Reg Harkema at SXSW

Director Reg Harkema’s Monkey Warfare won much acclaim at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Set in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood, the razor-sharp black comedy stars Don McKellar and Tracy Wright as two bicycle-riding activists living off the grid, searching for junk to sell on eBay. Harkema is at the SXSW film festival in Austin, Tx. He’ll be keeping an online diary for CBC Arts Online throughout the event.

Tuesday started with a panel called Don't Blame Canada, which I did with Rick Craine (Manufacturing Dissent), Ron Mann (too many docs to mention, including Tales of the Rat Fink), Peter Howell (Toronto Star) and Jennifer Price (hip bureaucrat from the Canadian consulate). It was not as sparsely attended as I expected, probably because of Rick and Ron. I paid tribute to Ron by standing up and showing off my Rat belt buckle.

After the panel, I was depressed and in real need of a serotonin zap. The music fest was starting and the film stuff was literally being torn down around me as I did my previous blog post. (For this one, I had to trade a record to use the computer of a very nice volunteer named Linda.) Plus, it was raining worse than in Vancouver.

Director Reg Harkema’s Monkey Warfare won much acclaim at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Set in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood, the razor-sharp black comedy stars Don McKellar and Tracy Wright as two bicycle-riding activists living off the grid, searching for junk to sell on eBay. Harkema is at the SXSW film festival in Austin, Tx. He’ll be keeping an online diary for CBC Arts Online throughout the event.

Cindy and I made the fatal mistake of dining downtown on Monday at a rip-off place called Jaime's, I think. Cindy had an enchilada and I had 3 wimpy guacamole tacos. Two margaritas and a side of guac for Cindy and the bill was 50 bucks Canadian. Then we looked through our party invites and learned that there was a SAG Indie party with free Tex Mex food in a couple hours!

We met up with my man Ryan Noth from filmCAN, who had just arrived. He co-directed an interactive movie about Jandek that is playing during the music part of the festival. That gets you a Platinum pass.

Director Reg Harkema’s Monkey Warfare won much acclaim at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Set in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood, the razor-sharp black comedy stars Don McKellar and Tracy Wright as two bicycle-riding activists living off the grid, searching for junk to sell on eBay. Harkema is at the SXSW film festival in Austin, Tx. He’ll be keeping an online diary for CBC Arts Online throughout the event.

The time sprung forward an hour Sunday, which has messed everyone up. Cindy and I pack our bags, because we are moving to a motel today. We wait a couple of hours for our friend Chris to wake up, the kind of courtesy one extends to a punk-rock host.

Chris takes us to a vintage motel called the Austin Motel. I love it and I smother Cindy with kisses for booking it (before pulling out my Visa card to pay the outrageous festival rates).

Director Reg Harkema’s Monkey Warfare won much acclaim at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Set in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood, the razor-sharp black comedy stars Don McKellar and Tracy Wright as two bicycle-riding activists living off the grid, searching for junk to sell on eBay. Harkema is at the SXSW film festival in Austin, Tx. He’ll be keeping an online diary for CBC Arts Online throughout the event.

Today started out great. Matt Dentler, the head of the SXSW film festival, grabbed us and told us to check out the GreenCine website. David Hudson was at the 1st screening of Monkey Warfare and he described it as “a perfect opener, as casually idiosyncratic as the festival itself.”

So that made Cindy and I feel good about ourselves. Then we checked our email and there was a note from our producer, Jennifer Jonas, telling us that we had been turned down by the Tribeca Film Festival. Damn. I want to put the screws to Robert DeNiro, if I ever see him, and get our $50 entry fee back.

Director Reg Harkema’s Monkey Warfare won much acclaim at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Set in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood, the razor-sharp black comedy stars Don McKellar and Tracy Wright as two bicycle-riding activists living off the grid, searching for junk to sell on eBay. Harkema is at the SXSW film festival in Austin, Tx. He’ll be keeping an online diary for CBC Arts Online throughout the event.

Cindy and I started the day Friday by taking the wrong bus to an interview with the Austin Movie Television Channel (I think that's what it is called). We got interviewed on television, but before doing so we had to take our shirts off (the ones that say "I F--- The Man") and put them on inside out. What is with the tyranny of fear around that word? Parents with children, I guess.

We were then shuttled around Austin by a really nice artist dude named Roly who was driving for the TV show. He brought us to a T-Mobil store so Cindy could learn how to hook up the cell phone we've purchased (complete with local area number) for the SXSW film fest. Neither of us has ever used a cell phone, so it took a bit of time to figure it out. After that, Roly dropped us off in hell otherwise known as SXSW registration.

Director Reg Harkema’s Monkey Warfare won much acclaim at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Set in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood, the razor-sharp black comedy stars Don McKellar and Tracy Wright as two bicycle-riding activists living off the grid, searching for junk to sell on eBay. Harkema is at the SXSW film festival in Austin, Tx. He’ll be keeping an online diary for CBC Arts Online throughout the event.

Our flight for Austin left Pearson airport at 6:25 am on Thursday. Cindy Wolfe (my props master, research and clearance gal, actress, publicist and girlfriend) stayed up all night to get our swag ready for the festival. We have t-shirts and buttons (that say "I F--- The Man"), postcards, stickers and promo-only vinyl soundtracks. I was printing out colour 1-sheets for my next two projects — Death Trip and Leslie — as the cab arrived at the door.