South by Southwest is four days in and we’ve been trying to see as many movies as humanly possible, but we’ve also had some time to sit down with a few native Austin filmmakers who decided to shoot their very different films in and around their hometown. Bryan Poyser is returning to South by Southwest with The Bounceback while Hannah Fidell is at the festival with her second movie, the drama A Teacher.
Poyser’s film is the follow-up to 2010’s Lovers of Hate, this one starring Michael Stahl-David (Cloverfield) and Ashley Bell (The Last Exorcism) as Stan and Cathy, a couple who have split up and gone to separate coasts. When Stan learns that Cathy is traveling down to Austin to visit her friend Kara (Sara Paxton), he decides to go down there as well, spending time with Kara’s ex Jeff (Zach Cregger from IFC’s “The Whitest Kids U’Know”). They both have very different experiences there with their outrageous friends but both have time to decide whether they should get back together by meeting other people.
Fidell’s movie is a straight drama about a teacher, played by Lindsay Burdge, star of Fidell’s previous film We’re Glad You’re Here, who has been having a sexual relationship with one of her students, played by Will Brittain.
The Bounceback
First up, we sat down with Poyser and two of his main cast members, Ashley Bell and Michael Stahl-David, to talk about their irreverent comedy and how it was different from making Lovers of Hate. (We hope to have an interview with Sara Paxton, who offers some of the film’s most unforgettable moments.)
