My first night was a long one, ending with a midnight short film collection at Alamo Drafthouse which included such bizarre offerings as a teenager still attached to his mother by umbilical cord and the story of a girl whose selfies keep getting deleted from Instagram … because she has an asshole for a mouth. I also learned that horse dicks are funny, and you can never forget Gwilliam. Night of the Slasher, which I mentioned yesterday, was part of the program, and I plan to interview some of the creators today.
I was back downtown at 9:30 am today after barely any sleep to attend a panel on the possibilities of ‘sousveillance,’ or surveillance from the bottom-up. Oren Yakobovich, creator of Videre, talked about helping dissidents and victims of human rights abuses use hidden cameras to seek justice, while panel partner Omer Tene talked about protecting privacy in an age of body cameras and mass surveillance. I’ll be writing about this panel next week for MintPress News.
And tonight, I’m attending the world premiere of “Ovarian Psycos,” a documentary about a women of color cycling crew in East Los Angeles. Here’s a description from the filmmakers’ website:
The Ovarian Psycos gear up and ride out into the night, fanning out in pairs of two, four, and six. In constant motion, cruising up and down the storied streets of Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles, and Lincoln Heights, they call out to new riders to join them in a journey through the neighborhood. “Whose streets? Our streets!”
I hope to interview the creators tomorrow for an article to be published on Approximately 8,000 Words.
Of course, my most exciting news from today is that I’ve been granted a 15 minute interview with Wendy Davis and Dawn Porter, the director of “Trapped.” The screening I saw last night left me wiping tears from my eyes, so I’m excited to talk to the creator this afternoon — and ask Wendy a question or two about the intersection of reproductive justice activism and politics.
Thanks for following along on my adventure. I’ll start posting SXSW articles here on the blog soon, so check back often. I’m also livetweeting everything I can on my Twitter, so be sure to follow @KitOConnell. And, if you can, please donate to my SXSW coverage or share my crowdfunding campaign.
