh, oh, there I am.

Um, I did decide that I'm not going to try and be the boss of this podcast

anymore as I was trying to do in there.

It's only because I hosted three events in the last week.

So I'm like, yes, let me get this going.

Okay.

So I'm gonna just enjoy this walk and outside time.

We're gonna go with some flow.

Let's do it.

But you're gonna bring plenty of flow.

I'm not worried about you can be the boss as much as you wanna be.

The world is yours.

That is what I've always felt.

I don't know Claudette.

Super.

Well, I've only seen her under festival settings when there are

lights and buzzers and starlets.

Is that true?

Yeah.

I don't feel like we've ever, we've never really hung out.

Well, I don't think we've ever got to hang out by herself, but you have to.

Must have seen me at some time when it wasn't the festival.

Oh, maybe you're too busy.

Maybe Ben's seen me.

'cause Ben was my ta.

Did he tell you that?

No, I didn't know that Ben was my TA in college.

Well see, now we're getting into the nitty gritty.

What was Ben like as a teacher?

You know, he was a good teacher, but I don't even know what

class he was my ta ta in.

'cause I don't really remember stuff from the past that well.

And also because I spent a very large portion of my college career at South

by Southwest offices and skipping class also, I just realized that everyone

wanted to be a director and there was hundreds and hundreds of people in

my grade or in, you know, my year.

Yeah.

And I was like, cool.

So that's not really a thing.

So I need to do, I'm gonna do something else.

Can we go to the neighborhood?

Let's do it.

Yeah.

Honestly, it's like what I tell filmmakers now where it's like, if you're not

passionate mm-hmm And you're not, or like, if you don't feel like I have

to tell this story, I have to do this, then you shouldn't be a filmmaker.

And if you can't hear no a million times than you shouldn't be a filmmaker.

I feel like intuitively I was like, cool.

I don't have whatever it is inside of me that all these dudes have that they are

like, I'm gonna be Quentin Tarantino.

So I was like, okay, well what am I interested in?

But I didn't have a movie to make.

I didn't feel that passion.

I'm like an organizer.

'cause half of my job is event planning.

Yeah.

So I'm, I was like a little more into that and so I went like the producing track.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

And then also I just started volunteering and interning and work at like.

It was south by, was my part-time job when I was in college.

So So you got swept into it very early.

Yeah.

And it was like, oh, this is for me, like, not only does this kind of have

a lot in common with producing and organizing and, 'cause like in high school

I was like class president and had to plan the prom and like shit like that.

So I was already kind of good at it.

And then I do love film so, and music and all the other stuff we do at South Bay.

There you go.

So it, we are tapping into a lot of it.

You fell into it.

So my freshman year at ut I was a, I was a double major English and film.

Oh, and you mentioned Tarantino Hope Fiction came out like

the moment I started college.

What, and what was that like?

I fucking hated it.

I, I, I didn't hate the movie.

I don't really have a problem with the movie Gay or na.

I've seen it twice in 1994 and I don't think I'll ever see it again.

What about Jackie Brown?

Yeah.

That, that was next.

Okay.

Uh, but Pulp Fiction just like so dominated.

The, uh, the discourse.

Yeah.

And it became, and like when you say like, all those dudes wanted to be Tarantino,

that was all anybody wanted to talk about.

Yeah.

And it still feels like it kind of still is that people are like thinking that

they're, you know, I mean, my job is just to be a dream crusher for most of

the people I interact with, but it does feel like there's, it's like a holding

on to that, like lost Eden of like, yeah.

You know, but like in the nineties and I'm like, yeah, that was 30 years ago.

You know, like, so I feel like it's still like a aspirational thing because it's

even like further away than it used to be.

I think that that part of it, you're totally right, like the, the indie

filmmaker's dream of being discovered.

Yeah.

Of kind of like being plucked off the pile, either in the submissions

to the festival or at the festival.

And your whole life changing overnight.

Yeah.

That's not real anymore.

It's only, it's only a handful of people.

Well, okay.

So you, you, but you, you brought it up.

You said you were kinda drawn to the producing side of things and I think

anybody who's ever planned a major party, anybody who has mapped a road trip and

put three people in a car together, fun.

Right.

Like, that's, those are the skills that it takes to be a producer.

Yeah.

Difference being a producer is a very hard job.

Bless the producers of this world.

That's right.

Double, double second and triple that.

What is the difference between being a producer and being a

festival producer and programmer?

I mean, in a, in a lot of ways it is the same.

Maybe it's like more of like a TV show than a film.

'cause it's like year by year.

It's like all the same thing.

Right.

Like South by Southwest.

But it's a new edition, so it is different, but it still has

to relate back to the last one.

You know, that sort of feels, um, like the vibe.

Yeah.

But honestly, I really don't know because I'm not a producer.

I'm just friends with a lot of producers.

Being a filmmaker is so hard.

Everyone, like new filmmakers, every year that I meet, they're like,

oh, are you gonna make a movie?

And I'm like, why would I ever do that?

Oh, this is acc.

I went to this campus for some summer school.

I also took classes here.

Now, I don't know if this is true, but I always think of this as the school that

they shot some of these and confused at.

Yeah.

But I don't know if that's accurate.

I think it is.

Alright.

But maybe not.

I have to ask Rick.

We'll ask him next time we see him.

We need to get him on the podcast.

Maybe you'll put enough call for us.

We can both call Holly.

Okay, good.

That's, that's definitely the first move.

So by Southwest is kicking off and it's a little different this year.

It's very different this year.

Give us some bullet points.

What is the, what's the main difference between, okay.

There's a lot.

Okay, so I'm gonna count 'em out 'cause I think there's at least six that I would

wanna tell you, especially if you've been to the festival before, like you have,

you know, it's kind of that thing where you're like, yeah, I know how this works.

I know how to do this, I'm ready to go.

The biggest thing is that we, they've gone back to the badge structure of your, okay.

So that means that if you have a music badge, you can only do music stuff.

If you have a film and TV badge, you can only do film and tv.

So the Platinum Badge is really the only badge that can access everything.

Um, also the convention center is torn down.

Did you know that the big hole in the ground down there?

Yeah.

Someone in Austin last night was like, I didn't know they tore it down.

I'm like, you should drive by there.

It's just a giant hole.

So they started tearing that down like right after South by last year.

Right.

So that's a difference.

So where's the action this year?

It's gonna be spread out over downtown, but it's kind of

gonna be in neighborhoods.

It's not that different for our part of the event, because we've always been

spread out because we're at different screening venues around downtown.

It's mostly different for the conference programming.

But for film and tv, that means all of our conference sessions

can come closer to the Paramount.

Okay.

And so we'll have kind of a little film and TV neighborhood that'll be,

um, the Paramount and the state and the street closure that we added a

couple years ago is now three blocks.

And right across from the Paramount is the film and TV clubhouse.

So that's kind of like a lounge spot with cool things happening in it.

That sounds like a fun place to go.

And then all of the sessions are in the Omni, which is right behind the Paramount.

So pretty much within like one New York City block, there's just a

lot more film and TV concentration.

Nice.

Yeah.

What else is.

It's only seven days.

Have you, have you figured that one out?

Normally 10, only seven days.

Normally 10.

Only seven.

And we're starting on a Thursday.

Never done that before.

So this is a Thursday, the first day of South by literally never in

the history of South by Southwest.

Um, but that's what normal other film festivals do.

Yeah.

A lot of fest.

So it works out, so it's Thursday to Wednesday, so on Wednesday when

we do our big film and TV awards and um, we'll have a wrap party

that night and that'll be the end.

This is the end.

And so then I get to go to sleep three days earlier.

So the awards used to always be on Tuesday?

Yes.

And then, but no, the last two years that they've been on Wednesday.

Ah, okay.

Yeah, so we could fit more stuff into the, I have a small kind of first part

child and he goes on spring break.

Of course he does.

During South by Southwest.

So I, and I'm doing it again this year.

I will be here for the first weekend and then kind of Monday

morning comes and we split town.

And so I'm gonna miss, it's only seven days, but for me South by is really

just Thursday through Sunday this year.

Yeah.

But that's already more than half.

I mean, I honestly, at, at my age, I'm pretty filled up by Sunday.

I feel that.

But you know, I got, I get to run on adrenaline by that point, which is good.

That's right.

And as much as you consider yourself a dream crusher and we're gonna get

to that crushing process for those seven days, you are a dream maker.

Yeah.

I don't know what it's like to be you.

'cause I, the biggest thing I can't wrap my head around.

I mean, a couple times a year I'll interview interns and I have the hardest

time I see something good in each and every person that comes in and sits down.

Yeah.

I mean, I see where, but it's not about good and bad.

Okay.

That's the difference.

There's a lot more things on the, on the menu.

And that's why I feel like for filmmakers, we always say like, one

festival saying no to you does not mean.

That your film is bad.

I'm gonna stop because I'd like to appreciate the world as we go by it.

Yeah.

I'm not sure what exactly is going on here with zz.

I love it.

But I feel like somebody took at least 22 minutes outta their day

to sparkle up this little drainage.

I wanna do that to my whole house.

Little disco ball.

Yeah.

And look at how good this tree is.

This is like a part of downtown where there's just such big beautiful oak trees.

We are in a weird part of kind of downtown adjacent where

we're approaching West Avenue.

We are somewhere in the low teens, we're just walking in the road

'cause we do whatever we want, making it up as we go along.

We used to buy weed from a house right down the street from here.

Well, right.

This is like varied in that mixed use stone.

Like there's like some like older houses that like some college kids live in

and then there's like, you know, the beautifully manicured historic homes.

So in addition to the changes to South by this year, it's

also a, uh, a celebrated Ann.

Yeah, it's the 40th anniversary of the festival, 40 years of South

by me and South by the same age.

Oh my God.

I mean, which happens every year, but it's a lot of fun to be right.

It's never gonna, because like I turned, uh, my birthday's in December and then

March is south by, so, um, it started like when I was three months old.

What'd you do for your birthday?

Have a dinner with some of my friends.

Alright.

I worked all day.

That's what I did.

That's totally fine.

I don't think, for me, because I kind of run hot, like have anxiety, A DH, DOCD.

Like I can't just be like, I'm done with work for the day and now I'm gonna be

relaxed and having a great relaxing time.

So I just had one, some of my friends had a dinner for me at their house.

'cause I was like, I don't wanna go to a loud place.

The countdown to south by means and from like right now in one week,

no one will care if I'm alive.

No one will want anything to from me.

No one will email me all day.

Like nothing will happen to me and I can just like kind

of disappear in about a week.

You get to exhale.

Yeah.

How long would best day of the year, how, how long will that exhale last before

next year's pressure begins to mount?

And when does it really come to a head?

I mean, the, the hardest zone is definitely August to February, like.

Doing the festival, because I've done it so many times, like

that's the easiest part to me.

And also like, I really thrive in the like, chaos.

I saw someone had a shirt the other day that said chaos coordinator,

and like, I want that shirt.

'cause I'm like, yeah, like if there's a problem we can solve it.

Like on site.

Like it's like when you're in it, you're in it.

Yeah.

And then, but you know, we talk about it all the time.

We're like, do we even like movies?

And then that night one of us will see something and be like,

you gotta watch this right now.

You know?

Like it's, and we have to just remind ourselves of that when you're in the

watching six or 10 films every single day that that's just part of it.

And then you know, you're getting some, you're actually getting somewhere.

Yeah.

But I mean, I already had some meetings about 2017 right now.

So parts of the company are, you know, they're already prepped for

what they're doing on site and then they're gonna be like, they're

already doing stuff for 2027.

So that then two weeks after the festival, we can.

Execute and have that stuff moving forward.

Yeah, it's changed a lot since I first started, for sure.

Well, when did you first start?

Well, I first started, I worked for Matt Dentler and Jason Tobias, who was the

person that hired me for my first gig.

I was too young to be an intern, so I was the volunteer manager for film

traffic, which was what we used to have to do whenever everything was

actually physical media shipping.

So it was a lot of like filling out custom forms and being like, I hope that this

film print makes it to that other country.

But next week, you know, like it made me have tons of anxiety.

And then just making sure the films like look good, doing tech checks during the

festival, dealing with any projectionist issues that came up, that kind of thing.

And then, so when is that?

The next year I was old enough.

Yeah.

When?

When was that though?

Oh, Matt Dentler 2025.

No, no.

That's, that's last year.

That was just a couple months ago?

Um, no, 2005.

2005? Yeah.

Alright.

2005, 2006. 'cause I graduated from college in 2008 and I had

done three seasons for South by.

So you were already in it.

Um, so and was that, tell me about your very first South by Southwest.

No Orleans.

Your knowledge of South By is like moving to Austin or proceeded

moving to Austin or tell me.

Oh, well I'm from Austin.

You think I would know these things?

My whole entire family lives about, within a 30 minute radius of where we are now,

except for one, my best friend's, um, mom, my second mom, she lives in Spicewood, so

she's more like 45 minutes away way there.

Closer and closer every day.

Yeah.

Um, okay, so you grew up in Austin.

So you grew up literally, like you said, south by three months after you were born.

It's been a lifelong.

So what is your earliest memory of the concept of Sapphire or

your first connection to it?

I don't know.

I mean, for me, I kind of grew up, everyone in all of my family and

extended friends and family were like a little bit more music people.

Yeah.

And my, uh, Spicewood mom, she worked at the local radio station when I

was a kid, you know, radio stations.

And they still do this, they do the preview screenings of films.

They like work with studios.

Right.

And she would drive home from work, pick us up and drive back and take us to those.

Oh, that's super fun.

So we just went to like tons and tons of these like preview screenings in town.

And she also got tickets to all the stuff that, 'cause uh, back in the day, if you

didn't go to the radio station and pick up your stuff, then they sort of, it's

like, who that works here wants this?

So like, we got tickets to go to Backstreet Boys and Disney

on Ice and like all this stuff we could have never afforded.

So we were kind of like, and her mom still, like, number one person

of my family that's gonna use a badge during South by is Mary Kay.

So, well she, she used to gave you the hookup.

Now she's talking.

Yeah.

I mean, I think it just gave me the bug.

Yeah.

It was like, oh, this is cool.

I came down here my senior year of high school spring break.

Yeah.

Knew I was gonna go to ut. Where did you live?

Where did you come from?

North of Dallas and play.

Oh, okay.

Texas.

Yeah.

Just up the road.

Three hours.

And I knew I was gonna come to UT for, for school, but I had

actually never been to Austin.

Yeah.

And, uh, came down for spring break for, for to experience south

by the, the wristband was $65.

Oh yeah.

Music wristband or filmer spin, uh, was no filmers band.

Yeah.

1994. It was the year before film began, but I think they were testing the waters.

There was a slate.

Of a handful of music documentaries and music shows that they be putting on.

And I went to a screening the year before the film festival started of a movie

that was so deeply impactful to me.

I only saw it the one time, what was it?

It was called Janice Joplin Slept Here.

Cool.

I gotta watch it.

And it is a local, local, local, like VHS camera documentary that basically

outlined the year of Janice's life.

After she was at ut. After she left, she became world famous and then she got

overwhelmed by the fame and she came back to Austin for a year and she couch surfed.

Okay.

And basically it was just like interviews with old hippies who were

like, yep, Janice slept on my couch.

Yeah.

All she stole 50 bucks one night.

Austin, this movie sounds so Austin vibe.

It, it's so, and like it was my very first night in Austin.

I, to be honest with you, I was kind of mad.

I wanted to go to NY.

Oh.

And, uh, and I, I settled for UT without ever having been here.

Yeah.

And all of a sudden I got here my first night in, in Austin is south

by Southwest, like huge blowout.

Yeah.

And then I got this introduction to like a little bit of old

Austin, like South Austin history.

Yeah.

Through these old hippies.

And then that's the night that, uh, Beck and Johnny Cash played at at Emos.

Nice.

We could not get in Holy Emos.

But, uh, that's my South by, uh, that's so special.

And it is special to me.

I love that.

Yeah.

I've made four feature films, four featured docs, and

they've all played south by.

Yeah.

And so I'm, I feel like a part You are part of it, but it is, it is

such a big thing that there's not, but the, it's, it's for everybody.

Yeah.

But the big thing only exists because all of the people in the

community that are a part of it.

That's right.

Like if, if we didn't have all of our filmmakers and.

Artists and all the speakers and all of the people that come and

have the experience and then get to carry it with them and tell other

people about it or meet their next collaborators and, you know, have get

that inspiration to kind of keep going.

Like it wouldn't exist.

Yeah.

Like to me, that is what it is.

'cause they're in the South by Filmmakers Club.

It's a nice club.

Now I'm forever, baby.

I, you can't, can't kick me out if you tried.

I do wanna know how have things changed?

South Bys ownership has shifted.

There is more of a corporate structure than there ever was.

Yes.

We met in a very fancy building with a fancy lobby with, we did

a nice coffee shop in the lobby.

I think it's a long way from Janice Joplin slipped here in 1994.

Yes.

To where we are now.

But you've been here for so much of it.

Yeah.

Tell me what it's like and what have you seen and Well, it's definitely bigger.

I mean, 'cause when I started and when you first came, it's like.

You couldn't really have known about it that much.

It was before everyone had a camera, before the democratization of media,

before social media, like all of that.

Even when I started, it was like before iPhones came out.

Yeah.

So I think all events all over the world got, you know, a huge boost

from all of those things happening.

Sure.

The world's much smaller.

We're so once, you know, right.

Yeah.

So the FOMO began and so more people knew about it.

More people could come.

When I first started my um, desk was in a shed in a backyard.

Okay.

Which is like the original You at the backyard or No, no, it was at

the original South by offices were upright by the HEB on Hancock.

Oh, by the Chronicle, right?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Next door of the Chronicle office.

We were there for many years and when I started, I think I was like.

Maybe like the 35th or 40th employee.

It was before we had a handbooks because you have to have handbooks

once you have 50 employees.

Oh, that's good to know.

So we did not have that.

And now the company's grown.

I think there's over a hundred full-time employees now.

So you have to have two handbooks.

It's definitely longer than the one page that we got when we started, you know?

But we didn't have any of that structure because it was started by kids in Austin

who wanted to have cool shit here.

And they're like, let's do it.

You know?

It wasn't like we're setting up this business.

It was like, let's try to figure this out.

And they did.

And I think the passionate part of it is what, you know, helped

it grow into what it's become.

Um, but yeah, then we had another office and because we didn't have

any more room, 'cause we rented another house in that neighborhood.

And like had these little houses all in the neighborhood together.

Ooh, what's this place?

I was curious about this too.

We're walking past a Texas historical commission.

I have to tell you, Claudette, you know, we're walking around with

these little cameras in our hand and uh, it's good to use them and

show the world what we're doing.

But some portion of our audience, maybe even a large portion of

our audience is just listening.

'cause yeah, I love that.

It's not just a podcast.

I like both.

So let's describe what we're looking at here.

What interrupted your flow was the big Texas Yeah.

Official historical.

And then it has that Texas historical and it says it's an Austin landmark.

It's both.

This Italian renaissance revival style home was designed in 1920 by architect

Edwin c Kreel for the family of prominent Austin Merchant John Williams Scarborough.

Mm. Scarborough and his wife Cornelia resided in a home till

their deaths in 1960 and 74.

The two story stucco house features a slight shingle roof, deep overhanging

cornice, and an arch pediment.

Oh, over the front entry, dramatic iron gates.

That's what we're looking at.

And Railings by Austin's Weigel.

Iron Works home of, I think barbecue now.

Mm-hmm.

Are also outstanding focal points of the home.

Okay.

So it's in a historic home because it's old and rich people live there.

So rich people lived there, but we don't know them.

Uh, a little bit of my history, that's the ana apartment complex across the street,

and the first time I took mushrooms was in that apartment called Nice 1995.

I wonder who you knew that lived there.

Uh, I'm not gonna name names, although I will tell you the person who lived there,

his daughter is now interning for me.

Oh, that's my God.

That's how this world works.

It's very strange.

I love that.

That's a little Easter egg.

Yeah.

Well, thankfully she doesn't listen to the podcast.

Oh, she doesn't listen to your podcasts?

I don't think the interns listen.

That's, well, I didn't mean make them.

Aren't they curious?

Well, is they're interning somewhere like that.

Tell you what, if any of the Go Valley interns are listening, let me know.

Whenever I wasn't intern, I was just trying to get my hands on

any of those DVDs and be part of the programming process.

Nice.

Well that's how you get, that's why you were, that's why Rocket

Ship to Success they there.

Yeah.

A 20 year rocket ship.

So you started in the Matt Dentler days?

I did, yeah.

And I became aware of you during the Janet Pearson days.

Yes.

You were at that point in charge of all the shorts programming.

Yeah, though I was when I was the festival coordinator.

Okay.

So I was in charge of all the DVDs.

I packed up all the last VHS when I came back to work full time.

'cause I left school early and went to work at ceg, which is a festival

that had a great 11 year run.

And I worked there for six months.

I left school early and I had to like fly back for graduation.

'cause all my teachers, like you got our actual job at an actual film thing.

You should go do that.

You should go for it.

That's right.

Like one of my teachers was like a really basic class.

He was like write one page paper.

And then one of my teachers was John Pearson and he is

like, whatever you can go.

That was the summer that Matt left to go to Synetic and Janet took over.

I had a nice summer off that year and then came back and worked full-time since then.

Do it again.

There you go.

When you were to the shorts programmer, how many shorts were you watching?

How many were coming?

So many.

Yeah.

So many.

Um, I was averaging like 1500 shorts a year for the, from the

database where I wrote things down.

Mm-hmm.

I didn't track anything else that I was watching.

Um, so yeah, a lot of every kind, those are the craziest dreams you'll ever have.

If you watch a bunch of shorts or watch like 50 music videos in a day, then

your dreams are like fucking amazing.

It's like every idea that's ever occurred in the world with a great

soundtrack is all happening in your mind.

Well, let's talk about shorts because our, we have this dream, Ben and

I, that the people who are watching or listening to this podcast are

emerging filmmakers and they are trying to figure out how to make it.

There's a little squirrel up my shoulder.

Oh.

Hi, buddy.

He's right there.

How are you?

He's good.

Bye.

Bye, buddy.

Um, and, uh, I hope that people watching us are thinking about making

a short, they're planning to make a short, they just made a short, they're,

they're, they got shorts on the brain.

But I am also gonna tell you selfishly, I am asking this because

I am thinking about making a scripted short for the first time.

Awesome.

I've been making docs for 20 plus years.

Yeah.

And, and I have a couple ideas for a couple scripted shorts, but

I don't really understand shorts.

I don't really know.

Yeah.

You mean like, what's the goal?

What's the goal?

What's the difference?

What are the rules?

How do you do it?

Like, well, there are less rules.

It can definitely be more crazy.

Mm-hmm.

Um, 'cause it's smaller investment.

But if I was gonna ever make a short film, it's like, number one, who is this for?

Like who's the audience?

I think for this applies for all films, was like, who's the audience?

And then what's the.

Like, where are you trying to take it?

And kind of, I think with every film now you have to be already kind of

like making a strategy from the outset.

And probably the biggest one, which also goes for features as well, is like when

you're starting, when you're done and you are submitting to festival, start with

the festival you wanna go to the most.

If you wanna go to South by, start with that.

If you wanna go to Cannes, start with that because you wanna, your

premier makes your film more exciting.

And so don't go to like five regional festivals and then try

to go to a Cannes, you know?

Not possible.

Yes.

That's not possible.

Look at this artwork.

Talk about it.

I've never seen it.

It's like pixels, it's tile, I think.

Yeah, I never seen this.

Okay, we were talking about shorts and what makes it, oh yeah,

what, what makes a good short?

Okay, so what makes a good short is that you're, you need to be making a short.

A lot of people make a proof of concept for a feature.

Yeah.

And it's not a complete story.

It's like it ends up being like a little, like a teaser.

Yeah.

Where a long kind of trailer vibe like a lot.

So I think you gotta be putting a button on it, you know, it has

to like have a complete story.

And I think it's like utilizing the medium.

I mean a lot of people will make a short that's 40 minutes long.

It's like nah, that's not really what a short's for.

That's alum.

Um, yes, there's a lot of longs everywhere.

And also it makes it harder for your film to get into festivals because when

you're programming at a festival like ours, you have a 90 minute program.

How many films can you fit in?

If you give a 40 minute film a slot, then that means that you know, five

other films aren't gonna make it in.

Right.

Also, there's something very satisfying about watching something

that's like three minutes that like.

Hits makes you laugh and like really utilizes the short form.

But a lot of people aren't doing that.

They're like, this is my pilot episode of my 40 minute drama.

And you know, that's less fun to me.

To me, also hack, if you wanna get your best odds to get into a

festival, make a animated short.

Oh.

Because way fewer people do that 'cause it's way harder than documentary short.

And then by far, narrative short is the most competitive.

I think we probably accept like 0.4% of the shorts that are narrative that

apply the biggest submission category.

Everywhere you voted, we vote We're voters.

Thank you.

Thanks for what you're doing.

Love it.

You too.

You better have voted.

Oh, you better vote him.

I'm like a baby.

I'm like, hello?

You know, like, I dunno.

Um, yeah, you were holding that camera very close to your face.

I know.

I was doing it on purpose.

Like I was doing, I was acting like a baby also.

My arm's tie it.

I'm a baby, remember?

I do.

Okay.

They definitely just painted this.

It's so fresh.

Um, one of the things I do love to see in my life is fresh paint on a

sidewalk or fresh paint on a road.

You know, I think it's very tricky for filmmakers to try to understand

what makes the cut for a festival.

The best thing that you can do to sort of get your brain wrapped around it is to

watch the films that are at the festivals where you want your project to be.

The number of people who make short films that don't watch

any short films is tremendous.

And if you wanna be good at doing something, you probably, I mean, maybe

not always, you know, if you're a painter and that kind of thing or whatever you

like, don't look at anyone else's art.

But for a festival, if you wanna understand what their taste is,

the festival is saying, oh, we like bold voices and a director's

vision and things that are unique.

And you know, it's an opinion based art form.

So like it's very hard to say what you're looking for because we.

Aren't looking for anything.

We're just looking for shit we love.

And so like how do you define that?

It's not, that's not a very easy thing to do, but I feel like when people go and

watch, and like for our festival on Vimeo, we have like every single year of shorts,

at least for 10 or 15 years on there, where it's like they're all together.

Like here's all the animated shorts from 2010, you can go watch.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yep.

And when they go online, we add them into that, and then every year we do that.

So it's like a big archive.

So when people are like, what kind of movies do you play?

We're like, here's a link.

Um, but I think there's a little bit of like laziness, um, and

also entitlement, you know?

Yeah.

Well, speaking as a lazy, entitled filmmaker.

Yeah, you gotta watch some of 'em.

Sometimes.

It's also just ignorance.

I did not know that these shorts were all available on Vimeo.

You didn't know that you could watch short films that had been

at festivals on the internet.

Tell me more about this internet.

So you gotta make the film that you wanna make.

So I'm not saying go watch those things and then be like, I'm gonna

make a movie that will fit into that.

It's more that it just will help you to wrap your brain around it,

because it's like festivals aren't just like, we play good movies.

Like every single festival has different personality and taste and goal because

it's all just humans watching shit and being like, do I love this?

And I wanna show it to hundreds of people.

Just people with their eyelids taped open, watching 10 movies a day.

Yeah, it's like clockwork.

Orange vibes.

Yeah.

Uh, but you don't have to tape them open when you see something that's amazing.

It doesn't matter what time it is or if it's the 10th movie you watched,

I'm still like, oh, you know, like tell me about a moment forward.

Like you remember over the last.

15, 20 years.

A, a moment that you were bowled over by a, a, a new voice or a fresh title or

whenever Trey Schultz short, uh, Recia.

Yeah.

The short before he made the feature.

That was when I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, this, this, I love this.

This is different.

You know?

That's our goal is to have people who are creative in that way, that

then gets to come to the festival and get, find support to make their next

movie and to, you know, keep it going.

'cause it's hard to make movies.

Listen to that annoying sound.

All right.

Switching gears from shorts to features.

Yeah.

Also, shorts.

Filmmakers are the purest, sweetest little babies in the world.

We love you when someone's coming to a festival for the very

first time with their very first thing, like, it's just special.

It's really special.

And I love all filmmakers 'cause I'm just a nerd.

Well, you've been there.

Oh, I was gonna say Daniels the overnight success thing.

Yeah.

Is that it's like people really love a story like that because it sounds sexy.

Everything everywhere.

Sexy.

Yeah.

It sounds so sexy, right?

Yeah.

Like, oh yeah, they just did that.

But before that, they were making like fuck loads of music videos

and really weird short films.

And every single one of their things they ever made, they tried like a new weird

technique in, and they were working with cool artists and great music and like,

you know, I always just try to tell people about expectations because I feel

like the narrative of things is a lie.

What I'm getting outta this whole conversation is the business of film

festivals is very serious business, and then you have to stay stoic.

And focused and serious all the time.

There's no room.

Definitely no room for fun.

That's my whole life.

Very serious' known balls.

I'm known for being serious.

Yeah, we have so many good comedies this year.

Uh, I'm excited for everybody to see everything.

Well, tell me about this year.

What are you, what are you excited about?

Most everything.

They're all my babies because they're, you know, like how we

watching thousands of movies to get to this little 110 things, you know?

Is that where we ended up at?

110 features?

I don't know.

I'd have to ask someone else.

Yeah, because like yesterday, I think we got added a little, another one thing,

you know, stuck somewhere in there.

Look, if we can find a little spot in a theater that somebody wants to put

their movie in, we will do it also.

'cause like, look, no one else in the business is gonna watch

600 features in four months.

Like, this is like a very specialty skill.

And actually that is the most important skill to be a programmer, to be able to

keep watching because it's not the same as watching like your favorite show all day.

No, because you can fall asleep, you can go get a snack.

You can like be not paying attention because you, you don't have to like,

have an intelligent conversation with a group of other people about it

later, which is what we have to do.

You know?

So it's like, it's like a different brain mode to be working and paying attention.

And consuming at that, like volume is very hard to do.

Let's talk about features.

Yeah, we talked about shorts.

Yeah.

I wanna talk about documentaries.

This is a show.

Okay.

Yeah.

Let's talk about it.

We're walking.

The name of the show is Doc Walks.

We are doc walking.

We have done that much docking.

You really didn't keep this conversation on track.

I really didn't.

I I barely tried, but I kind of knew coming into this that this was

Claudette's world and I was going to let you, he was just trying to

get shit for his own short film.

Well, I'm trying, yeah.

I'm trying to get a, get a word in for next year's.

Yeah.

Uh, short programming and also just enjoy, just enjoy the manhar

as it flows in every direction.

That's just how I am.

Yeah, I know that.

But talk to me about the docs that you're excited about and what

goes into programming a great doc.

Um, a great doc, well, I'll say this.

Docs are getting more sainty by the day Uhoh.

Um, which is disappointing.

It's totally, because we have always played a lot of like really weird docs.

Uhhuh a lot of stuff that's like character driven.

Like in more of like an offbeat way.

Like stuff that feels like pretty oy.

Mm-hmm.

I gotta pull my list up 'cause I don't have a good brain for titles.

Also, so many films change their titles.

That's a great piece of advice.

You better have a title before your film gets announced at a festival.

Otherwise, your film is always gonna be known by the wrong title.

It's lost in the mix.

Uh, but I just wanna go back.

As you're looking at your list here, docs are getting more samey by the day.

Yes.

This is my biggest complaint.

Mm-hmm.

As a doc maker and as somebody who wants to support and cheerlead for docs, uh, doc

makers and wants to feel inspired every day as I go and, and beat my head against

the wall of trying to make more docs.

But docs are getting moresy by the day, partially because that's what

the exhibitors and the distributors are, are demanding of us, even though

they'll say the opposite of that.

What do you think it is?

I don't know.

I mean, yes, of course people wanna make something that's,

someone's gonna give them money for.

But that's not really what art's about, but that is what

about a surviving's about?

So that's okay.

It's a lady with a full-time job.

Um, I will say I do have a full-time job.

What do you mean?

I don't make art?

I know, that's what I'm saying.

It's one thing to Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, I, I, no, no, you gotta do both.

You gotta, yeah.

You gotta, well, you've gotta figure out.

Yeah.

I mean, this is, and I, I don't mean that as a dig, but I do mean that

for our audience, like we, you know, I'm on the phone all the time with

development execs and creative execs, and I'm very fortunate to be able

to get into rooms and get onto calls and pitch my, my, my ideas to people.

But it's not lost on me that the people that I'm pitching to often who say, let me

think about it, and then take three or six or nine weeks to get back to me mm-hmm.

Are drawing a paycheck every week.

Mm-hmm.

That they're waiting to get back to me.

Yeah.

A hundred percent.

And you're not, no, never.

Well, honestly, I was thinking about the other day about how like, um.

You know, making a film, it takes so many people, it takes so much

time, it takes so much money.

You know, like if you're a painter, you can have like a regular job.

Right.

Um, and like if you're an artist, you can like get a record contract.

And I'm like, why?

Yeah.

Um, you can get more, you can like, like that's like a sustaining system,

even though, I'm not saying that's not fucked up and broken too, but like

how crazy is it that that's, it's just like everyone go try to make movies.

'cause you really can't be phenomenal at making movies if you're having to

work an 80 hour week job like I do.

You know, I, I can't imagine what that's like and I I never tried that.

Yeah.

Like I hired, decided a long time ago that that couldn't be the life for me.

And uh, and so it's not, but I way late us you were about to talk to us about,

we were talking about the savings.

No, but you're right.

Well, you're right.

But I think it's more, it's just like, it's more like Yes, that's true, but like.

The world cannot be like, filmmaking is not an assembly line.

That's what it feels like a little bit where it's like there's

some great editor who edited a couple of these like most popular

documentaries from the last five years.

And then now he's selling his timeline and uh, or his services or her services to

just drop in your footage into his proven television streaming documentary timeline.

Just plug it in and then it's done.

Yeah.

I'm not saying that I don't like those things, but I also feel like, you

know, there's a couple things in our program that are like, not that if they

could have been that like, uh, one of 'em, they just changed their title.

It's called My Brother's Killer.

Yeah.

And this is a doc about a person in West Hollywood who was murdered and

all these people from the L-G-B-T-Q.

Community, like all come together to try to solve it and they do.

Oh, so it is like true crime.

Yeah.

But the way it's done is unique and different and has like a different

lens than most of the other things that are all very samey.

Yeah.

We're always looking for like stuff that's, eccentric isn't even really

the right word, but it's not just plug and play because that sounds boring.

One of the other ones that was coming to my mind is this amazing film

about the, it's called Amazing Life Sea Monkeys, you know, see Monkeys.

Uh, I remember the little ads in the back of magazines.

Uhhuh.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's about the guy who made them.

Okay.

And he's passed away and his wife who is like maintaining the legacy.

But also a lot of other crazy, crazy shit happened and all this

different historical context and like, what is legacy, what is truth?

All of that stuff.

It has more to say.

It's got like gray gardens vibes.

Okay.

Talking about nature.

So that's very interesting to me.

Legacy monkeys.

Yeah, there's a lot of stuff.

What other kind of, what's your kind of favorite documentary, um, zone.

Do you have one for me?

When people are like, what's your favorite kind of movie?

I'm like, yeah.

Now it's literally all movies.

Same.

Uh, but I will say like, I've had wonderful, incredible documentary

experiences at South by two years.

I mean, one that, uh, I'm really hoping to track down the filmmakers.

Did you wanna go on this alley?

I feel like you you looked a little curious.

I I I am ally curious.

Yeah.

One of your friends.

He became a friend of mine.

Oh.

'cause how much I love the film is, uh, Jeremy Workman's Secret

Mall apartment about two years ago.

Such a great movie.

And like, to me, I love that movie.

I love it because it's, it's playful.

That's the kind of shit where it's like, I don't even know

how documentary filmmakers.

Can do anything that they're doing.

You have to have so much patience to find the right story.

I think that's the thing too.

A lot of people are trying to make a documentary like In and Out and

it's like, yeah, but it sort of seems like you're gonna need whatever

happens in that court case that you didn't wait for it to be finished.

Yeah.

Or whatever.

Um, but Secret Mall apartment, I mean like what a gift, like that movie could

never exist if these people from the past didn't just happen to capture all

of the shit and then save it and keep it and, and have this ethos that they

didn't want to commodify it, they didn't wanna turn it into something Yeah.

Bad.

And yet then be open to Jeremy coming in and saying, Hey, I'm not gonna commodify

it, but I am gonna, you know, rework it and package it in a way that I can tell

this story and people can be invited into.

The message behind the art that you made all these years ago.

Yeah.

And that message really stuck with me.

Do you want me to tell you about more documentaries as fast I can.

Yeah.

Just gimme me, gimme, I was gonna say, gimme one more.

Uh, good.

Exciting.

Only one.

I'm gonna give you more than one.

Let's do it.

Okay.

We playing a film called Capturing Big Foot.

You know the, the, the like most famous big, big foot footage we all know?

Yes.

And it's been locked away for 50 years.

And this film is gonna make headlines.

Alright.

There's new discoveries.

I see a trend here.

Last year you had an age of disclosure this year capturing

Bigfoot age of disclosure.

Whew.

I love that.

Did you see Obama talking about how I did?

Aliens were real.

There is a film we're playing called Cornbread Mafia about like these, like

zany dudes who, um, were like the Kentucky farmers who got into like, growing

weed and became like huge domestic, maybe the largest domestic producer

of marijuana in the United States.

So it's like a little true, true crime, but also hilarious.

Um, that's really fun.

One.

Oh drift.

I'm really excited about this movie.

Tell me about that.

If you don't like Heights, this movie's not for you.

Uh, um, it's about an artist.

His artist's name is Drift, where he is like a photographer that climbs to

the highest, highest, highest thing.

So it's kind of like, um, we played a documentary last year called

Store about, uh, parkour Group.

Okay.

But the photography, and this is insane because he literally goes

to the craziest, highest, highest, highest things and takes photos.

It's really beautiful.

But also like, what's freedom mean?

I think that's the thing I am always looking for from a documentary is like

how it's having like a larger relationship to the conversation of the world.

An ethos or a philosophy.

Yeah.

I got bombed at Harvey's.

Tell me more.

A thousand pounds of dynamite.

Basically.

Let's sit here.

Um, okay, great.

We're done walking.

Sometimes you need a break.

Oh yeah.

Okay.

Sometimes I do need a break.

One casino at the edge of disaster.

That's the log line.

I'll give you a break.

Really?

Yeah.

Oh, why?

'cause I was doing such a bad job.

Oh, you're doing a great job.

Oh, you're looking at your phone and I want to get a Yeah.

Focus on your list.

Yeah.

Okay.

Oh my god.

Manhood.

This is like a movie we could not stop talking about.

Do you know what this is?

This, this is the penis injection movie?

Yeah.

Okay.

But the people who are getting penis injections are not

the people that you expect.

So there's like something about it where I like really respect all these people for

being participants in this documentary.

Yeah.

And it's so much in this like psychology 'cause it's not like the same as

like if you get breast implants, like people can see that, right?

So there's people that are doing this and like, it's just for them, you know?

And it's just also terrifying 'cause there's kind of like, it's in that

zone of like, there's some really bad people that were doing things.

Who's that filmmaker?

It's Daniel Lombroso.

Okay.

He is, I wanna say it's his first feature, but maybe he made a short that we played.

Okay.

Um, I'm sorry, I should know everything, but my brain doesn't do that anymore.

Ooh.

My NDA.

This is all about the, like, overuse of NDAs in corporate America and,

and every job in the world and how it's like a misuse of the law around

NDAs and then a bunch of people all break their NDAs and kind of like

what happens and like the ways that, that's like being used to abuse people.

Summer of 94.

I didn't know this.

Did you know this?

The World Cup team in 94 JVC gave them cameras.

All of them a camera.

Wow.

And this is all the footage that they took was made into the psych,

behind the scenes documentary.

And also 'cause back then, you know, like US soccer was just Yeah.

Becoming the nineties was like, soccer is a thing in America.

Alexi Lawless.

Yeah.

It was, it's a thing.

Oh, we're playing the, uh, the AI doc, the, um, documentary that is directed

by Daniel Rohr, the director of Navalny.

Yeah.

Um, and he is co-directing with a first time feature director who's an animator

that we've played a lot of his films.

Charlie Tyrell and Daniel Kwan is one of the producers of this.

Okay.

So this is probably the most interesting AI documentary or kind of comment on

AI I've seen in a really long time.

It's not trying to make any point, it's just, it's explaining the

different things that can happen.

But it has every.

A person who's the boss of an AI company except for Elon and Zuckerberg,

but everyone else is in there.

Sam Altman's in there.

Yeah.

Like everybody.

And they all have different points of view.

So it's really interesting to hear from them about like, it's like a, it

like the tech, there's like a techno optimist, people like AI optimists,

and then there are the people who are like the doomsdayers of ai.

And what's your ego though?

I don't think it matters.

I think I'm like, I've come to this place and I did, okay, this is a movie, this

is the movie that made me think this.

And we're playing this film.

It was at Sundance.

It's called Time and Water.

It's Sarah Do's new doc.

Yes.

We're trying to meet Sarah Dos, um, trying to get her out on a walk.

It's literally like, I couldn't watch anything else for like

24 hours after I watched it.

And it made me feel like, or like maybe I finally have this

like bigger understanding of like, why do we think that?

Humanity should survive forever.

Nothing else has ever survived forever.

And maybe that's okay.

You know, it's like really makes a lot of big, it's brings up a lot of big ideas

and thoughts, but is couched through the idea of the first glacier that

has gone extinct, that's fully gone.

Um, and through the eyes of someone who's, you know, involved with it and

just having a family, which the AI doc is also that way 'cause Daniel's

just now, he's like having a kid and he is like, what does the future hold?

Yeah.

And some of those people are like, your kid will never grow up.

And some of those people are like, we could live in a dream world.

And I think it's impossible to know.

So I think it's, I'm sort of like in a place where I'm like,

we have control of nothing.

Every day is a new day and I'm just riding the ride.

I don't think I have an investment in the survival of humanity.

Or the decline of humanity.

I think I used to think like I'm a badass.

I'm from Texas.

I definitely have so many survival skills.

I got so much stuff to keep me alive, and I don't think I care about that.

Like, I'm sort of like, like if, if it comes, I'm like, just hit my house first.

I, I'm too tired to rebuild all of society and I already did a lot of

building, you know, like I South by, went from 10 days to seven days.

I see where you're trending South by is really a culture festival.

If you wanted to do music too, the commitment of staying somewhere

for 10 days is almost impossible.

Now, here we gotta plan.

Now that get get you back to work.

He said that I can't, I can't talk anymore.

You've been talking up a storm.

We're gonna walk.

I got fired ourselves over to your office.

What about all this nostalgic mo, nostalgic movies?

More movies, the nostalgic movies.

Tell me more movies.

Summer 2000.

Oh, this is a documentary about, do you know, et cetera.

Okay, well you're gonna find out about it.

Okay.

Um, it's an amazing band of teenagers who are like making their own videos at

their house and making their own music.

And then it went on the internet and it got viral, but they're old adults now.

That's probably like a really, really bad, um, description of that.

But that film is a blast.

Ooh.

The life we leave First time documentary director, and this is about a place

that's building to be a place where you can, like compost yourself, you know, and

it's about the people that work there.

And it's like very, very cool.

Like, it's like just starting as a business Okay.

Is very cool.

Um, if you have interest in that kind of thing.

The life we leave.

Isn't that a good title?

Yeah.

There's so much stuff on here.

Oh yeah.

We have a doc about the shags, you know, the shags, the band.

Yeah.

I don't know that much about 'em.

I can see that.

Well, you can find out.

They're really cool and it's all about their history.

There's a really great doc that we're playing called the Dads.

It's a bunch of dads who have children who are trans and it's very, um, a

lot of vulnerability from older dudes, which is, feels very unique and just

also shows how people love their kids.

That's cool.

Right?

I'm a dad.

I love my kids.

You do?

I have one kid, but I love him.

Yeah.

I love everyone I know is kids that I know.

There's a real life superhero in there.

Phoenix Jones.

Oh yeah.

Have you heard of him?

Yes.

Just a documentary all about him that he is a very active

participant and I love these movies.

The last Critic.

Yes.

You know this guy Robert Christ.

Yeah.

I'm excited and I know the producers of that film.

He's so cool.

Paul Love Lace and Ben Woo.

Fucking love him.

Yeah, I love this guy.

And is Chris Cow coming?

I think so.

He must be the man with the Big hat.

That's about, about Steven Fmul movie.

Yeah.

Um, matter of fact, I got a call from him just the other day saying, we just got in.

They were a late edition.

It, it sounds like it's not a late edition.

People look, people wanna make up so much shit.

Oh well I got in 'cause I submitted on the first day I got in 'cause

I submitted on the last day.

To be clear, he wasn't making up anything.

None of this shit is true.

All of the things people tell themselves about a festival are just

things to make themselves feel better about not making it in, but also

we are just really communicative.

So I think that's surprising for filmmakers 'cause a lot of festivals

aren't like, where it's like before Christmas, we tell everybody who's still

in play that they're still in play and we tell all the Sundance filmmakers,

congratulations, you're still in play.

That's the last section we program.

It's just, it takes a long time to give everything really great

consideration, which is what we try to do.

Yeah.

It sounds like there is like a never ending flow of new material that you

guys are introducing the world to.

We're championing.

Yeah.

We're kind of like shining a light.

That's our job.

Yeah.

It's discovery.

We still are programming like 50% first time filmmakers in the futures.

Well, that, that actually gets, that's exciting for me.

50% of your films are first time filmmakers our first time.

And how many of you think are people that come in like just purely on

the, well, everyone has to fill out the application and every film we're

choosing is because we love the film.

You know, it's not about who's recommending it or whatever.

Like yeah, there are some people who have a lot of people recommending them.

And you know what, sometimes at the end I'm like, I hate this movie before

I even saw it, because people will not stop fucking emailing me about it.

So it sometimes like works the opposite way.

Yes.

Um, that can sometimes maybe move it up in my queue if you emailed and I, you know,

love your films and trust your judgment.

And so I'm like, oh, if you love it, maybe I will.

So maybe I'll watch it sooner.

But it's really about the experience of watching the film.

Yeah.

And also like there's a lot of films that are really great that we

would never play that just aren't totally right for our audience.

Um, because people come to South by, 'cause they like

want to have a great time.

Like they're amazing political documentaries that we don't play.

They should be going to Iffa or to a festival where they're

gonna get more attention.

Because I feel like at South By people are wanting to take a little

bit more of like a mental vacation.

And we still have some this American doctor, really amazing

documentary that was at Sundance.

It's wonderful and complicated and we're playing that.

Yeah.

But you know, we're not playing a lot of historical

documentaries and things like that.

It doesn't mean it's not good, doesn't mean there's not audience.

It's just not our audience.

Right.

And we want the filmmakers to come and have a great experience and you

know, so it's like you should take this somewhere else and have a better

experience than what you would have here.

But you can't have every conversation you know about that.

Claudette, I'm sorry.

No, you don't have to be sorry.

I'm sorry.

I just wanted to tell you about more movies because I kept taking us off track.

I took us off track and you know, Ben's not here.

Ben would've kept us on track, would he?

Kind of more than me.

I'm so glad he wasn't here more than me.

I, I, I, I, I just, just kidding.

I love you, Ben.

We need to wrap up because you need to get back to work.

I need to get back to work.

I have to get back to my stop motion, but, oh man.

Can you send me a little video of you making stop motion?

Yeah.

I'll show you the little thing.

I love it.

I am am supposed to finish a stop motion film for animation class in college.

I never did Jeff Marlett.

He was like, he still passed me.

I was really getting off easy over there.

That's right.

Between Ben and Jen.

Jeff, you had all the easy professor.

Here's a, we have a couple, uh, we're gonna walk back to your office.

Yes.

Couple lightning round questions you like to ask.

Oh shit.

To round it out.

Outside of the world?

Of Southwest.

Southwest.

Oh no.

I don't have another world outside of programming new voices.

Okay.

Surprise.

What, uh, what is the film?

What is the gateway drug film that blew you away when you were a WEAs?

Just a young person being totally turned on.

Uh, that made you want to take film classes in college that made

you want to get into this world?

What's the gateway drug?

I mean, like, you know, all those kids in class when they ask us

on the first day of film school, they're like, citizen K. Yeah.

But for me it really was probably Tommy Boy.

Tommy boy.

Yeah.

To be laughing and to be able to watch something over and over and over and

have that, it never not be funny.

I think that was probably the thing that made me the most excited, which I feel

like is not as sexy of a story as like, I watched this movie to change my life,

but probably also et et is probably, you know, that movie is like where we

left the bathroom signs, the wonderment.

And also just because I fucking love aliens.

You know, I was like a kid trying to watch every single, um, X-Files aliens.

Like I had it.

My mom let me do an alien themed bedroom as a kid.

Yeah, she let me paint it lime green, the whole thing.

And I had like that like beaded nineties curtain, that was like a, um, you know,

had a big alien face and I had like black lights and fuzzy alien poster

that was black light and all of that.

Isn't that crazy?

Very cool.

Yeah, it was fucking awesome.

But then they told me that if I didn't stop running down the hallway screaming

and being scared after X-Files, I wouldn't get to watch it anymore.

It was there bitches.

But yeah, this is our office.

Have you ever been here?

I've never been here.

Okay, great.

Look at this thing.

This thing's the coolest thing to get a little pick in front of.

It's really beautiful.

Hey.

Yeah.

Look at that.

Wish you can start.

It's pretty good, right?

Yeah.

And there's a poster over there with aliens on it,

kind of blocking the logo.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Look at this is, are you on there?

No, but that's Johnny Cash.

And from the story I was telling, yeah, that's why it's on there.

Um, the film and TV team's all over here on the other side of this.

What's it?

Okay, wait.

So dream collaborator.

David Duffy.

This is our peoples.

Some of them, if they're in here, they might not be in here.

They might be having a secret meeting or they all just stood up from their desks.

Hi.

I didn't know you were here.

You work here?

I hired her.

Oh, I stole her.

I'm never gonna leave her.

Let her leave.

Sarah, you need to come walk except her if she wants to this.

Okay.

We did a doc walk.

We're doing a doc walk.

We're still here.

That's Sarah Cook?

Mm-hmm.

Founder of the Austin Dock Maker's Club.

Look, they're talking about all the films they need at QC over here.

Oh yeah.

Yep.

Check, check, check, check that shit.

Yeah.

They're teching.

It also, it's occurring to me.

I'm probably not supposed to let anyone film in here.

You know?

I'm doing, I do a great job.

I do a great job.

Well, you can come see my dog.

Okay.

What are the other questions?

Okay.

What is on your mind these days?

What can't you get out of your head?

I wanna, I'm, I feel like I wish I could have more time to relax.

Well, this is where, okay, you know, here's Francis and Pickles.

Francis and Pickle.

Oh, there's, yeah.

Look at that guy.

How you feeling bud?

You've been sitting here being good.

Hey there.

He can't walk anywhere.

I'm sorry.

You got that?

He got his ACL.

You done?

Oh, there's a sweet boy.

Just yesterday.

He's doing good though.

And Franny.

Hi Bobby.

Hi.

How are you?

How you doing?

I'm doing great.

This, this is my number one hero right there.

Well, on that note, and the pickles, what's taking up space in your mind?

Sometimes I just need an example to have a better answer.

Well, I have to tell you, whenever I did these dog walks, especially with

somebody like you, what's taking a place in my mind is that I'm in development

on probably seven different projects and none of them are close enough

to be at this festival next year.

And it drives me fucking crazy ette.

Yeah.

We mentioned it was 10 years ago.

The tower was here.

It was five years ago.

That dear Mr. Bro was here.

Wow.

And it's gonna be at least another two years before I have anything done.

I feel like thats the life of a documentarian.

You gotta make that short film.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's sure.

He's gonna make a narrative short film for the first time.

Amazing.

Try it.

Get it to South by Southwest.

Mm-hmm.

I'll do it.

Yep.

Thank you.

I hope you come to South by and then we have so much fun together.

Yay.

Bye Ben.

Sorry you missed this one.

And for all you guys, sorry you have to edit So long Ben.

Next time.

Bye.

On Dock Walks, we will be walking with other South by Southwest, uh, people.

We're gonna talking to filmmakers here at South by Southwest and,

uh, we're not sure who we'll talk to, but we'll catch you next time.

Bye love.

Love you.

This episode is sponsored by our good friends at Rambler Sparkling Water,

a tasty limestone mineral blend with the perfect level of tight,

crispy bubbles made in America and proudly supporting American rivers.

Ramble on next time on Doc Walks.

Join us as we continue our South by Southwest coverage with Holly Herrick.

Holly is a first time documentary producer whose film is premiering

at True False and playing here at South by Southwest, but full-time.

She runs the film operation as head of film for Austin Film Society.

And on top of that, she's the founder of AF S's upcoming

documentary Festival Doc Days.

So we have a lot to cover with Holly, and we hope that you'll join us next time.

And Doc Walks.

Doc Walks is created, produced, and edited by my friend Ben Steinhower of the Bear.

Hello and my friend Keith Maitland of Go Valley.

Thanks for tuning in.