Wednesday, March 18, 2009

SXSW docs online for free!

Confessions of a Superhero is a feature length documentary that chronicles the lives of three mortal men and one mortal woman who make their living working as superhero characters on Hollywood Boulevard. The Hulk sold his Super Nintendo for a bus ticket to LA; Wonder Woman was a mid-western homecoming queen; Batman struggles with his anger, while Superman’s psyche is consumed by the Man of Steel. This deeply personal view into their daily routines reveals their hardships and triumphs as they pursue and achieve their own kind of fame.

Heavy Metal in Baghdad is a feature film documentary that follows the Iraqi heavy metal band Acrassicauda from the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 to the present day. Playing heavy metal in a Muslim country has always been a difficult (if not impossible) proposition but after Saddam’s regime was toppled, there was a brief moment for the band in which real freedom seemed possible. That hope was quickly dashed as their country fell into a bloody insurgency. From 2003-2006, Iraq disintegrated around them while Acrassicauda struggled to stay together and stay alive, always refusing to let their heavy metal dreams die. Their story echoes the unspoken hopes of an entire generation of young Iraqis.

The Least of These explores one of the most controversial aspects of American immigration policy: family detention. As part of the Bush administration policy to end what they termed the “catch and release’” of undocumented immigrants, the U.S. government opened the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in May 2006 as a prototype family detention facility. The facility is a former medium-security prison in central Texas operated by CCA, the largest private prison operator in the country. The facility houses immigrant children and their parents from all over the world who are awaiting asylum hearings or deportation proceedings.

Crawford: In 1999, then Governor George W. Bush bought a ranch in the one-stoplight town of Crawford, Texas, calling it “home” just in time to set his sights on the White House. Having invented Bush’s “folksy image,” the campaign’s victory thrusts Crawford onto the world stage and an insular community of barely 700 explodes overnight. While the high school band plays the inauguration and the Baptist pastor declares a miracle, Crawfordites sell souvenirs hand over fist, finding themselves nearly trampled under the heels of the international press corps, patriotic tourists and boomtown opportunists. Then, four and a half years into Bush’s tenure, Cindy Sheehan and her peace movement arrive at the doorstep of the “Western White House.” Crawford takes center stage.

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