Festivals

This is what you will likely find me watching this weekend

Most movies are the merging of technology and short stories, novels or sagas. Manglehorn is technology merged with a poem. It is the story of a locksmith who has lost the love of his life because of something he has done and lives in self-imposed isolation. Manglehorn has constructed a cocoon of memories and fantasies, keeping his son, a former protégé, and the hope of new love at arm’s length.

Two remarkable biographies premiered on the screens of SXSW this year. 'The Last Man on the Moon,' profiling Astronaut Gene Cernan, and 'Love and Mercy,' which brings us into the life of Beach Boys' Brian Wilson.

SXSW hosted the premier of the restored classic, The Breakfast Club, written and directed by John Hughes. But the event wasn't so much a premier as it was a celebration of a movie that has touched a generation or two. With its upcoming special theatrical showings and release to Blu-ray and video, it is sure to touch a few more. When the doors opened, we were given Breakfast Club t-shirts and treated to a breakfast of donuts, coffee and mimosas. Thank you, Universal Studios.

Run on out to your local Best Buy and pick up a copy before the next full moon, you won’t be sorry.

The fantastic and the real are parallel worlds. Fantasy can help us slide over rough patches or painful times in various stages of our lives. For 16-year-old Davinia, the two realms have coexisted peacefully. The magical realm helps her overcome the hardships she faces taking care of her debilitated mom who is in a wheelchair. It is when Davinia decides to make decisions about her life after her 16th birthday that Sterling enters her life. Can he be the prince/unicorn who has inhabited her fanciful dreams? Or will she make him into a dragon? She, after all, holds the wand of magic, but she is taking a risk and may lose everything she finds comforting.

Flexing the mental muscles of this year's SXSW attendees are debates about robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Both Interactive sessions and films shed light on this topic.

Based on true events, Hirut Assefa, a 14-year-old Ethiopian school girl was the victim of telefa, a marriage abduction. Usually, when this happens, the girls are so demoralized that they do not resist, nor can they resist because their husband-to-be has the help of his friends to make the successful kidnapping. Hirut's story is different; what happens as a result of her kidnapping is an enthralling and eye-opening lesson in how one girl can take a stand for many, and in her stand, others join in to begin a movement to overthrow a system that existed for centuries.

Donna Stern is a stand-up comedienne whose comedy act has gone over the edge when she levels her shot-gun humor at her boyfriend who sits at the bar. After he breaks up with her, she tries to recoup but unbeknownst to her, she sets out on a collision course with deniability. If she wakes up in time to save herself, she will be able to use her humorous experiences in her act like she always does. If she doesn't, she and reality will collide and just maybe she'll have to step into adulthood.

Every ten minutes a woman dies from not having access to a safe abortion-Upworthy. Dutch physician Rebecca Gomperts treated women who had gravely injured themselves trying to induce a miscarriage in countries with restrictive abortion laws. The misery, the suffering, the death was so disheartening when just beyond their grasp, these women could have been in safety with non surgical medical abortions if they had only been given access. How Dr. Gomperts finds a solution to this global issue that is also threatening to become an issue in the US is the subject of the incredible documentary 'Vessel.'