SXSW revvs up it's engine and is set to roAARRRR! Harry looks at STEAL THIS MOVIE! and Ron Mann's GRASS

After 23 days of traveling the western hemisphere.... by boat, by plane and by horseless carriage, I have finally returned to the land that borne me, and what should these wandering eyes behold, but the kickoff for the SXSW film festival.

No rest for the weary it seems, but the weary ain't ever had it so good. Coming off of the PCP shivers and a strong case of the stripper crotch ache, I instantly flung my blubberous mass into the throes of the SXSW beast at the Austin Convention Center.

Gathering up me badge, Father Geek and I decided to set our bulbous asses down at a table and check out the swag bag you receive upon registration. Fake Vomit, cool earphones, free cover to the local strip club, little wooden shoes, 3 cds, Entertainment Weekly that calls me 'LOSER OF THE WEEK', Wizard that says a lot of really nice things about me, various pieces of paper that purport to be of some import.

While shuffling through this Charles-Foster-Kane-ish collection of absurdities, I found myself descended down upon by a gathering of cornstalkers... Folks from up in Nebraska that had piled into a Ford Taurus and flew down the interstates to make it to SXSW. They have that zealot zeal to left righthand quandrant of their corneas, and they seem very excited about the panel I've put together with Robert Rodriguez and John Carpenter for Sunday.

I let them know about an equally cool panel I assembled with me for this coming Monday with the DUDE, Guillermo Del Toro and... Tim McCanlies (screenwriter of THE IRON GIANT... Todd, you can still make it!), called LOS TRES GORDOS: A rotund look at the belly of Hollywood. Yes, I'm aware of the fact that that means 3 Fat Guys, and there are in fact 4 of us on the panel.... but Tim came on late, so I'll refer to him as 'the skinny guy' or el flaco.

Immediately upon organizing the hunk of junk, I found the company of Flesh Gordon, Quint, Tom Joad, Captain Blood, Johnny Wad and Annette Kellerman. We put ourselves into a slightly smaller phalanx and decided to take on the little opening party on the patio of the Convention Center. We hooked up with two gorgeous security guardettes and decided to help defend the party from those that did not belong. Helping us in this Alamo endeavor was Rana Joy Glickman, Elvis Mitchell and Todd Phillips + other loons. Rana and I talked about the meaning of life. Elvis and I about the world of film. And Todd Phillips and I about the world of scandal sheet press and how the damage control story never gets quite the push as the initial screams of misdoings.

Upon the correct level of consumption of coagalated milk and paint thinner, we set out to the first film of SXSW...

STEAL THIS MOVIE, a film about Abbie Hoffman that it looks like LION'S GATE has. Vincent D'Onofrio stars as Abbie and has Garafolo as his wife, Kevin Pollack as his lawyer, Jeanne Tripplehorn as his lover and folks... this movie kicked some ass man. Of course that's coming from a slightly left of a Kennedy liberal from the bastion of leftist society in Texas, here in Austin... But growing up in the hippie subculture, and having actually met Hoffman while he was in his underground period. This film was a lightning fast rememberance of one of the greatest peace-niks this country has ever seen.

D'Onofrio is wonderful in this film, and it kind of makes ya wonder why he ever takes those yuck yuck roles as various psychopaths, when he has this type of acting chops on his rack.

The film details a great deal of his life of activism... from registering black voters, his association with the Black Panthers, his anti-Vietnam protesting and his seeming wild paranoid underground descent as well as his ascent from that dark world.

Feeling a bit like an Oliver Stone film in both tone and ferocity of 60's iconic images... this movie talks about the 'other' dirty tricks that tricky dick played on more than just his political opponents. Scary stuff. Especially when while speaking at meetings there would be 3 or 4 folks in the public talk back area crying out 'Sell-Out'. Hmmm.... things change?

After that film came the movie I've been waiting for from documentary filmmaker d'jour... Ron Mann.

To anyone that has seen his brilliant documentary, COMIC BOOK CONFIDENTIAL, it is well established that this is our geek documentarian. And this time out he set down the funny papers and picked up the rolling papers as he did his portrait of anti-marajuana propaganda from the government, entitled... GRASS.

As I told Ron himself, "Your movie is Fucking Fantastic."

By focusing only upon the issue of Marajuana Smoking, and completely ignoring the issues of medical marajuana use or the hemp industries, Ron has created a vitally focused film that really unveils the absurdity of trying to enforce as well as incarcerate every pot smoker in the country.

This is a perfect piece of work from Ron. The documentary is entertaining, informative and persuading. In the 'marajuana enthusiastic' audience at the Paramount Theater.... about 950 strong btw... the film was met with cheers, laughs and mucho applause.

GRASS has got limited distribution in the U.S. and I really can't stress enough how much you ought to go see this movie. Like Frank Capra's WHY WE FIGHT films, Ron Mann has taken "the man's" own propaganda tools and turned them 180 degrees around till he blows their heads off with the bullshit they've been spewing for years.

And btw... WHAT A SOUNDTRACK! Man! Everything from Cab Calloway's REEFER MAN to TEA FOR TWO to Jefferson Airplane to Country Joe and the Fish and on and on and on.

Then there is the narration by... Woody Harrelson, which just goes to show ya why he's so damn cool.

After the screening we all high tailed it on over to the Opening Night Party where we threw back drinks and merriment till the wee hours of the dawn. Got to meet Ginger Lynn, who Johnny Wad and Tom Joad liked to have jizzed all over. You should have seen them. It was funny. Meanwhile, I met a lovely lady and spent the wee hours in polite conversation.

What a great evening/day and afternoon. Now it's time for Round 2. Report in with more as it comes!