My SXSW 2015 Diaries: A glimpse into *some* of the madness of the Interactive and Film portion of the event…

It’s hard to capture really what SXSW is like without you actually attending yourself. There really is nothing else like it. Just the pure variety of people you meet and things you get to do… there’s no equal. I took my camera along to the festival – which ended a couple of weeks ago now – and I thought I’d share a few of those moments with you now, in the hopes that you get a *glimpse* into the madness and the variety…

Pictured above is Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn lending his microphone to a woman who ended up proposing to her partner following a screening of Ryan Gosling’s film Lost River, as Ryan and his cast – Medelsohn included – looked on. It was a lovely moment and captured one thing that’s unique about the SXSW Film Festival – it attracts some people who genuinely love cinema. And possibly Ryan Gosling.

There are often beautiful sunsets in Austin, and I managed to capture this one on one of my first days in the city. The Texas flag features prominently, as it does through a lot of the city (and State for that matter), while the famous “Owl Building” sits in the background.

Tech company Gigya threw a poker night during the interactive portion of the festival, where you played a standard run of casino games to try and win tickets to enter into draws for prizes. Free drinks were of course included and it was the sort of event that you’d only find at SXSW. Or maybe on a a cruise ship.

Also during the interactive portion, Fullscreen threw an event that didn’t let most of its punters into the main room to watch Reggie Watts – ourselves included. But, thankfully, they left us out where all the free food and drinks were and we were able to enjoy Reggie on the big screen. Some of the best sliders I had that whole week were in that room…

Here’s Director Hal Hartley and actress Aubrey Plaza having a quiet moment in between a long run of interviews, promoting the film Ned Rifle – one of two films that Plaza had on at the event. They’re long days for everyone at this event…

Food Trucks are always a part of Austin, but no more so than during SXSW, with extra special trucks adding themselves to the mix. One such food truck was converted into a mobile Kwik-E-Mart, giving away free Squishees while showing episodes of The Simpsons on the back…

And then there was a replica of Bates Motel, from the classic film Psycho, that’s been turned into an A&E TV series. Built in a parking lot just for the festival, the Motel was a full working model, with the TV network offering guests the chance to spend a night in the Motel, right across the street from the convention centre. If you were one of the guests lucky enough to win a night, we’d love to hear about your experience. Or… perhaps no one survived?

And then there was the conference itself, from Japanese robot start ups, to special areas dedicated to the music and technology of countries like Singapore, Great Britain, New Zealand and indeed, Australia… and then there was NASA, who had built an interactive centre right at the back of the conference hall (which you can see in the distance in this photo). It would require days of your time to get to sample all of the stalls on offer – and luckily they do give you just that.

The film portion of the festival isn’t just about film anymore… but it’s now television as well, with new series premiering their first episodes at the event. One such series was Mr. Robot starring Christian Slater (no, just Slater*), which featured a bunch of hooded gentlemen at the entrance to the VIMEO screening theatre. We were lucky enough to walk away with one of those jackets ourselves… did we mention you get a lot of free shit at SXSW?

One of Austin’s most well known record stores, Waterloo Records, threw parties for the entire week of SXSW with special performances along the way. After the madness had died down, however, we headed along with Perth group The Love Junkies to buy a few records. We highly recommended a day of decompression after the madness has subsided. And a day at a record store never hurt anyone… except maybe your bank account. Look out for our video feature of that day, which will be online soon!

For all of our SXSW escapades, head over to our SXSW hub: https://www.theaureview.com/event/sxsw

*10 points if you get the reference.

Larry Heath

Founding Editor and Publisher of the AU review. Currently based in Toronto, Canada. You can follow him on Twitter @larry_heath or on Instagram @larryheath.