I've always found SXSW's film festival to be predictable in its championing of hipster solipsism. Much like Austin itself, the festival seems to cater to the experiences and travails of middle-class white twentysomethings. And this is the adventurous film that took O'Hehir out of his comfort zone? I mean, how many times can one play the same tune? I hate to sound like a hater (and I guess that's how my letter comes across), but if this is the vanguard of American indie cinema - as so many critics love to pontificate - then American indie cinema is due for a swift kick in the ass.

When you haven't seen it. Furthermore, your complaint about Austin and SXSW more generally may be justified -- but one filmmaker cannot be blamed for that. Is Joe Swanberg supposed to not make movies about young white middle-class characters? My reading of "Nights and Weekends" is that it's far less likely to alienate viewers for its perceived hipster solipsism -- and far more likely to alienate them for its elliptical storytelling, almost archetypal characters and semi-experimental filmmaking. Needless to say, your reaction may differ. But to the extent that "mumblecore" ever meant anything, this movie isn't that.

FYI, there are also narrative features here about Asian-American suburban life, an African-American Chicago schoolteacher who loves outlet shopping, middle-class buppies in San Francisco, interracial working-class south Philly, and a romance between a Mexican teenager and an older American woman. Oh, and Harold and Kumar escaping from Gitmo and getting high with GWB.

Hell, I like the label "Mumblecore", which has always been more suggestive of a system of production (DIY production and distribution, no budgets, minimal scripting, use of nonactors, etc.), rather than an onscreen aesthetic. So why not let’s call Swanberg’s latest “Mumblecore”?

Mumblecore, like Dogme 95, represents a real conceptual advance for filmmakers, though without the… dogmatism… and pretense of Von Trier’s manifesto. Instead of purity it emphasizes democracy—the value of personal stories filmed by real people in practical ways. The stories that emerge manage to transcend the lo-fi technology of their creation at the same time that they embrace it. DV never looked so real or so legit. And while I am an X’er myself, I recognize and respect the personal issues of identity and relationships that the Millennials who are making these films emphasize. They tend to be slow paced, concerned with minutae, but somehow not navelgazing. Unlike most fictional digital work produced by filmmakers in their early 20s, Mumblecore films never feel like an audition for Hollywood “real work”, but rather an artistic end in and of themselves. My feeling is that Swanberg and his ilk ARE today’s Cassavetes and that while they are unlikely to break into the multiplex, they have already established a place for themselves in the canon of cinema history.

But he's in no danger of becoming Bertolucci. And as for me, the indie credibility isn't what counts, the artistic credibility is what DOES.

I don't normally respond to what I read about my films but here goes... As one of the directors, I was appreciative of OHehir's assessment of AT THE DEATH HOUSE DOOR's virtues. And he may be right that the film will not reach pro-death penalty audiences as much as we would like, but it won't be for lack for trying. We are organizing screenings around the country which include people who support the death penalty as well as those who don't. While the film's stance is clear, Pastor Pickett represents someone who is not the typical anti-death penalty activist. He isn't young, he is politically conservative... and he's deeply religious, for God's sake. There are a good many people that fall in those categories that support the death penalty or are on the fence.

At a marketing test screening that IFC did for the film a month or so ago, four people said they came into the film pro-death penalty and left against it.

And last night, as reporter Maury Possley (who is featured in the film) was leaving the theater, someone declaring they were on the fence told him the film had moved them off the fence and against the death penalty.

I'm not naive about the ability of any film to really affect change. Heck, I don't even think of myself as an issue-oriented filmmaker. But if we succeed in getting this film in front of people, it seems like it has a real chance to make a difference.

I called Swanberg - Swanson. Well I can only hope Swanberg looks into singing a Swansong.

So long.