“I don’t eat or smoke pot but I decided I needed to eat a pot brownie to go to the UT RTF SXSW party. Keefe Boerner, who is the assistant director [of] production services at Moody College of Communication, rushed me to St. David’s, where I was not able to even speak or relate that I had eaten a pot brownie. I just remember being incapacitated and seeing the students from our film (Pahokee) around the hospital bed looking at me and shaking their heads. Keefe really did save my life.”
Patrick Bresnan, Director, “The Passing”
“Patrick was a straight edge for most of his youth. He really had no idea about the effects of pot brownies. He met a friend at the dog park in Red Bud Isle who made them all the time, and he gave Patrick some one day. Patrick brought them home. Before he left for the party, he must have thought eating one would relax him a little bit. I was leaving for a SX film editors gathering when I saw him getting ready to leave. He said, ‘By the way, I ate one of those brownies.’ I gasped, ‘You ate a whole brownie? You’re not supposed to eat that much!’ He must have been taken aback, so he said, ‘Just kidding,’ and left. I believed him. Next thing I know I’m leaving the gathering and I get a phone call from Keefe. Patrick was in the hospital because he thought he was dying. It was just too much for him. He could not speak to explain, but what Patrick said later is that he had this feeling like he was dying in the parking lot. He saw his life flash before his eyes and couldn’t believe it would all end there, at the AFS Cinema parking lot after eating a pot brownie. Keefe found him in that state and took him to the ER. The kids from Pahokee and I were all shaking our heads because we knew about pot. But Patrick, unfortunately, had no idea. I don’t think he’s ever touched any other form of pot again.”
Ivete Lucas, Director, “The Passing,” screening as part of the Texas Short Program. Friday 8, 5:45pm; Monday 11, 11am, Rollins Theatre at the Long Center.
“South By 2014, we had our baseball documentary (No No: A Dockumentary), and coincidentally the band the Baseball Project, which is this all-star group includes some members of R.E.M. off and on, was coming to SXSW. They had a song about Dock Ellis – ‘The Day Dock Went Hunting Heads.’ So Jann Baskett, who at the time served on the Austin Film Society board with me, she was friends with them and they were playing the Yard Dog event, and her and her husband Randy Franklin own the Yard Dog gallery. So we called it the Dock Ellis Convergence. We went to see their shows, they came to see the movie, and one of the best moments was at one of their later concerts in the week, Scott McCaughey, the guitarist, says from the stage, ‘Hey, we’re about to play this song, we saw this great movie about Dock Ellis the other night. I think it plays a couple more times.’ And Linda Pitmon behind the drums quickly became my favorite person in the world because she then, off the top of her head, spits out the time and location of each of the remaining screenings.”
Mike Blizzard, Producer, Clemente. Monday 11, 3:30pm, Alamo South Lamar; Thursday 14, 11am, Stateside.
“March 11, 2017: I was told I set a record for most films premiering on the same day at SXSW: 1pm at the State was La Barracuda (since renamed Barracuda by our distributor), 4:30pm at the Rollins was Through the Repellent Fence. 11:55pm at the State was The Honor Farm.
In between those second two screenings we had a big party at Cheer Up Charlies (which to me is synonymous with SXSW film parties) wherein I lost my voice.
Each film is pretty different from the other, from psychological family suspense to art documentary to high school mushroom trip prom horror, but I love them all and watching them with enthusiastic audiences was incredible (which goes without saying at SXSW). Amazon Studios was doling out the dough that year so we had distribution set for each film and by the time I got home at 4am (don’t forget to spring ahead y’all!) I sat on the couch with the biggest, most tired and self-satisfied grin on my face. That is a feeling I will never forget. Whew!”
David Hartstein, Director, Faders Up: The John Aielli Experience. Screens Sunday 10, 2:30pm, Paramount Theatre; Wednesday 13, 11am & 11:30am, Alamo South Lamar.
This article appears in March 8 • 2024.
