by Emily Maesar, Staff Writer

SXSW has a history of films, both narrative and documentary, about the music and film industry–and why should 2021 be any different. The documentaries I wanted to highlight are all emotional in their own ways. They’re all well made and beautifully constructed. They’re also all very different takes on fame, personal struggles, and human connection in the face of all the world has to offer. 

Introducing, Selma Blair

No one is quite like actress Selma Blair, but Introducing, Selma Blair is an honest, painful, and emotionally charged look at what it’s like - at least some of the time. When Selma Blair announced to the world that she had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in 2018, it was a weight off her shoulders. Mostly due to the fact that she’d been sick for a very long time, but hadn’t had an actual name for what was making her life such hell. 

However, Introducing, Selma Blair isn’t just a documentary about Blair’s illness and disability. It’s also a film about how those things intersect with her childhood trauma and her career. She is so open about her career path, that she has always been a supporting actress, and how her relationship with her mother has really impacted her outlook on… well, everything. She talks a lot about how she’s got this genetic and inherited rage, and that it’s often rage that’s turned inward into sadness. And it’s something that’s as painful to hear, and I think it will be relatable to people. I think a lot of people can understand that idea, even if they haven’t been able to put a name to it. 

The greatest gift that this documentary gives us, though, is a look at disability that we don’t normally see. That we can watch Blair be active one moment, trying to do cartwheels in a hotel room, to completely bedridden in the next. It’s important for able bodied people to see the highs and the lows of disability. Everyone’s disabilities manifest in different ways, and just because someone with a disability seems “fine” in a single moment, doesn’t mean they are. I can only imagine how taxing it is, though, to be the person who’s using their body as proof. It’s a testament to Selma Blair’s commitment to advocacy that she allows herself to be this vulnerable on screen, and we must thank her for allowing us a glimpse at it. 

Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil

I think this is probably the most highly anticipated documentary, maybe film in general, at SXSW this year. Even without being a huge Demi Lovato fan, I understand why. There’s been so much surrounding her since she was a young child star, and when she overdosed in 2018 it seemed to all come to a head. 

I was really impressed with this film, if only because it certainly seems like it’s being absolutely honest. It’s hard in documentary filmmaking to actually make the audience feel like you aren’t leading them, like you aren’t manipulating the story to some specific ends. But it’s also impossible to make a documentary where that’s not the case - it’s just not always malicious or with purpose. It’s just how filmmaking works. I think that Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil does a lot to ensure that the audience feels like “ah, this is the whole truth.” And maybe it’s not, but there are certainly enough seemingly damning, and genuinely surprising, revelations from Demi, her friends and family, and her team, that it really does feel like as much of the truth as can be conceivable told this way. 

Over the course of filming, which seems to have really kicked off during the 2020 pandemic, Demi did multiple long, sit down interviews for the film. She’s extremely honest about the drug abuse, the OD, and her mental state at the time. Without naming names, she allows herself to talk about her multiple sexual assaults, and how she acted and reacted to them throughout her life. She also opens up about her engagement during the quarantine, the subsequent break up, and her burgeoning queer sexuality. 

Demi also does something that I think is really important. She allows her friend Dani Vitale, who had been present the night of the OD that nearly killed Lovato, to tell her side of the story. To give her a platform where she’s not being attacked by Lovato’s fan base for simply being present that night. And I think it's good that Demi is being honest about the fact that she’s not currently sober. She’s trying to figure out what moderation means for her when she’s actually allowed herself to be open and honest with her support system. All-in-all, the documentary does a good job of making me emotionally connected to Demi Lovato in what feels like a really honest way.

Clerk

It’s weird that Kevin Smith is such an important figure to me. I think it makes sense, though, when I look at the whole of my age, interests, and creative endeavours since the first time I saw one of his films. Clerk is a documentary that runs through his entire career up through Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. 

The paradox of this film is that it’s long and I could feel every moment of it’s two hours, but I also wouldn’t actually cut anything from it. They never spend too much time on anything, hitting all the big points and events surrounding each of Smith’s creative endeavors, without overstaying their welcome. It’s a very weird feeling, honestly, but overall I think it’s a great showcase of his life and his work.

I will say that something I found interesting, and would love to know exactly the editorial reasoning for it, is that they never talk about Jason Mewes’s issues with drugs. It’s something that Mewes and Smith have been very open about in the past, including the fact that Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was made because Mewes got sober. But that’s not in this film, it’s skirted around and never mentioned at all. I wonder if it’s because they talked about it enough and don’t want to anymore, or if it’s because they talk about Smith’s weed usage in the film and don’t want to even entertain comparisons. Ultimately, it doesn’t really change the story of Smith that the filmmakers are telling, but as someone who’s been very invested in the View Askewniverse, it’s a noticeable part of the story that’s missing.

Regardless of how you feel about Kevin Smith’s actual body of work… Clerk really hammers home how important he’s been to modern pop culture. He really changed a lot of games, and it’s fun to listen to people like Penn Jillette, Jason Reitman, and Richard Linklater talk about it in such great detail. Plus, it’s been a while since I’ve really thought about the actual cultural impact of Kevin Smith beyond just myself, and it’s really nice to see it all laid out like this.