Moody College at SXSW 2016

Faculty, students, staff and alumni represent at interactive, film and music festivals

SXSW 2016 Banner

The Moody College always has a significant presence across events at the annual festivals hosted through South by Southwest. Here is how Moody faculty, students, staff and alumni are involved. SXSW runs Friday, March 11 through Sunday, March 20. Join the conversation by using hashtag #UTatSXSW.

*Note: All films being screened at SXSW will cater first to platinum, gold, film, and film festival wristband badgeholders before releasing remaining tickets for purchase to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. Only the first screening of each film is listed on this page, though most films screen three to four times throughout the festival. Click on the link directly below to visit the SXSW website for a list of all Moody College events and multiple screenings or on the "SXSW Listing" link on individual descriptions for each film's screening dates and times. 

View a collapsible schedule of all Moody College events on the SXSW website including all screenings

Friday, March 11

Wenhong Chen
Mobile Ventures’ Identity and Privacy Management


A range of mobile ventures have built business on better privacy management to mine and monetize user data. Yet, too much disclosure may decrease data sharing. The public discourse has been dominated by the consumer side of the story, centering on a privacy paradox as users trade privacy for service. Moving beyond, this panel adopts a producer’s perspective with speakers from the public, private, advocacy and education sectors.

Friday, March 11
3:30 p.m. to 4:30 pm

Hilton Austin Downtown
Salon B
500 E 4th Street

Event Category: Sessions
SXSW Listing 
Hashtag: #sxsw
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Interactive, Gold or Platinum

Paul Toprac - Mentor Session


Mentor Sessions enable less-established new media professionals to gain seven minutes of direct one-on-one career-related counsel from a more established, more experienced new media professional. This mentor session will require advance online sign up. 

Friday, March 11
3:30 p.m. to 4:30 pm

JW Marriott
Room 504
110 E 2nd Street

Event Category: Sessions
SXSW Listing 
Hashtag: #sxsw
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Interactive, Gold or Platinum

“Everybody Wants Some”
Director: Richard Linklater
Actor: Tanner Kalina (RTF student)


In Richard Linklater’s anticipated “spiritual sequel” to “Dazed and Confused,” a group of college friends navigate their way through the freedoms and responsibilities of the wild final weekend of the summer of 1980.

Format: Narrative Feature

Friday, March 11
6:30 p.m. to 8:26 p.m.

Paramount Theatre
713 Congress Avenue
,
(multiple venues after first screening)

SXSW Listing 
Hashtag: #sxsw
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Film, Interactive, Gold, Platinum or Film Festival Wristband

“Richard Linklater – Dream is Destiny”
Directors: Louis Black (MA ’80), Karen Bernstein


Note: This film premiered at Sundance 2016.

The film is a feature-length documentary on the filmmaker Richard Linklater and an unusual look at a fiercely independent film style that emerged from Austin, Texas, in the 1990s.

Format: Documentary Feature

Friday, March 11
9:15 p.m. to 10:45 p.m

Satellite Venue: Marchesa
6226 Middle Fiskville

(multiple venues after first screening)

SXSW Listing 
Hashtag: #sxsw
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Film, Gold, Platinum or Film Festival Wristband

Congratulations to RTF filmmakers whose shorts will play at SXSW including:

“Becoming Blair”
Directors: Bri Barsalou (RTF undergraduate)


Note: This film premiered at Slamdance 2016.

An exploration of the lifestyle and challenges faced by those who are transgender through the lens of one individual, Blair.

Format: Documentary Short

Friday, March 11
10 p.m. to 11:28 p.m.

Vimeo Theater
531 E 4th Street

(multiple venues after first screening)

SXSW Listing 
Hashtag: #sxsw #becomingblair
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Film, Gold, Platinum or Film Festival Wristband

“Joan on the Phone”
Director/Screenwriter: Kayla Abuda Galang (BS '14)


This world premiere centers around Joan delivering an overzealous apology in a series of voicemails.

Format: Narrative Short

Friday, March 11
10 p.m. to 11:28 p.m.

Vimeo Theater
531 E 4th Street

(multiple venues after first screening)

SXSW Listing 
Hashtag: #sxsw #joanonthepone
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Film, Gold, Platinum or Film Festival Wristband

“The Send-Off”
Directors: Ivete Lucas (MFA '12), Patrick Bresnan


Note: This film premiered at Slamdance 2016.

Emboldened by a giant block party on the evening of their high school prom, a group of students enters the night with the hope of transcending their rural town and the industrial landscape that surrounds them.

Format: Documentary Short

Friday, March 11
10 p.m. to 11:28 p.m.

Vimeo Theater
531 E 4th Street

(multiple venues after first screening)

SXSW Listing 
Hashtag: #sxsw
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Film, Gold, Platinum or Film Festival Wristband

“The Superlative Light”
Director/Screenwriter: Ben Steinbauer (MFA '07),
Screenwriter: Robert Shults


This world premiere is a story about documentary photographer Robert Shults, who went from being a homeless dreamer to a home-owning artist after taking photos of the brightest light source in the known universe, a laser in basement of the physics department at UT.

Format: Documentary Short

Friday, March 11
10 p.m. to 11:28 p.m.

Vimeo Theater
531 E 4th Street

(multiple venues after first screening)

SXSW Listing 
Hashtag: #sxsw
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Film, Gold, Platinum or Film Festival Wristband

“Thunder P.”
Director/Screenwriter: Steve Collins (MA '03)


This world premiere is about an I.T. employee who discovers a shameful secret during a routine printer malfunction.

Format: Narrative Short

Friday, March 11
10 p.m. to 11:28 p.m.

Vimeo Theater
531 E 4th Street

(multiple venues after first screening)

SXSW Listing 
Hashtag: #sxsw
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Film, Gold, Platinum or Film Festival Wristband


Saturday, March 12

Tamara Bell
Official blogger for SXSW Accelerator


Accelerator is a pitch competition for startups around the world. It's a two-day event where Bell and others will cover 48 companies representing six categories across three rooms on day one. On day two, 18 finalists will compete in the six categories. Winners are announced that evening.

Saturday, March 12th &
Sunday, March 13th
9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Hilton Austin Downtown
Fourth Floor Startup Village
500 E 4th Street

Event Category: Sessions
SXSW Listing 
Hashtag: #sxsw
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Interactive, Film, Gold or Platinum

“The Seer”
Director: Laura Dunn (MFA ’02)


This world premiere is a cinematic portrait of farmer and writer Wendell Berry. Through his eyes, we see both the changing landscapes of rural America in the era of industrial agriculture and the redemptive beauty in taking the unworn path.

Format: Documentary Feature

Saturday, March 12th
1:30 p.m. to 2:52 p.m.

Stateside Theatre
719 Congress Ave
(multiple venues after first screening)

SXSW Listing 
Hashtag: #sxsw #WendellBerryTheSeer
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Music, Film, Interactive, Gold, Platinum or Film Festival Wristband

In the Cut: Editing a Moving Sample


Learn tips and strategies from editors who work across all forms and genres to tell engaging and emotionally moving stories. Featuring Emmy and Academy Award-nominated editors of films that have screened at major festivals like Sundance, SXSW, Toronto, Berlin and Cannes. We will review samples from up to three works-in-progress (5 mins max length).

Saturday, March 12th
3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Stephen F Austin Hotel 
Capital Ballroom B

701 Congress Ave

Event Category: Sessions
SXSW Listing 
Hashtag: #sxsw #filmedit
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Film, Gold or Platinum


Sunday, March 13

Health Communication Networking Coffee
Jay Bernhardt


Join us to network with fellow health communicators and innovators over coffee and breakfast tacos. Hosted by the Center for Health Communication at The University of Texas at Austin, directed by Jay Bernhardt, PhD, MPH.

Sunday, March 13th
8 a.m. to 9 a.m.

ACL Live Ground Level, 3Ten,
310 W Willie Nelson Blvd.

Event Category: Special Event
SXSW Listing 
Hashtag: #sxsw
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Interactive, Gold or Platinum

“Tower”
Director: Keith Maitland (UT alum)
Producer: Megan Gilbride (RTF Lecturer, MFA ‘04)


An animated and action-packed look at America’s first mass school shooting, when the worst in one man brought out the best in so many others.

Format: Documentary Feature

Sunday, March 13th
11 a.m. to 12:36 p.m.

Stateside Theatre
719 Congress Ave
(multiple venues after first screening)

SXSW Listing 
Hashtag: #sxsw #towerfilm
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Film, Gold, Platinum or Film Festival Wristband

Using Virtual Reality in Storytelling
R.B. Brenner and Deepak Chetty


Experts from UT’s Moody College of Communication discuss their new VR initiatives, including a partnership with The Washington Post to create VR content, and the strategies, challenges and implications of creating fiction and non-fiction content using immersive media. Experts will also discuss their project, funded by the Knight Foundation, that has created an open-source virtual reality publishing framework for journalists who lack the engineering skills to publish their own VR content.

Sunday, March 13th
11 a.m. to 12 a.m.

ACL Live Ground Level, 3Ten,
310 W Willie Nelson Blvd.

Event Category: Sessions
SXSW Listing 
Hashtag: #sxsw #MoodyCollegeVR
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Interactive, Gold or Platinum

Virtual Reality Showcase
R.B. Brenner


Experts from UT Austin’s Moody College of Communication will demo and discuss virtual reality content produced with The Washington Post and a new open-source VR publishing framework.

Sunday, March 13th
12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

ACL Live Ground Level, 3Ten,
310 W Willie Nelson Blvd.

Event Category: Special Event
SXSW Listing 
Hashtag: #sxsw #MoodyCollegeVR
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Interactive, Gold or Platinum

Mentors – Production: Chris Roldan
Chris Roldan


Film production runs the gamut from pre to post. Learn from industry professionals who have experience in the wide range of experiences film production entails. This Mentor Session requires advance online sign up and is available to all Film, Gold, and Platinum badgeholders on a first-come, first-served basis. Registrants who sign up online must check-in 30 minutes before their mentor time slot to guarantee their spot. Limited on-site sign up is also available for a small number of Mentor Sessions spots and will begin 30 minutes before the first time slot.

Sunday, March 13th
12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Austin Convention Center
Room 11AB
531 E 4th St.

Event Category: Sessions
SXSW Listing 
Hashtag: #sxsw
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Film, Gold or Platinum

A Conversation with Andrew Bujalski and David Lowery


This special conversation teams two restlessly inventive film artists with enviable resumes. Emerging from the community of creatives that developed around SXSW in the mid-2000s, RTF Lecturer Bujalski and Lowery will deliver invaluable perspective for the next wave of aspiring creatives.

Sunday, March 13th
Time: 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Austin Convention Center
Room 11AB
531 E 4th St.

Event Category: Featured Session
SXSW Listing
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Film, Gold or Platinum

“Slash” 
Director/Screenwriter: Clay Liford (BS ’97)


Neil is a questioning teen who secretly writes erotic fan fiction about popular sci-fi characters. When his classmate Julia discovers his writing, she leads him down a rabbit hole deep into the world of ‘slash’ fiction.

Cast: Michael Johnston, Hannah Marks, Michael Ian Black, Missi Pyle, Jessie Ennis, Peter Vack, Sarah Ramos, Robert Longstreet, Tishuan Scott, Lucas Neff

Format: Narrative Feature

Sunday, March 13th
4:15 p.m. to 5:55 p.m.

Topfer Theatre at ZACH
719 Congress Ave.
(multiple venues after first screening)

SXSW Listing 
Hashtag: #sxsw #slashthemovie
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Film, Gold, Platinum or Film Festival Wristband

“Starving the Beast: The Battle to Disrupt and Reform America’s Public Universities”
Director/Screenwriter: RTF Senior Lecturer ‪#‎SteveMims


This world premiere is the story of money, power and politics and the well organized, yet little noticed, efforts to radically disrupt and reform America’s public universities.

Format: Documentary Feature

Sunday, March 13th
7 p.m. to 8:35 p.m.

Topfer Theatre at ZACH
719 Congress Ave.
(multiple venues after first screening)

SXSW Listing 
Hashtag: #sxsw
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Film, Gold, Platinum or Film Festival Wristband

“Chevalier”
Director: Athina Rachel Tsangari (MFA ’97)


In the middle of the Aegean Sea, on a luxury yacht, six men on a fishing trip decide to play a game. During this game, things will be compared. Things will be measured. Songs will be butchered, and blood will be tested. Friends will become rivals and rivals will become hungry. But at the end of the voyage, when the game is over, the man who wins will be the best man. And he will wear upon his little finger the victorious signet ring: the "Chevalier."

Note: This film won best film at the 2015 BFI London Film Festival
Format:Narrative Feature

Sunday, March 13th
9:45 p.m. to 11:24 p.m.

Alamo Ritz 1
320 E 6th St.
(multiple venues after first screening)

SXSW Listing 
Hashtag: #sxsw
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Film, Gold, Platinum or Film Festival Wristband


Monday, March 14

Comments Are Terrible: But They Don’t Have to Be
Talia Stroud


In this interactive session, leaders from The Coral Project and the Engaging News Project will give you tips on improving your interactive spaces — comments and beyond — based on the latest research. They’ll also solicit your questions and feedback, a dialogue that will help guide the Engaging News Project’s research and The Coral Project’s open-source software development.

Monday, March 14
11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Hilton Austin Downtown
Salon F
500 E 4th St.

SXSW Listing 
Event Category: Sessions
Hashtag: #sxsw #comments
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Interactive, Gold or Platinum

A Conversation with Louis Black and Leonard Maltin


“Richard Linklater: Dream Is Destiny” director (with Karen Bernstein), SXSW co-founder and RTF alumnus Louis Black (BS ’80) will join friend and veteran critic Leonard Maltin for this special conversation. Sure to engage, with great humor and insight drawn from a shared, longtime love of cinema, this is a can’t-miss session for cinephiles.

Monday, March 14
12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Austin Convention Center
Room 16 AB
531 E 4th Street

SXSW Listing 
Event Category: Featured Session
Hashtag: #sxsw 
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Interactive, Gold or Platinum


Tuesday, March 15

“Talk About Time: Why We Fail at Work-Life Balance”
Dawna Ballard


Talking plainly about time—and research on chronemics (time as it is bound to human communication)—gets to the heart of overwork and our general quality of life. Because time is a silent language, the goal of this panel is to begin to develop chronemic literacy in our personal and professional lives.

Tuesday, March 15
11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

JW Marriott
Salon 6
110 E 2nd Street

SXSW Listing 
Event Category: Session
Hashtag: #sxsw
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Interactive, Gold or Platinum

Filmmakers Who Teach Meet Up
Annie Silverstein


This meet-up is for you: filmmakers who are professors, adjuncts, teaching artists, mentors... it’s also for young filmmakers who are curious about how teaching can support and nourish your creative aspirations. Come talk shop, exchange ideas, find your next guest lecturer.

Tuesday, March 15
12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

JW Marriott
Room 213
110 E 2nd Street

SXSW Listing 
Event Category: Session
Hashtag: #sxsw #maketeach
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Music, Film, Interactive, Gold, Platinum or Artist Wristband


Wednesday, March 16

KUTX Live at the Four Seasons


Note: this is not an official SXSW event.

Once again KUTX 98.9, The Austin Music Experience, is partnering with Four Seasons Hotel Austin to connect music fans to some of the most anticipated artists at the 2016 SXSW Music Conference. KUTX 98.9 will air four early morning broadcasts live from the Four Seasons Austin Hotel Ballroom from 7 to 11 a.m., Wednesday through Friday (March 16-18), and from 8 a.m. to noon, Saturday (March 19). The event is open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. Admission is $10 per person per day and includes a breakfast taco, a granola bar and coffee. Proceeds benefit the Seton Shivers Cancer Center.

Wednesday, March 16 to Saturday, March 19
Time: 7 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Four Season Hotel Austin
98 San Jacinto St.

SXSW Listing 
Event Category: Music
Hashtag: #FSAustin, #SRocks
SXSW Badge Required?
No, Admission: $10

Heavy Metal Parking Lot 30th Anniversary


On May 31, 1986, Judas Priest fans were filmed in their natural environment, a concert arena parking lot in suburban Maryland. Thirty years later, “Heavy Metal Parking Lot” is considered among the greatest rock and roll documentaries ever recorded. Once only found via underground tape trading, the film launched a “parking lot genre” that continues to resonate today, including sequels, prequels, a cable TV series, and documentary films that were inspired by the 1986 original. In May, the University of Maryland will open a year-long exhibit 'Heavy Metal Parking Lot: The 30-Year Journey of a Cult Film Sensation.' Join filmmakers and UT Austin alumni John Heyn and Jeff Krulik as they discuss the amazing pre-viral video journey of a small rock doc into a definitive cultural touchstone.

Wednesday, March 16
Time: 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Austin Convention Center
Room 13AB
531 E 4th Street

SXSW Listing 
Event Category: Sessions
Hashtag: #sxsw
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Music, Film, Gold, Platinum or Artist Wristband

Thursday, March 17

SXSW Radio Day Stage powered by VuHaus


The schedule has not yet been posted. This is an official SXSW event, but only open to badge holders and sponsored by KUT, among others. Lineup TBA

Thursday, March 17
Room 13AB
Time: TBA

Austin Convention Center
Ballroom D
500 E Cesar Chavez

SXSW Listing 
Event Category: Music
SXSW Badge Required?
Yes – Music

For more UT Austin events at SXSW

Marc Speir
Senior Content Producer