Even though Austin is home to some of the world's most passionate fans of genre filmmaking, this year's South by Southwest featured a relatively modest slate of horror, sci-fi and fantasy material. Thankfully, however, SXSW programmers included a one-stop-shop for virtually any kind of genre fan, a documentary entitled American Grindhouse, to fill in the gaps between monster movies, smut, and all-around exploitation filth that was otherwise absent from the festival schedule. Directed by Elijah Drenner, the documentary utilizes interviews with genre luminaries including Joe Dante, John Landis, David Hess, Herschel Gordon Lewis, and many others to take a long and detailed look back at the history of exploitation cinema, from its earliest days to its triumphant resurgence in the last decade.
I was lucky enough to sit down with Drenner for a conversation about the opportunities and challenges of chronicling the rich, varied history of grindhouse cinema. In addition to talking about finding the film's narrative structure, Drenner reflected on a few of American Grindhouse's more surprising revelations, and offered his thoughts about the legacy and lasting artistic merit of grindhouse films and filmmakers. Check out our conversation after the jump.
// More: SXSW 2010 Exclusive: 'American Grindhouse' Director Elijah Drenner
When Repo Men opens this March 19th, Alice Braga will hit the screen as a woman who's equal parts Bionic Woman and badass killer. But that doesn't mean Braga can't be sensitive and soft too. When we caught up with her at the Repo Men press conference in New York City, she talked about everything from how she made impromptu surgery sexy, to what it was like carrying a 14-pound rifle around the set of Predators. Beware of some spoilers that lurk below.
In Repo Men, Jude Law and Forest Whitaker take a turn as ex-soldiers who snag jobs reclaiming organs. While the premise sounds more than gruesome -- and plenty of blood and tears are spilled -- Whitaker and Law explained just how important the horror factor was in conveying the story of a dystopic future where best friends are forced to be enemies.
Check out their comments below, including descriptions of the scenes that didn't make it in the final cut, and as with all of our Repo Men coverage, beware of spoilers along the way.
// More: Stealing Organs & Extreme Violence in 'Repo Men' with Forest Whitaker & Jude Law
