We continue bringing the brightest shining docs from SXSW 2013 with profiles on three films and interviews with their makers. We Always Lie To Strangers, These Birds Walk, and TPB-AFK are all featured.

These Birds Walk: In Karachi, Pakistan, a runaway boy’s life hangs on one critical question: where is home? The streets, an orphanage, or with the family he fled in the first place? Simultaneously heart-wrenching and life-affirming, THESE BIRDS WALK documents the struggles of these wayward street children and the samaritans looking out for them in an ethereal and inspirational story of resilience.

Omar Mullick (co-director/co-producer/director of photography) is a photographer, cinematographer and filmmaker. His work as a photographer has appeared in the New York Times and National Geographic, and has received multiple awards. His project ‘Can’t Take It With You’ was featured in a solo show at the Gallery FCB in Chelsea, New York. Selected works have shown at the Safe-T gallery in Dumbo. Commercial works include skate videos and television shows for MTV. This is his first feature film. In 2012, Omar was selected as one of 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine.

Bassam Tariq (co-director/co-producer) is an independent producer who has produced feature stories for TIME magazine, Boing Boing, Atlas Obscura and Huffington Post. He is also the co-creator of the viral travel blog 30 Mosques in 30 Days in where him and a friend traveled across America highlighting the lives of American Muslims. The project was highlighted by NPR, BBC, Huffington Post and named CNN’s Top Newsmakers of 2010. This is his first feature film. In 2012, Bassam was selected as one of 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine.

AJ SCHNACK (Director/Producer/Cinematographer/Editor) is a filmmaker based in Los Angeles. His feature documentary credits include CONVENTION (2009), which premiered as the Centerpiece Film at the AFI Silverdocs Film Festival and was acquired and released by IFC Films/Sundance Selects; KURT COBAIN ABOUT A SON (2006), which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and was released theatrically in North America, France, Japan, Brazil, Australia and aired on More4 in the United Kingdom; and GIGANTIC (A TALE OF TWO JOHNS) (2002), which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival and was released theatrically in North America by Cowboy Pictures. All of his films have premiered in the US on the Sundance Channel.

Schnack was nominated for a 2007 Independent Spirit Award for KURT COBAIN ABOUT A SON and was the first recipient of AFI Silverdocs’ Cinematic Vision Award. He was recently an editor on Michael Rapaport’s BEATS, RHYMES AND LIFE: THE TRAVELS OF A TRIBE CALLED QUEST, which premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics and won the Producers Guild Award for Best Documentary.

DAVID WILSON (Director/Producer/Cinematographer) is a 1996 graduate of Hampshire College in Massachusetts. Wilson’s short documentary, BIG BIRDING DAY, had its world premiere at the 2010 SXSW Film Festival, went on to screen at Silverdocs and Sheffield Doc/Fest and aired nationally on PBS’ P.O.V. In 2010, Wilson was named to Filmmaker Magazine’s list of 25 New Faces of Independent Film. He previously directed several short films about subcultures and small towns in the American Midwest. He was a photographer on CONVENTION (2009) and is currently in post-production on his first feature-length documentary, WE ALWAYS LIE TO STRANGERS.

TPB-AFK: THE PIRATE BAY - AWAY FROM KEYBOARD

Simon Klose

Simon Klose was born in Sweden in 1975. He holds a law degree from Stockholm University and has studied and lived extensively in Japan and South Africa. Klose has produced and directed a number of music videos and music documentaries. In 2006 he released the documentary short ’Sweet Memories Garden Centre’ about car thieves in South Africa opening up a garden centre in a township. At the moment Klose is working on an internet start-up that let’s filmmakers and film audiences enrich movies by integrating the web into films.

Synopsis

It’s the day before the trial starts. Fredrik packs a computer into a rusty old Volvo.

Along with his Pirate Bay co-founders, he faces $13 million in damage claims to

Hollywood in a copyright infringement case. Fredrik is on his way to install a new

computer in the secret server hall. This is where the world’s largest file sharing site is

hidden.

When the hacker prodigy Gottfrid, the internet activist Peter and the network nerd

Fredrik are found guilty, they are confronted with the reality of life offline – away from

keyboard. But deep down in dark data centres, clandestine computers quietly continue

to duplicate files.