I'm in charge of one of the volunteer crews for SXSW, which is an interactive, film, and music conference held in Austin each year. In exchange for my work as a volunteer, I get to attend the conference for free. The conference gets bigger and bigger each year. People interested in social media, films, and music attend this conference. Various celebrities from the social media world, well known musicians, and actors/actress also make appearances at the conference and the parties.

I'm more interested in the film portion of the conference, and I saw some awesome movies at SXSW. It's fun seeing movies before they are released or even picked up for distribution. I'd definitely recommend Kick-Ass for anyone looking for a dark comedy/action movie. It's about an high school student, who's a comic book fan that decides one day to become a superhero - even though he has no special powers or training. Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse (you'll recognize him as McLovin), and Clark Duke from the movie made an appearance at the screening and stayed for the Q and A. Nicolas Cage, and Chloe Moretz are also in the movie. Chloe Moretz was awesome in this movie - like a young Natalie Portman in The Professional. Kick-Ass is being released on April 16 in the U.S.

Get Low, a movie partially based on the real-life story of a 1930s Tennessee hermit who threw his own funeral party...while he was still alive, was good too. Bill Murray, Robert Duvall, and Sissy Spacek stayed for the Q and A. I was surprised to see that Lucas Black was in this movie. Took me a while to place him. He has a very distinct accent/way of talking, but I guess my mental picture of him is still as a young boy in American Gothic. Get Low is scheduled to be released in the U.S. on July 30.

The documentaries at SXSW are usually pretty amazing. I only had time to see two of them, but they were both very moving. Last Train Home is about the largest human migration that takes place every year - the millions of migrant factory workers in China who make the trek home for Chinese New Year during the Spring Festival travel season. It was amazing to see the huge amounts of people at the train stations and the trials they go through just to get onto the overcrowded trains. I also really liked Marwencol, which won the Feature Film Jury Awards for Documentary Feature at SXSW. It's about the fantasy world of Mark Hogancamp, who after suffering brain damage due to a severe beating by five men outside of a bar, begins building a minature world in his backyardwith a World War II theme that he populates with dolls who represent his friends and family. Playing in the town (with full stories for all the main characters) and photographing the action is Mark's way to work on his hand-eye coordination as well as deal with the psychological scars from the attack.

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil was a wonderful comedy/horror film about two buddies (Tucker and Dale) out to enjoy their new summer home and are mistaken as backwood killers by a group of spring breakers. It was hilarious seeing the spring breakers offing themselves one by one and watching Tucker and Dale trying to figure out why the hell the kids are killing themselves on their property. Another movie I saw that I hope gets picked up for distribution is Brotherhood, which is about a college fraternity's initiation that involves robbing a convenience store that goes horribly awry. The script is based off of a short film (Roslyn) the director made at NYU.

I also got to see MacGruber (which still needed a bit of post production work and is based on the Saturday Night Live skit). It was OK. I haven't seen the SNL skit, but it was a passable movie.

The Runaways (the biopic about 70's teenage band The Runaways) was actually pretty good. Both Kristin Stewart and Dakota Fanning were in attendance. The Runaways is being released in the U.S. on April 9.

Film conferences like SXSW also provide me an opportunity to see foreign films like Cargo, which was made in Switzerland. Cargo is set in the future where Earth is no longer habitable. Most of the movie takes place on a space freighter on its way to Station 42. The young medic is the only one awake on board while the rest of the crew lies in a hibernating sleep. Only she begins to get the feeling that she's not alone, and soon the rest of the crew is awaken as they attempt to figure out what's going on.

That's a summary of some of the stand outs. I can't wait to see what films they bring to SXSW next year.