When you wake suddenly from a dream about Doc Brown and Libyan terrorists who drive around in a VW bus to a loud, static-masked radio station at 7:30 am, you know it’s going to be a long day. (Confused? Read yesterday’s SXSW blog here.) A couple cups of coffee and one continental buffet breakfast later, however, and I was good to go—it really is America’s Best Value!

The Austin Convention Center hosted the SXSW panel discussions for both the Film and Interactive festival line-up. An interesting thing occurred at every film panel I attended, though. No matter where the talk started, it always seemed to get hi-jacked by questions and comments about online distribution, digital content, etc. No panel was complete, it seemed, unless the discussion took a hard left turn into Internet video. Am I the only one left who doesn’t like watching movies on a tiny screen with crappy sound?

The seemingly instantaneous growth of online video is amazing, and I’m right there with it, making shorts and reviews about anything I can get my hands on. But when it comes to a feature-length film, I still enjoy the theatrical experience above all else—except when I have to drive too far to go see it. Then again, it was a little over five years ago that I said I’d never stop shopping in record stores and look what happened.

As the panels continued well on into the day, I took a breather and caught another unsigned indie documentary that revolved around a bizarre American subculture—the obsessed Harry Potter fan.

Like Cameron Crowe’s classic 70s rock valentine “Almost Famous,” “We Are Wizards” explores what its like to be a true fan. The catch is that director Josh Koury believes hardcore fandom is a gateway drug to becoming your own creative person. He’s out to prove it with profiles of a new breed of musicians who call their brand of guitar-based noise “wizard rock.” Confused? The song lyrics take on a perspective of a beloved (Harry and the Potters) or hated (Draco and the Malfoys) character from Potter lore and the players are just almost listenable. Think Iron Maiden cribbing “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” but without all the musicianship and a way bigger sense of humor.

Because Koury doesn’t develop his subjects far enough beyond being amusing curiosities, the movie never quite takes flight, but some of them are quite charming, especially the DeGeorge brothers, who play Harry Year 4 and Harry Year 7 while onstage. One Harry Potter fan (movies only—never read the books!) had such an unhealthy obsession, the film argues, that he recorded his own alternate audio track to the “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” movie. Brad Neely’s “fan art” goes far beyond that of the bands, and it seems like his twisted art career would have followed whether Potter ever existed or not. Regardless, his personal take on the characters is hilarious and a welcome respite from the geeky serious love of the other Potter freaks.

“We Are Wizards” is an interesting look into a cult I knew little about, and I dig the idea that reading a book can serve as inspiration to go out and do something.

After trying to hail a cab at the only dead intersection in all of downtown Austin, Craig and I finally made it to the South Lamar Alamo Drafthouse with seconds to spare before a showing of Alex Gibney’s hot-offa-Sundance documentary “Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson.” The celebrated filmmaker (who just won an Oscar for “Taxi to the Dark Side” a couple weeks ago) has successfully brought to life the work of a maverick and prescient writer who we will never see the likes of again.

Okay, I’ll admit, I’m a little biased, having read and enjoyed at least four of the man’s books. But—if anything—I would think that would make me a tougher audience, too. Gibney starts it off right, reading from a column Thompson wrote on September 11, 2001, where the off-kilter journalist, writing for ESPN, correctly predicted the aftermath of this terrible strike way before we were ready to even accept that it had even happened.

“It will be a Religious War, a sort of Christian Jihad, fueled by religious hatred and led by merciless fanatics on both sides. It will be guerilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and no identifiable enemy.” (Click here to read the full piece.)

Although he may have been slipping in his old age (a point that the movie doesn’t shy away from), that quote proves that even in his darkest hour, the man knew his stuff and could write it with more blunt truth than anyone else.

There’s a lot of ground to cover in “Gonzo,” and Gibney does it with the author’s own words, as read, appropriately, by Johnny Depp. But the documentarian is also smart enough to address the journalistic quandry of Thompson’s writing as well as its legend. At one point does the reporter become the story? Can “a salt shaker half full of cocaine and a whole galaxy of multicolored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers” actually illuminate the point or does that style of writing completely miss it? It should be obvious to anyone who watches “Gonzo” that Thompson’s perspective was challenging. And while it made for recklessly entertaining and thought-provoking writing, it was Hell on the home front.

“Gonzo” is at once a celebration of a genre-busting writer/rabble-rouser and an elegy for a time period when a freak like Thompson could get access to political leaders and actually affect some kind of radical change. Interviews with Jimmy Carter, George McGovern, and Pat Buchanan are particularly enlightening and “Gonzo” made wish we had someone like Raoul Duke embedded in the current presidential race, telling it like it is—or as they see it.

Next on Eric’s SXSW blog: Seann William Scott and David Schwimmer, oh my!

Tags: 2008, alex gibney, brad neely, draco and the malfoys, film festival, gonzo, harry and the potters, hunter s. thompson, interactive, josh koury, music, raoul duke, SXSW, we are wizards, wizard people

I’ve only been away from Austin, TX now for 24 hours, and I’ve got a huge hangover—not from drinking (although I did my fare share), but because the work at my job that didn’t get done while I was gone is piling up around me and threatening to bury me. There’s something liberating about listening to engaging panel discussions about the state of the interactive world and seeing as many free movies as you like as you rub shoulders with cool celebs like Jeffrey Tambor (”Arrested Development”), Doug Benson (”Super High Me”), and Morgan Spurlock (”30 Days,” “Super Size Me”). The extent of my interaction with each? I’ll let you guess who was who.

1. “Hey, I really enjoyed your acting workshop. That was great.”
2. (pointing) “Heyyyyyy, Doug Benson!”
3. “Hey.”

My South by Southwest escapade may be over, but if the film portion of the festival is any indication, 2008 might shape up to be a pretty great year in film. Of course, for anyone who lives in Austin, every year is a good year because these lucky cinemaniacs live in the home of the world-renowned Alamo Drafthouse chain of theaters. People outside of Austin are finally starting to see what a cool deal they have as the forward-thinking Drafthouses have been popping up in San Antonio, Houston, and Katy, TX.

The geniuses at the Alamo have concocted the perfect mix of arthouse fare, mainstream flicks, and cult movies to spotlight while their variously pierced, T-shirt clad waiters and waitresses bring you a full menu of drinks and dinner. The kicker? You can eat on the bar ledge right in front of you and you never have to get up for another beer (provided you order a bucket of Lone Star, which I recommend highly).

After getting the pleasantries of hotel/badge check-in and bar-hopping out of the way, my friend Craig and I headed straight to the South Lamar Drafthouse showing “Back to the Future” at midnight. I ran into my old pal George, who filled me in that the Master Pancake Theatre (formerly Mr. Sinus Theater) boys would be poking fun Mystery Science Theater-style of one of the 1980s defining works of art. Years ago, when touring with Ultimate Fakebook, I had seen Mr. Sinus tear down the holy scrolls of “Footloose” and “The Lost Boys” and I will never be able to look at those movies the same again.

Friday night was no different. The timing these guys have is impeccable—they just sit there in the front row, drinking beer and heckling. It’s a beautiful thing; especially the late show when the kid gloves are off, content-wise. I’ve often wondered if it would be possible for them to take their act on the road. Maybe if the Alamo chain ever spreads up to Kansas, we might get lucky some day.

For the next four days, I crammed as many movies I had and hadn’t heard of into as much time as I could, and I didn’t see a single bad film. Ironically, my first official film of the festival was my favorite—a tiny-budgeted indie documentary called “Second Skin.”

I knew very little about the world of MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Gaming), except that I was scared. Would it be a movie about nerdy little freaks that hole up in their rooms for days on end with nothing but pizza, Doritos, and the blue light of a computer screen to keep them alive? The surprising answer is no. Brothers Juan Carlos Piñeiro Escoriaza (director) and Victor Piñeiro Escoriaza (writer/co-producer) covered the wide spectrum of this addictive and increasingly common form of entertainment by expertly juggling multiple storylines (each with a surprisingly involving story arc). One couple falls in love after their attractively endowed avatars do a bizarre flirty dance together, one gamer loses everything and heads to role-playing rehab (who knew there was such a place?), and a group of gaming buddies who call their living room the Fortress of Dorkitude begin to disintegrate as some members gradually grow up and have children.

As if it weren’t enough to follow the film’s three fascinating main timelines, the Escoriaza brothers briefly explore other fringes of the online gaming world such as “gold farmers” who sell virtual swords and virtual armor to online players for real cash. Their attention to storytelling really shows through in their organization, because when one person’s big reveal comes late into the film, it completely changes the story’s context. “Second Skin” was made with a lot of care towards building character and has the same affection for those characters as “The King of Kong” last year. This movie deserves to be picked up, and fast. Marketed with the right savvy, it could have a huge potential audience. After all, the videogame industry makes way more then the movie industry.

Coming Next: Draco & the Malfoys and the good Dr. Gonzo.

Tags: 2008, alamo drafthouse, austin, film festival, interactive, jeffrey tambor, master pancake, movie, music, second skin, south by southwest, SXSW