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@SXSW2021

It's here! We’re talking with people about the fun, the purpose, and the impact of their presence at this year's SXSW.

@Taylor
Taylor J
@Taylor · 1:14

SXSW Speaker | Executive Director of the Transgender Film Center and Director of Chasing Chasing Amy

article image placeholderDirector, Sav Rodgers
So I know a little bit about your journey having watched your presentation, but I was hoping you could tell the listeners about your journey love of cult movies. Ben Affleck Full House and how all of that sort of shaped the person that you are today and influenced your filmmaking

https://savrodgers.com

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@sav
Sav Rodgers
@sav · 4:48

My humble beginnings 👀

I did speak on a panel called 90 Minutes Film School for south by this year. And so really, what I talk about in that panel is my journey to making a personal documentary, namely Chasing Chasing Amy, which is the culmination of, like, 15 years of my life somehow, for context, when I was twelve years old, I saw the movie Chasing Amy because my mom had a DVD of it The Criterion, in fact
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@Taylor
Taylor J
@Taylor · 2:20

The influence of Kevin Smith

The Curse South films are gold right now, but, yeah, it's incredible to think back on all of the films that we've seen and pinpoint those particular ones that, you know, deep down inside had that tremendous effect on your outlook in life. So much so in your case, that it just influenced you in a number of different ways, emotionally, professionally
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@Swell
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15

Welcome to Swell!

@sav
Sav Rodgers
@sav · 3:57

My relationship with Kevin Smith 😱

It was really surprising, but I never put him up on a pedestal. And so my relationship with Kevin is hopefully what you'll see in the documentary. It's a personal documentary. It's never a thing of is Kevin Smith this or this? The movie is not about Kevin. The movie is ultimately and sometimes, unfortunately, about my own experience with Chasing Amy
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@Taylor
Taylor J
@Taylor · 1:43

Developing your voice as a filmmaker

But you mentioned in the 90 Minutes Film school that there was this brief little segment with a wonderful infographic that I wish I could share right now, but that would require me to do a screen grab, which I'm probably not allowed to do. But at any rate, I remember I took notes. So you mentioned that when you were developing your voice, you broke it down into four segments watching movies, fellowships, mentorship and honesty with self
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@sav
Sav Rodgers
@sav · 4:58

Sav’s 4 steps to finding your voice

What are the commonalities here? And what do I have really big responses to? Because I think we get told a lot of the time what movies are important. But I think something that's really key as a creative is figuring out what movies are important to you, which isn't always as easy as it sounds. So I really took the time to just watch a ton of movies
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@sav
Sav Rodgers
@sav · 2:12

The power of being honest with yourself

If you're an emerging filmmaker or even revisiting if you find yourself in a creative rut these steps, watching new movies to gain inspiration and to figure out more about your own voice. Finding mentors
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@Taylor
Taylor J
@Taylor · 1:36

In closing! Thanks so much for your amazing mind, Sav. 🏆

Really, we need to look towards the things that inspire us to be ourselves, because that's when we're really I think our most powerful and with great power comes great responsibility. I'm going to go ahead and quote one of our heroes, I'm sure that a Daredevil fan like yourself has to love some Spiderman as well. At any rate, I wanted to sort of wrap things up. I'm so grateful for your time. South by Southwest is always such a busy time
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@sav
Sav Rodgers
@sav · 4:50

My wrap-up message! 🙌

I was watching it the whole time, and my wife was like, did you write this? And I was like, in my dreams, I wrote this. I thought it was just so phenomenally funny, well acted, brilliant comedic timing. One of my favorites of the year so far, and there have been a lot of other movies that I've liked
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