EP09 – The Watering Hole, Live from the Austin Film Society

06.12.2025 - Season: 1 Episode 9

Drink up the scene like a local as Keith & Ben chat up their fellow Austinites (and a few out of town visitors) at the annual Austin Film Society Parking Lot Party at SXSW. This episode is a veritable smorgasbord of festival conversation including appearances by local filmmakers Cassie Hay, Tracy Frazier & Karen Skloss; festival programmers like Bart Weiss and James Faust; SXSW-premiering CREEDE, USA editor Andrew Saunderson; producer Mike Blizzard; and an AFS-appreciation conversation with CEO Rebecca Campbell. All that and a literal Rolls Royce car crash makes this bonus episode a unique peek into Austin’s film community.

00:00 Introduction and Setting the Scene

00:59 Meeting Cassie Hay: A Filmmaking Journey

03:38 Tracy Frazier: From Documentaries to Gaming

06:39 Bart Weiss: The Evolution of Video Fest

11:56 Andrew Saunderson: Editing Creed USA

15:54 James Faust: Festival Highlights

16:16 Introduction to South by Southwest

16:53 Interview with James Faust

17:12 The State of Documentary Films

19:54 Challenges in the Film Industry

24:16 Rebecca Campbell on Austin Film Society

29:45 Mike Blizzard on Austin’s Film Community

31:37 Karen Skloss on the Austin Film Society Party

34:22 Conclusion and Future Episodes

Oh, we're rolling.

Hello.

This is exciting.

We're at the Austin Film Society Parking Lot Party here at South by Southwest.

It's an annual tradition.

I feel like it's a Who's who of the Austin film scene.

Wouldn't you say that, Ben?

I would say that.

I think that's an accurate description.

Weirdness out on the festivities by standing out here talking to people.

But I, I don't mind.

don't either.

I we're working the party, I think that's what this is called.

That's right.

We're actually standing right across from a Rolls Royce, which feels.

Strangely outta place in a way.

I don't know if it's apropos or not apropos, but

except is that a seventies Rolls Royce and then maybe a.

It is a Dookie Brown, 1977 kind of cheapo.

Rolls Royce.

Rolls Ro.

That is for sale.

It is for sale.

So actually that does feel very Austin in a way.

Yeah, exactly.

Someone

rolled in here in the seventies and they never left.

On your left,

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

Who are we here with?

Keith Ben.

Lemme introduce you.

My old friend, Cassie Hay.

And when I'm an old friend, it's not that she's old, it's just that

we've been friends for a while.

You're old.

That's true.

Yes.

Cassie and I have some overlapping background, both in New York.

And here in Austin and the one day that we ever worked together

was on a film that she directed that I was a standin camera guy.

Way back in like 2014 maybe.

Yes.

It's

still one of my favorite stories.

Tell me,

tell me the story.

'cause we, I, it was a little on the fly.

You came in, we were on the UT campus and this interview subject walked in and

took the cowboy hat right off your head.

You were wearing a cowboy hat, Keith.

I don't know why.

And he put it on his

head.

That's hard to do.

And I was like, Ooh, that is a power move.

That's a Texas power move, right?

There isn't?

Yes.

Yeah.

Did you have to immediately go have a dual?

I, no.

I, I shrank.

Yeah, I shrank and my boots, I, he took the boots off my feet.

My, my told.

Curled up.

He stole all your cattle.

It was Dick DeGuerin, legendary Texas law man or lawyer.

Yes.

Dick DeGuerin.

You just let him do that?

Yeah.

You have to just let him take your hat

when you're It wasn't my set.

If I was the director, I think I might have put up a little bit of

fight, but I was there to try to do a good job for Cassie and so it

was up to her to defend my honor.

And so what were you interviewing him for?

You were making a movie?

Um, yes.

It was a movie called The Liberators and it was at South by Southwest in 2016.

Same time as Tower.

So it was kinda a nice like.

Full circle moment you came in and saved my bacon to do that interview.

But he was, that's a great

expression by the way.

Save my bacon.

I like, yeah, I'm

just throwing out the, the country iss.

But he, no, he, it was a great interview and he had, it is great

quote for the trailer, which was sometimes good people do bad things,

but that doesn't make 'em bad people.

Wow.

I was like, oh man, that was a good impression as he said it.

I was like, oh, here it, this is it.

So anyway, it was really fun and yeah, here we are.

And you're here with a new movie, correct?

I I, I am a supported filmmaker this year, which is really exciting.

Yeah.

And

you said you're a supported filmmaker with Austin Film Society.

What does that mean?

So we got a development grant for feature film.

So that means, which is just amazing that it just allows us the opportunity

to really explore your story, build it out, try to make into feature,

get it to our, our reps, try to put some, get some juice behind it.

So yeah, they've been really wonderful and.

Talk about how to solve problems, and I just can't believe that it's another

wonderful thing that AFS provides.

So.

All

right.

Well thank you for doing this.

Yeah.

Go enjoy the party and we'll see you around South by.

nice to talk to y'all.

Yeah.

Okay, thanks.

Bye.

Here's my,

uh, this is my good friend Tracy Frazier.

Ben, do you know Tracy?

Yes,

I know Tracy.

Hello.

Great to see you.

How are you doing?

How's south by treating

you?

I'm doing great.

I'm.

I'm actually been slammed, so I don't know how much I'm gonna

be doing during South by, but,

and what are you slammed with?

What are you doing?

I did a little bit of a pivot from documentary to the world of games.

Well, but that's interesting though, because Austin is a hotbed of the gaming

industry in this, in a pretty unique way that is building momentum more and more.

So tell us about that.

Well, the thing, what are you doing?

The thing is, and I'm in this finance.

Accounting, running a studio from here that's based in LA.

Uh, was it a hard decision on making this pivot from documentary filmmaking

to the world of video game Mogul?

No, not, no, because of the team.

So I'm more of a, like, if they're kind, I will go there.

And I got that from Kat Candler.

Oh.

So that was 20 years ago working on jumping off bridges and doing

that with her and the team there.

But yeah.

You gotta be kind

nice.

You gotta be kind.

Totally agree.

fact, they interviewed me on the treadmill 20 years ago and

they were like, are you nice?

And I was like, I think so

they ask you that on this?

Yes.

In an interview.

Absolutely.

I'm gonna steal that.

We should start asking people if they're, are you nice?

Are

you nice?

And can you get shit done?

Shit done.

That's right.

Mm-hmm.

well

one out of two ain't bad.

Yeah.

God.

Tracy, you've been a long time South by Southwest.

Attendee.

Yeah.

She's been rocking and rolling Oliver Austin since at least the mid nineties.

Mm-hmm.

Um, what advice do you have for, for people we might run into, not

us, we're old time South, south by Southwest folks as well, but what

advice do you have for newcomers?

Hydrate.

Take it slow, maybe, uh, give yourself a little bit of a pep

talk of what your purpose is.

Wow.

Yeah.

Wow.

And, uh, and then.

Oh my God.

This is the

second time that Rolls Royce has been hit.

When that one's a lot worse and that one's way worse.

I, I think this guy just, just bought a 77 Rolls Royce.

I think he's connected to it, like he can't get loose.

Oh no.

Or was it a 76?

It is a 75 or 70.

Fuck geez.

He's turn loose like a fine wine.

Oh boy.

A fine brown wine that is parked in a really unfortunate

place, really bad place.

wow.

Oh, this poor guy.

Oh no, don't worry.

It's just a Rolls Royce.

God, he actually liked that joke.

I would've hated you in that moment.

But he smiled.

But you gotta laugh 'cause you know why I'm nice.

You're gonna get shit nice.

So you get shit done.

Shit.

That's

right.

That's right.

Oh my God.

I think that's where we ended.

That was a great, thank you so much for doing this.

course, yeah.

This is, uh.

Bart Weiss approaching and you can always recognize Bart because he is got his

signature red frame glasses, his shock of white hair, and uh, a big smile.

A hardy laugh when I saw you across the street there.

When I saw you across the street there, I said there's a living

legend walking towards us.

It is Bart Weiss.

You can't talk about filmmaking in Texas, at least since 1980 something

without talking about Bart and his role up in Dallas running multiple festivals.

But primarily Video fest.

Video fest, yeah.

Is the festival that, that you've really championed?

Yes.

For how many years?

What is that fest like and what do you have to say about it?

So I ran it for 34.

I ran it for 34 years.

And then there were some years when I splintered off an experimental

festival and then I splintered off a documentary festival called Docu Vests.

But yeah, it was, it was a lot of fun because I could

show things I wanted to show.

I didn't have anybody who could say no.

I didn't have anybody on my board who would say, no, you can't

show that for whatever reason.

And I was able to champion a lot of works that I really loved.

And because of doing that festival, I got to meet so many wonderful people.

Yeah.

Keith and

well, and I think you showed some of my early short films.

I'm sure you don't remember, but I moved here in 2002 and.

Played quite a few films at your festival.

Oh my God.

And I remember that was always like sort of the destination and you'd meet all

kinds of very interesting other filmmakers and see lots of mind blowing work.

And so I love that you started, I don't know if putting Dallas on the map is

the right way to say it, but like you started something that's very unique,

that feels very like of a place.

And Dallas has now become with guys like David Lowry and Sailor Bear being there,

Dallas has become something of a film.

city,

we showed David's first short film called Lullaby.

And I think we may have the only copy.

Wow.

On a three quarter inch tape.

Oh boy.

You hear that David Lowry.

That's right.

hope he has one, but I know that we do and maybe he doesn't want it.

It's a great film.

It's wonderful.

Awesome.

That's so cool.

So, you know, one of the things we talk about is the state of

the, of documentary film, and you have an interesting angle on that.

As somebody who has run a festival for 34 years.

What are you currently seeing as being the state of Doc film?

Well, like most things in life, it's the best of time and the worst of time.

It's the worst of time.

It's really hard to get on a streaming service or distribution.

Right.

So the feature documentary, the one best documentary, has no distribution,

which is no Other Land, correct?

Yes.

Yeah, no other land.

Really wonderful film.

It's playing in theaters, but they're booking it themselves.

What kind of world are we in?

Where the documentary feature winner of the Academy Awards has no distribution,

and you're in this place where if your film does not have a celebrity or about

true crime, you're probably not gonna get on a streaming service and you're

probably not gonna get distribution.

But yet there's a gazillion documentaries being made and everything else.

Like a lot of them are not good and, but some of them are incredibly awesome.

But the other thing I think is really important, and this is

something I've a vested interest in.

I just wrote this book about how to make films with mobile

phones and mobile filmmaking.

I've been doing these workshops all over the country and to me what

this a is able to do is to make sure that anybody can make a documentary.

If you use a black magic camera app and you learn how to get good sound.

And you do a bunch of other things that you can easily learn.

But more importantly, and I think this is what the real great thing about

mobile filmmaking is, you need less crew, which means you can have much

more intensity in what you're doing.

So if I don't have a sound person and a gaffer and a dp, and it's just

me and you having a conversation.

I can get something completely different.

Absolutely.

It's more intimate for

sure.

I, I love hearing you say that, Bart.

That is my personal approach to filmmaking.

We don't use phones, although I haven't been known to sneak a few iPhone shots

in, but I totally agree that the more layers of institutional, the quote

unquote help you add, the further you get from an intimate personal connection.

And also in narrative film, there's this shot, it's still image of Soderberg

directing high-flying bird, and it's just.

Him and his actor in a gym with a phone on a tripod.

And if you're an actor and there's nobody else in the room, but you

and the director like you can get to different emotional space.

Yes.

Right now, I'm not saying it's right for every project, but Soderberg and,

well, there are other people they've done pretty well, including somebody

who just wanted Academy of Work.

It it's, this is not like a fringe thing anymore.

Right.

Well as somebody who, like I said, has sort of created something that

had a huge impact on our community, thank you very much and thank you

for taking the time to do this.

Well, thank you.

I really appreciate it.

Yeah.

And now I gotta run.

Do a q and a.

Go.

Do a q and a. Go do it.

Enjoy

the fest.

Hey, I will.

Thank you.

See you soon to see you Bart.

So Andrew, you and I are just meeting each other.

Tell me who you are and what you do.

Yeah, thanks.

Nice to meet you.

My name's Andrew Sanderson and I'm the editor of Creed USA, which

is here at South by Southwest, and I'm a nonfiction film editor.

Awesome.

We've heard multiple people talk about Creed and how they're

very excited to see it, so

that's amazing.

I'm gonna see the film tomorrow night, and I'm very excited because I've been

hearing these great things about it, and I've been hearing about it a couple years

ago from Kahani Cooperman, the director.

Mm-hmm.

Shortly after she got started, we had a conversation around

what her goals were for it.

And then I've heard a little bit from your composer, our mutual friend Osay Esid who,

who I know always makes beautiful music.

Yeah.

And always makes the films he's on better.

Certainly he's done that on my films and so I'm excited to be his

guest at the screening tour night.

Amazing.

Yeah.

Excited that you guys are gonna

be there.

Where are you in town from?

Uh, from Brooklyn, New York.

I'm originally from Seattle, Washington.

Okay.

Oh yeah, I've been in Brooklyn for 10 years now.

Excellent.

And as somebody not from Austin, what's your, how do

you see the Austin film scene?

The Austin film scene.

Yeah.

I feel connected to it through being inspired by independent cinema and

particularly Slacker and El Mariachi and like growing up more in that vein of

things and then seeing the arts festival, support of the arts throughout the years.

That, particularly the festival has, I think, inspired a lot of,

which just has been so exciting.

And so I always feel like if, when I'm down here, it just

feels like a great community.

It feels like.

Creative people who want to be inspired, who want to inspire each other and

get things going, make things happen.

Yeah.

It's always warm and lovely down here.

That's awesome.

That's great.

Yeah.

And so this is the world premiere at

Southlake.

This is the world premiere, yeah.

On Sunday, March 9th.

Is that right?

Yeah, that's sounds right.

Is that sound right?

Excellent.

And how long have you been working on the film?

So I started in February of 2024.

And so we cut.

Yeah, pretty much in up to December.

So we were going for a while.

We had a couple down times there.

But yeah, it was, it's a complex film.

There's a lot of characters, a lot of different storylines.

We're all really happy with how it came together in the time that it took to come

together.

As an editor who works with different directors, I'm always so curious

about the relationship between an editor and a director and kind of.

Where one begins and one ends.

And when you're watching a finished product and you see a great sequence where

you see an overarching kind of structure that really speaks to you, it's impossible

to know as an audience member, whether that's the director's vision being an

actor, if that's an editor coming in and reshaping a big gelatinous mess.

What is your role, uh, when you're working with a new partner, a

new collaborator, a new director?

How do you establish that relationship and that rapport?

I, I try to get to know them and try to get a sense of what

they're trying to achieve.

Artistically creatively and the type of story that they're trying to tell.

I ultimately am trying to service that and bring as much creativity and

help as I can In nonfiction editing.

I usually think that there's a lot of writing involved, and so trying to

bring that aspect of where I can come in and say where we're trying to get

to, like how we achieve that goal.

And so it's just working hand in hand with the director to

figure some of that stuff out.

Sometimes it is just going in and being like, I'm gonna try something.

Like with what you have presented and, but this might be outta left field,

but maybe this might not work at all.

It might be completely outside of it, but it might inspire something new for

us to go off of, which it usually does even if it doesn't make it into the film.

But with Kahani and Creed, USA, and this is our sixth project

together, we know each other so well.

At this point.

I know I have a strong sense of what she has and in mind and how she wants

to tell a story, and so I'm ultimately.

Trying to achieve that.

Yeah.

In, in the That's

great.

In the approach.

Awesome.

Amen.

Well that's great.

Well, thank you so much for giving us some time.

Yeah, thanks guys.

Appreciate it.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Really good meet.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Who are we standing here with?

Keith, to me,

it's not a festive festival.

If I don't

get a chance, see what he did there.

That's, yes.

That's the kind of verbal trickery that you can look forward to in this interview.

He's flexible that way.

James Faust is the festival at the festival.

Whoa,

whoa.

That

is, he gave me just enough time.

Seriously there.

We're here at South by Southwest and I've had wonderful experiences at South by

Southwest, but there is one programmer in the entire nation and the entire world.

Who somehow has said yes to every film I've ever submitted to in film festival,

and that is because the very first short film I ever made was programmed by James

at the Santa Monica Film Festival in 2001.

Yeah, I've looked, oh yeah.

Oh one or oh two.

Oh yeah, maybe 2002.

And then I've made four features since then, all of which have

played here at South By, but all of which have also played at James

Premier Festival up in Dallas.

The Dallas International Film Festival.

This is James Faust.

Film festival programmer extraordinaire, and good friend.

Hi.

Thanks.

I am shocked and happy and I'm feeling a little humble.

I could turn purple right now.

That was a, that's a good intro.

Thanks.

Purple with humility.

That's right.

think in spite of having poor taste, we want your opinion here about, I don't

know how much Keith's told you about.

We're doing a podcast about the state of documentary Oh wow.

Business, about what it's like to be a working filmmaker.

Okay.

In your case, what it's like to have a festival right

now in this environment, so.

Give us an overview.

What do you, what are you, what are you thinking about the state

of documentary film right now?

I can actually say that in the 20 years I've been doing programming

from the Deep El Santa Monica Asian film festivals, Austin Film Festival,

Dallas, a FI, Dallas, A-F-I-A-F-I, docs.

At this point in time, I've never seen more documentary

films being made, created.

Than ever.

It has been.

The, the amount of content has been shocking to me, and I, I won't say

that the artistic merit of all the documentaries, because there's so

many outlets for where to go, so.

The diversity of the content is something that slows down.

What we're looking for at our festival is different than what

other people are looking for.

And so the things that I've been seeing, there's a lot of things

that are in the television world.

Like this is not, I don't think this is a feature.

I think this is something that you're looking to make a TV show out of,

and it just happened to submit it.

'cause the way the lower thirds are set up or whatever, it's just seeing that.

So what I've seen a lot more is people making more content and submitting it

to festivals as if it's a festival film.

And I think some of the things that are more television.

End up playing more where they're locally centric.

For instance, oh, there's a great story about a homeless

shelter in in San Antonio.

Yeah, it's a pretty cool movie, but it seems very San Antonio centric.

Right.

And if it, so the content is there, but the filmmaking seems

a little bit, oh, so product.

Seems to be not a problem.

That's really interesting.

I wonder how much of that is as social media's influence.

'cause it's almost like you're expected to be documenting and posting and telling

stories about your life, and as younger people are coming up, maybe it's a lot of

that that's rubbing off and like that's leading to more documentary content,

I think.

Yeah, but everything from True Crime to just actually just reality television.

I don't want somebody to do a study on this and go back to when the first big

strike happened, and then we have this.

Rage of, of reality television that came out beyond the survivor and all

these house shows and everything.

I just think that, and people growing up on that as well.

'cause that's what we were watching.

It wasn't a lot of scripted TV for a year or two years and just this barrage of

these product and Oh, I'm watching tv.

What?

Yeah, I'm watching Real Housewives of Guatemala.

Okay.

Like that's, but they're watching that thing.

And so I think that translates into I can do that, right?

I can make a show about this.

I'm gonna make a show about people going on blind dates and

it's just blah and all that.

And then they turn that into submitted films for film festivals,

which is just mind blowing.

Well, what you're thinking, you should go talk to Netflix

or put that on Prime yourself,

which is, that's so interesting because a lot of you, as you might guess, a lot

of people's answer to that question is.

Can be doom and gloom sometimes.

Yeah.

About like funding being hard to get, and eyeballs being hard to

reach and people being distracted by their phones and that sort of thing.

But in a way, you could look at your answer as being like, this is a sort

of golden age in a way of documentary.

Yeah.

I know you're saying it's more maybe quantity than quality, but Yes.

But it's interesting that there's that level of quantity.

Yeah,

it is.

And I just think that there's almost too much, and I don't think.

It's, it's hard to find a place to find what you wanna find.

I don't think eyes are a problem.

I, I think in the business side of it, I think it's the who's ever investing

or wherever you're streaming from, like the monetization of those eyes.

And I think that seems to be the difference.

I think people are watching things.

I just don't think people are sadly making money, making the

things that people are watching.

Yeah.

Because the back backend is not very great.

Oh yeah.

We'll take your thing and you're just happy to get it

sold and happy to get it seen.

Yeah, but that's not, that may not put bread on the table.

You're basically de describing every experience I've ever

had with a distributor.

And I, when I talk to filmmakers nowadays, one of the things that I,

the way that I can make sense of it is it feels like the film business is

where the music business was about 10 years ago when Spotify came around.

Oh wow.

And all of a sudden, everything is expected to be free, so

why should we pay for it?

Why do we buy a record when I can just subscribe to Spotify and it's free, or

Apple Music, or pull it up on YouTube?

And I think, you know, if you look at the analytics, people go

home now and they watch YouTube.

Mm-hmm.

Which is hard for me to understand as somebody who doesn't do that.

I'm always amazed by those people or the how tos, like the guy who

will teach you like some very specific niche thing like Oh yeah.

The fact that they took the time to do that.

Yeah.

And post it is Mind

bog I, I prepared my washer and dryer going to YouTube and said,

all right, this is the model number.

This is it.

And somebody has gone out there and found that specific random model and built it.

And so

don't think those things are competing with what we do for a living.

They may be competing for the time that people are allotting

in their day to take in media.

And so in that way it is a, is it is in competition, but they're not

trying to scratch the same itch.

They're not doing long form storytelling.

They're not saying, let's have an emotive, empathetic human exchange.

Yeah.

They're saying we're, they're, in my mind, they're competing with the newspaper.

It used to be you wake up in the morning and your dad before he went off to

work, might read most of the newspaper.

It might take an hour and a half, and that was like an hour and

a half of his day, and it was.

Consumed and discarded.

The next day, there's another newspaper consumed and discarded.

That to me is what those type of things on YouTube.

Are in competition with.

So I don't personally take it as an affront.

And I hear that except for the fact that they made, let's say

they made 600 TV shows last year.

Yeah.

They're making 300 this year, right?

Because people are going home and sitting on their couch and they're

watching TikTok and they're watching Instagram and they're watching sports

highlights on YouTube, and they're not flipping on a and e networks and

watching whatever the latest TV show is.

And so that is having a very real effect.

On, uh, not exactly what we do, but it's certainly impacting it.

And, uh, things like, like I show ran a, the Hulu original show and

all signs pointed to season two, all our analytics were above expectation

and they basically didn't renew it because they decided to kind of

billion dollars from their budgets.

And they're not the only ones doing that.

So.

All of LA and the people I know there who work in TV and nonfiction are in free

fall because of this new societal shift.

So I hear you, but I No, I, that's very real.

Respectfully disagree with that.

No, that's very real.

You have a much more, and I'm just talking outta my ass here, so that's,

I'm happy to probably edit this out,

but I'm curious for, as a somebody who programs film festivals, runs

film festivals, like how is that.

How do we bridge those gaps?

Because in a way, they're the same thing, right?

Like it's storytelling, it's documenting, it's like they're, I'm waiting for

the synthesis and I'm excited for what that, what the new version of the

morphing version of documentary is going

to.

I don't think there needs to be a different model and expectations.

So like, why are you making this film?

Why are you doing this, and what is your end game?

That's great.

Oh, what a great answer.

Yeah.

Well, let's get back to some of those filmmakers.

Alright.

Yeah.

Go party with us.

Thanks James.

Yeah, thanks for doing that.

I want you to introduce yourself and tell us what you do and

what the Film Society does.

Like you would be talking to a class full of students because I think a lot

of people who hopefully will listen to our podcast may not be familiar.

Not at all with how.

Yeah, important and pivotal.

The Austin Film Society is, yeah.

My name's Rebecca Campbell and I'm the CEO of the Austin Film Society, and

I've been in this role for 27 years, and at the moment we're celebrating our

40th anniversary, believe it or not.

So the Austin Film Society.

All week long as we've gotten ready for South by Southwest and we've done

our big annual gala, the Texas Film Awards, all kinds of people have been

just like testifying and talking about how a FS has changed their lives.

And I've gotten people to, I've heard people say, if you could just use one word

to describe a FS, and one of them said, community, and they said that was the way

they were able to find their people was through a FS when they moved to Austin.

Rebecca, what makes Austin Film Society what it is?

For starters, just hanging in there because you know how it is, you could

see all the things that you, that could happen and that you wanna do and

that you could do, but you have to.

Hang in there for the iterations of it because you don't just buy

something like this, you build it.

And so really what makes a FS what it is, it's still true.

Our founder, Richard Linklater, who just wanted to show films and help filmmakers,

and it just built from there, but it's, that's always been the North Star.

It's, it comes across, and as Ben said, he's one of those

people, I'm one of those people.

Austin Film Society started giving production grants right around

the time I was in college, in undergrad, and it was the first.

It's actually the first grant I'd ever heard about for filmmaking.

And the fact that it came from the work of a filmmaker like Linklater just

was just another of the many steps of inspiration that that his career and what

the Austin film scene in the nineties presented to me as an emerging filmmaker.

And then over the last 20 years receiving some of those grants, being a part of

the committee that chooses grants working in and around the world of the society.

It's offered what you just said, community.

And you know, when you come to this party, you're gonna recognize

20 or 30 faces and it's people from all levels in our industry.

People who are gonna be on the marquee at the Paramount this week, and people that

are struggling to get their first film out of the computer and onto any screen.

You juggle all that as a CEO.

Wait, I wanna tell you something that reminded me of

something, what you just said.

Okay.

That reminded me.

So I went to the University of Texas at Austin to learn documentary

filmmaking, and it was brutal.

It took me five years to get my MFA.

I went through two learning curves because first it was linear,

then it was non-linear, and it was somewhat humbling, but.

I got my documentary made.

It was a really cool story about a dying mining town in Oklahoma.

And so then I did not know what I was gonna do, and then the Austin film

study needed somebody and I already had a nonprofit management background.

So I reluctantly went to the interview just thinking, I'll see what this is,

and I immediately just fell in love and I knew I'd found my people and before I

started the job, I don't know why, but I handed Richard Linklater my film, my

30 minute film, and he responded to me and said, I watched your film and he

told me the things that he liked about my film, and I, I just realized what

you said about people at all levels.

That is a real thing in the documentary film community and in the a FS

community, and not all of us are like destined to become marquee names.

Eventually I found my passion in being behind the scenes and helping really

talented, funny, cool people like yourselves, get their stories out there.

But yeah, we don't know where we're gonna end up, but just taking that

step and, and jumping in and doing it.

And is the thing, and I like to think that a FS encourages that.

Rebecca, thanks for this party.

Every year we were talking about it.

It is the kickoff to South by Southwest.

It's a way for people who don't have a film in the festival or who can't

afford a badge to get what makes so by so exciting, which is a celebration of

film, a celebration of community as a reminder of what we love about a FS.

And it's always a beautiful day.

Here in the parking lot at Austin Public.

So thanks for a great party.

Here's,

do you wanna talk to us or

Yes.

Come on,

Mike.

We have to do this.

We talking

about, what the fuck.

So we're here, uh, we're talking to people about, uh, the, basically the

state of the Austin film community, Uhhuh, uh, what the a FS Party means to

you each year.

I think that.

This event in particular, I tell people who are visiting filmmakers

like part of the indie or doc crowd, they've gotta come here.

I think it's a great place where all the people can gather and it's really,

it's got that Austin vibe to it.

This is like sort of a street party, and so people are comfortable

with that with each other.

So the people from out of town become comfortable as well.

You know, if you're from LA or something, you're just not used to events like

this, you know, it's more competitive.

People are in their own niches and whatever.

Now here, all different kinds of filmmakers know

each other like each other.

Work on each other's shit.

And so, uh, for those of, uh, people who don't know who we're

talking to, Mike Blizzard.

Mike Blizzard, Austin based producer,

let me, let me help you out.

Mike Blizzard started as a, as a political operative, uh, man about town.

He has produced documentaries.

He's directed his own documentary.

He produces frequently with Richard Linklater.

Mike, we're gonna let you go in just a second.

This party is always such a big deal.

You mentioned it yourself.

You bring people from out of town when they come here.

Yeah.

I mean, so by Southwest brings in hundreds of thousand of people from all around the

world, but this is the Austin Film Party.

Yeah.

What, what does the world not know about the Austin Film community?

I think.

I mean, the biggest thing I kind of alluded to earlier is just

there's not really competition.

It's all collaboration.

And I If an Austin filmmaker is doing well, that's good for

every other Austin filmmaker.

You know, a rising tide lifts all boats in other places in New York and Los Angeles.

People of course, don't see it that way.

It's a more cutthroat industry and business.

And so I think that that.

That comes from the top a little bit.

I think Linklater and Rodriguez and stuff, they've always been these

creative, wanna do it their own way, uh, by their own rules type of people.

And of course there's the sort of twin titans of the, of the modern

era of film in Austin, I guess.

And um, I think that trickles down that everyone, like that's our ethic here.

Yeah.

You know, that's how we do it and people are just like, oh

my God, everyone's so friendly.

Everyone.

You know, and it you, you know, you give everyone advice.

You guys know, we all show each other our films.

Yeah.

So that you can critique it and tell us what we've missed and how we're too close

to it and we're not seeing the problems.

And that's like, I don't think that happens in other places.

You have to go pay test audiences.

Or whatever to do that.

We could have been getting paid this whole time.

So we're here with Karen Sloss, who's filmmaker extraordinaire.

Band leader.

Drummer.

It's an editor.

It's an egalitarian band artist

and Oh, no leader.

It's Marriage Corps.

It's,

you guys know how

it's, yes.

You and your husband, Sandy, are both in the band Skloss who, and you just

had a record release party, right?

Yes.

Yesterday record came out yesterday, our debut album.

Congratulations on Fuzz Club.

Fuzz Club.

Okay.

Yeah.

And how'd it go?

How was the, it was

great.

Yeah?

Yeah.

And now we're just gonna play five more shows.

Woohoo.

And a showcase on Friday.

Amazing.

It's

old school south by Southwest.

Yeah,

it is.

Yeah.

Yeah, it is.

This is my first, so by Southwest, well, no, not first swim, but in a while

as a musician instead of a filmmaker.

It's okay, Karen, we're here at the Austin Film Society Party.

What does this party mean to you as a local filmmaker?

So that long history of relationships south by what makes it such a fun party.

It's a reunion every year.

It's the best.

And the film Society is one of those things that is at the heart of our

success as a community in Austin.

And.

I feel like that, and then also just that there were the right amount

or the perfect kind of group of filmmakers that decided to nest here.

Everybody knows the the folks, but I'll also add Paul Steckler in the doc

world and attracting all these people.

So we just have had this like amazing.

Community growing up here and a FS is like the watering hole.

It's like, that's a great way to say it.

We can all come and some of them are adult beverages, but we

can all hang out and catch up.

And people who are coming through town who are part of our

family, we all get to reconnect.

And then there's also so much tremendous talent coming through all the programs

and the services and then even just the film festival who are attracted.

So it's become.

Something, it's really snowballed.

Yeah.

To, it was one of the greatest artistic nonprofits in the country, I think now.

Yeah.

So many people envy the Austin Film Society when as a filmmaker you

tell somebody you live in Austin.

That's like often what they want to talk about.

It's insane.

Yeah.

I, they were so privileged that we were here when it was first being

put together, or like, we weren't here 40 years ago, but I feel like

we were the first like pip squeaks.

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah.

First class of, yeah.

Yeah.

Muppet babies.

So maybe garbage beil kids in your, that's probably we're after.

Let's wrap it up.

Let's wrap it.

My voice is going.

You gotta like, are you okay?

Your ride is waiting for you.

The party's over.

Yeah.

Let's, uh, turn off

the lights.

The

party.

Yes.

This has been an awesome day.

We set out to go do kind of man on the street interviews at South by Southwest.

And we said we're gonna go to the AFS party as kind of one part of that.

But this feels like it's a whole episode.

It feels like the AFS Party celebration of the community here in Austin

is an episode unto itself, and I think maybe Karen just named it.

The watering hole.

Hey, I love that.

Well, it's pretty hilarious to drive up and see you guys

doing this, I have to say.

Yeah.

I, it really gave me a chuckle.

Oh, good.

Yeah.

Seeing me look like a huge nerd with a fanny pack on and headphones.

It's

like we said, we're gonna go to the party.

We don't wanna feel like those dip shits at the party or like working and

trying to make something outta nothing.

We'll grab one or two people off to the side, no one will even notice.

And here we are.

I was like, that's one way to get invited to the party

now.

You know our secret.

That's right.

Well, thank you for doing this, KA.

Yeah.

It's great to see you.

Yeah, great to see you too.

All right, so that was like.

Um, basically all of our friends here in Austin that we just talked to at a party,

well, it was all of our friends.

And given a new context via our good friend Karen Sloss, uh, when she said,

this place is like the watering hole, which I never thought of it that way,

but I am kind of like an old caribou.

I. Who like saunters down to the water's edge.

I've been saying that about you for years.

Keith's just an old caribou.

I I was thinking of it more as like, uh, sometimes you want to go

where everybody knows your name.

It's something that strikes me whenever we do this podcast is like when you

go to that party and you look around.

There's a dozen people at this party that should be hosting

their own filmmaking podcast.

Mm-hmm.

These folks had a lot to add.

I'm glad we got a chance to talk with them.

Um, your voice is sounding a lot better.

Thank you.

I'm feeling much better now that South By is behind us.

Um, I love it and every year it beats me up.

Um, but I, I hope you guys like it.

Uh, it was a lot of fun to make.

Yeah.

Appreciate you guys checking out this episode.

Of course.

We also released an episode, uh, with John Sloss this week, um, and he's

got insights into the media landscape and the nineties indie film boom that

inspired both of us so much in the.

Early parts of our career.

And so check that episode out and then, uh, join us next week where, uh, Ben

and I go on a walk, just the two of us.

We're gonna be moseying through Hyde Park here in Austin, and

we have a lot to say about

the modern media landscape, so tune in for that.

We were wandering down back alleys and getting lost in Hyde Park and

getting lost in philosophical thought.

So hope you guys enjoy.

Yeah, that's gonna be a video, episode two.

Which we are, you know, slowly porting over to.

It looks like all these episodes are gonna be kind of up on YouTube for

those who like to watch when they walk.

And uh, for those of you who just prefer to listen, you can find

us at Apple Podcasts, um, and Spotify iHeartRadio apparently.

I mean, who knows?

We could be playing at truck stops right now, Keith.

We're our, our reach is, is long

Dock Walks stock Walks is, uh, produced and edited.

It's created by, it's, it's hosted by, uh, me, Keith Maitland, and

this guy Ben Steinbauer and Keith.

Uh.

Keith's company produces it.

Go Valley.

Uh, my production company, The Bear, also helps out and we have a lot of help from

Juliana Rios, who is our new, uh, edit assistant, and she's doing a

great job over there in the edit room.

We've also got original music from Sam Billen and Primary Color Group.

And, uh, if you're watching the show open, uh, thanks to Josh Allen who gave us a

little bit of VFX help on the front side.

Um, anyway, that's us.

Thanks for being you.

We'll catch you next time on.

Doc Walks