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You won’t see many stories this year wilder than the one depicted in Jonathan Ignatius Green’s new documentary Dickweed, which features drugs, kidnappings, penile amputations, prison escapes and more. (To be fair, it features only one of several of those things, but plurals sound more exciting.)

Were I a “wild stories” critic, Dickweed — which my autocorrect keeps turning into “Duckweed” as if it were more likely I’d be writing about water lentils — would get top marks for sure. But while the story told in Dickweed is occasionally spectacular, the documentary itself is strangely focused, makes questionable use of its best interview subjects and relies on some of the blandest and most familiar artistic choices in the true-crime genre.

Really, Dickweed isn’t a documentary. It’s two episodes of an upcoming SundanceTV true crime series — semi-appropriately titled True Crime Story: Smugshot — that have been reedited together and...

This article appears in the SXSW 2024 issue of Den of Geek magazine. Check out all of our SXSW coverage here.

Grand Theft Hamlet is about as absurd a mash-up as its title would have you believe. It’s a documentary about Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen, two actors left jobless at the height of the pandemic who decide to put on a live-streamed production of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Grand Theft Auto Online.

Partway through the film, which was shot entirely in-game, as Sam is rehearsing the play’s famous “To be or not to be” speech on the beaches of Los Santos, a masked player walks up and calls him a bitch over chat, utterly unmoved by the iconic soliloquy. Other rehearsals are interrupted by helicopters and shootouts, all fitting encapsulations of the stark juxtaposition at the heart of the documentary. But GTA and Shakespeare may not be...

Bitconned Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Robert Farkas, Sohrab Sharma, Ray Trapani, Damian Williams

Director: Bryan Storkel

Review of Bitconned Is Out! (Picture Credit: IMDb)

What’s Good: The documentary skillfully navigates through Centra’s rise and fall, exploring the motivations behind the scam. It provides a comprehensive understanding of the fraudulent activities, showcasing the lavish lifestyles funded by deceived investors. The film’s adept chronological presentation ensures clarity, and the inclusion of interviews enhances authenticity.

What’s Bad: While “Bitconned” effectively portrays Centra’s deceitful practices, it also sheds light on the disheartening reality of inadequate legal repercussions, particularly regarding Ray Trapani. The documentary leaves viewers frustrated with the incongruity between Trapani’s significant role in the scam and his ability to walk away unscathed through cooperation with federal officials.

Loo Break: Given the documentary’s high energy and compelling narrative, avoiding taking a break during the runtime is...

March fest announces multiple competition sections.

SXSW announced on Wednesday that Netflix series 3 Body Problem from Game Of Thrones co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss is the festival’s opening night TV premiere, while Universal’s action comedy The Fall Guy with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt is the centrepiece screening.

Top brass at the Austin, Texas, festival (March 8-16) also unveiled feature and short competitions and Midnighters and Global sections, as well as select titles from other categories and Xr Experience for the 31st edition.

Headliners selections include world premieres of Pamela Adlon’s Babes starring Ilana Glazer,...

There are not many documentaries, shows, or films that explore the bubble created by Bitcoin or cryptocurrency. There is still a lot of ambiguity about how it works or how people work around it because of the nature of the product and there being zero regulations to control the movement of the said entity, which exists only in digital form. Bryan Storkel’s Bitconned is a wordplay on the name of the first big crypto and is a documentary film on the firm Centra Tech that had plans to diversify their product-based company surrounding the cryptocurrency and an ambitious plan to be a virtual banking system based only on the digital form of currency.

Bitconned documentary right from the beginning jumps into understanding who Ray (Raymond) Trapani is and his vast interest in committing crimes, or, as he stated, wanting to become a “criminal.” Ray Trapani comes from a family of criminals,...

Exclusive: WME has signed the Emmy-winning husband-and-wife filmmaking team of Bryan Storkel and Amy Bandlien Storkel, as well as their non-scripted production company, Sidestilt Films.

The Storkels most recently directed and produced the award-winning documentary The Pez Outlaw, which claimed a Special Jury Prize at this year’s SXSW Film Festival and was recently acquired for the U.S. by Gravitas Ventures, with plans for a day-and-date release on October 21. The fish-out-of-water story follows the adventures of Steve Glew, a small-town Michigan man who boards a plane for Eastern Europe soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall. His mission is to locate a secret factory that holds the key to the most desired and valuable Pez dispensers. If he succeeds, he will pull his family out of debt and finally be able to quit his job of 25 years. Steve becomes the hero of his own adventure, smuggling the rarest of goods into the U.

Exclusive: Gravitas Ventures has acquired U.S. rights to the 2022 SXSW award winner The Pez Outlaw, from directors Amy Bandlien Storkel and Bryan Storkel, with plans for a day-and-date release on October 21.

The fish-out-of-water story follows the adventures of Steve Glew, a small-town Michigan man, who boards a plane for Eastern Europe soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall. His mission is to locate a secret factory that holds the key to the most desired and valuable Pez dispensers. If he succeeds, he will pull his family out of debt and finally be able to quit his job of 25 years. Steve becomes the hero of his own adventure, smuggling the rarest of goods into the U.S. and making millions in the process. It was all magical, until his arch-nemesis, The Pezident, decided to destroy him.

The Pez Outlaw made its world premiere at this year’s SXSW Film Festival,...

Gravitas Ventures has acquired multi-platform distribution rights to “Social Animals,” a documentary feature about life as an Instagram star.

Produced by Subconscious Films and its larger parent, the content studio Conscious Minds , the feature played to acclaim in SXSW’s film festival program this year. Gravitas will roll out the film on digital exclusively, starting with a paid VOD run on December 11. The distributor will also retain future TV licensing opportunities.

Directed by Jonathan Ignatius Green, “Social Animals” follows social media influencers in three distinct categories, described as “a thrill-seeking, New York-based photographer, an aspiring swimsuit model in California, and a Midwest girl next door.” The doc poses that each has “validated their existence through followers, likes and comments” and takes an unflinching look at Instagram’s impact on their respective identities.

“Gravitas is a digital distribution trailblazer with a track record of connecting talented filmmakers to a wide audience.

Attempting to create an oral history of teenhood through the “filter” of Instagram, Jonathan Ignatius Green’s Social Animals is partly a combination of after-school special, reality check, and a story of the creative economy where both bodies and experiences have become a commodity exploited by “influencers.” A few years ago I covered the Northside Festival, where I discovered how acclaimed filmmakers made a living working in “branded content.” Also present were ad executives seeking to capitalize on the authenticity and “brand equality” of social media celebrities. Returning to this world, Social Animals follows two influencers and a young woman who feels the pressure of #SquadGoals, #LivingMyBestLife, and so on.

The film first introduces us to a chorus of teens and tweens commenting on the pressures of social media and, in particular, Instagram which, for anyone who remembers MySpace, strips out the additional content moving towards the superficial. This is how Kaylyn Slevin uses it,...

Billed as “a feature documentary about the Instagram generation,” Jonathan Ignatius Green’s “Social Animals,” from the outside, sounds like the least appealing elevator pitch ever. It conjures up images of interchangeable teenager talking-heads discussing the evils of Instagram, an inappropriately somber narrator, and a preachy third-act lesson about how capitalism is corrupting our children through their smart-devices and how we must all of us abandon our technology in favor of a more humble existence.

"Do you know the rules of Instagram?" An official trailer has debuted for the documentary film Social Animals, which is premiering at the SXSW Film Festival this month. This doc profiles the lives, truths, and brazen desires for fame & followers of three Instagram celebrities: a daring bridge-climbing photographer, an aspiring swimsuit model from California, and a Midwestern girl next door. "They're [all] looking for love, acceptance, and fame through their smartphones — and they have received it - they have exceeded 500,000 followers." This film really makes me feel a bit uncomfortable, because this kind of obsession is not healthy, but it seems to be showing them as more than just fame-obsessed kids. I will also recommend watching the feature Ingrid Goes West as a nice companion piece with this film. Get a first look at the doc's trailer below. Here's the first trailer (+ poster) for Jonathan Ignatius Green's doc Social Animals,...

Exclusive: We are in an era when people are glued to their smartphones and for some, they’re hungry for digital validation of their self-worth. The SXSW documentary Social Animals follows Instagram stars and their hunger for social media fame…and the backlash that can happen. Directed by Jonathan Ignatius Green, Social Animals focuses on a select group of Instagrammers: a daring bridge-climbing photographer, an aspiring swimsuit model, and a Midwestern girl next door…...

To his credit, director Jonathan Ignatius Green lets the digital natives do the talking in Social Animals. His exploration of cameraphone-centric youth culture uses no filter of scholarly talking-head commentary to make its points. That gives the film an immediacy, but also a certain diffuseness, both within the individual stories and collectively.

Still, the film could spark convos, not just among the young'uns who recognize themselves in the always-on Insta-world where image building is primary and DMing qualifies as dating, but among the grownups who remember what life was like pre-internet. Centering on a trio of very different high-school-age Instagram...