Is this film a sly prank? Is it the most amateurish movie to ever play the venerated SXSW Film Festival? Or is it a radical, handmade act of artistic defiance meant to reclaim a seemingly lost independent film aesthetic? That I don’t know the answer intrigues, frustrates and ultimately excites me. This sincere, messy, documentary/fiction whatsit manages to humanize characters that often get portrayed in the simplest, most destructive ways. It also looks like it was dropped from the sky untouched, like a found piece of (barely) edited home movie, magically imbued with a strange, living, everyday poetry. Two single, African American fathers get a dog. Two others in their neighborhood have a giant pig. That’s SWEATY BETTY.
LRFF Cinematic Non-Fiction Programmer Robert Greene will lead a discussion with Director Joe Frank.
