Amazon Prime Video & SXSW have collaborated to showcase a collection of full-length films, episodic and shorts programming from the 2020 SXSW Film Festival: Available to stream for free from April 27 – May 6. Nonprofit initiative FREE THE WORK, founded by Honey Boy director Alma Har’el, will help promote the 10-day Prime Video special and raise awareness for SXSW programming through panels featuring the filmmakers.
The SXSW lineup of female filmmakers (available to stream) include:
CAT IN THE WALL
Directors: Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova
This terrific comedy-drama is set on a southeast London council estate, which is riven by social and economic divisions and threatened by the all-consuming force of gentrification. Irina, a Bulgarian woman lives there with her small son and her brother. The lift serves as a toilet, the multi-cultural residents exchange shouts rather than pleasantries, and an expensive refurbishment is undesired but must be paid for. And in the midst of this: an apparently owner-less cat which has had enough of the heated atmosphere barricades itself ‘in the wall’, requiring the residents to collaborate. “Cat in the Wall” is an arresting critique of society, a whirlpool of emotions from despair to joie de vivre conveyed by strongly delineated characters. This heart-warming tale, shot in a documentary style, is this year’s equivalent of director Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake.
GUNPOWDER HEART
Director: Camila Urrutia
Claudia and Maria, roam the streets of the city of Guatemala. Claudia works at a call center and is uninterested in the world around her. She lives with her activist grandfather, who tries to persuade her to join his cause. Maria, unlike Claudia, is more spontaneous and lives with her mother in the outskirts of the city. The chaotic streets are filled with common stories of abuse, unforgiving police officers, and charming secret corners. Everything changes one night when they are attacked by three men. Although they manage to escape, Claudia is faced with the dilemma of choosing revenge or listening to her grandfather’s advice.
I’M GONNA MAKE YOU LOVE ME
Director: Karen Bernstein
I’m Gonna Make You Love Me is a full-length documentary about the life of Brian Belovitch, who in the 1980s, as a trans woman named Tish, was one of New York’s most famous downtown divas. “Tish was a glamorous busty lusty Fellini-esque beauty, cabaret chanteuse, party and good time girl,” says journalist Michael Musto, in the film. Then, after more than a decade as Tish, she transitioned back to Brian. Now in his sixties, Brian’s iterations include army wife and loving husband; sex worker; club performer; actor; author; AIDS survivor and playwright. Today, he’s a substance abuse counselor for the LGBTQ community. His unique odyssey is a moving and thought-provoking look at gender identity.
TFW NO GF
Director: Alex Lee Moyer
Born from the internet, the phrase “TFW NO GF” was originally used online to describe a lack of romantic companionship. Since then, it has evolved to symbolize a greater state of existence defined by isolation, rejection and alienation. The meme’s protagonist, “WOJAK,” has become the mascot to a vast online community consisting of self-described “hyper-anonymous twenty somethings” and “guys who slipped between the cracks.” TFW NO GF asks: How has the zeitgeist come to bear down on a generation alienated by the ‘real world’? Meet the lost boys who came of age on the internet- places like 4chan and Twitter, where they find camaraderie in despair.
See the full lineup here. All photos and synopses courtesy of SXSW Official Schedule.
© Brigid K. Presecky (4/21/20) FF2 Media
