As SXSW 2009 approaches we’ll be asking filmmakers to spill the superficial details about their films, to tell us all the deep personal details of what makes them tick, and –– new this year! –– reveal who they had to sleep with, in the incestuous conspiracy-minded secret society that is the wider SXSW community, in order to get their film programmed at the festival.

Today we look at 45365. Shot by brothers Turner Ross and Bill Ross over 9 months, it’s a documentary portrait of their hometown of Sidney, OH. We’ve embedded the teaser trailer above; there is more video from the film on thier Vimeo page. Below the jump, Bill and Turner answer The 5 Questions We’re Asking Everybody, touching on topics as diverse as bloody maries, spending one’s final living moments with Bill Murray, and why washing dishes was the best job Bill [Ross] ever had.

Tell us about your movie. Who did you work with, why did you make it? Give us the reductive, 25-word or less, “It’s like [pop culture reference a] meets [pop culture reference b]!” pitch, then explain what the quick and dirty sell leaves out.

Turner: It’s a film about people in place, just as they are, no chaser.

We were in an airport bar leaving Los Angeles for home.  We’d talked for years about a project of our own that could capture the essence of growing up in small town Ohio.  What was it we were after?  How could we capture that?  We decided it wasn’t about recreating OUR experience, but about documenting THE experience.  We wrote a thesis statement on a soggy bar napkin and started the wheels in motion.  That was two years and all of our money ago.

Bill – He’s telling the truth, at least he thinks he is.  We were in an airport in Kentucky leaving for LA.  It was early and I think Bloody Maries were involved.

Do you have a day job/a non-filmmaking occupation that raises money for your filmmaking efforts? Tell us about it.

Turner: Bill previously worked as an assistant editor for Aspect Ratio in LA.  He jumped off the ladder to focus on our film.  I’ve worked art department jobs on a number of features as they’ve come along – kitchen work usually pays the bills.

Bill: Dishwasher is the best job I’ve ever had.  You learn a lot.  All this shit is happening around you – waitresses and cooks running around yelling.  You see and overhear some great stuff.  Best piece of advice I ever overheard was while working in a kitchen in Savannah, GA.  Old guy turned to the new kid who was making excuses and said, “don’t talk about it, be about it.”

Have you been to SXSW before? If so, tell us about your funniest story from the experience. If not, what are you looking forward to re: the festival and/or the city of Austin?

Turner: We haven’t.  My girlfriend and I lived in a trailer in South Austin last summer, but we’ve had no connection to the festival.  Honestly, I think the opportunity to see our own film at one of the Draught Houses probably sells it for us.  Austin knows how to watch movies.

Bill: I visited them while they were in Austin.  We did some business at a bar called the Horse Shoe.  I’ll be going back.

Let’s get hypothetical: You’re on death row. The night of your execution, you’re allowed to watch any two films of your choice. What would you pick for your last-night-on-Earth double feature?

Turner: Badlands.  Kit’s on his way to the chair and he knows it – his lady in a Cadillac with the top down headed for nowhere.  And Paris, Texas.  It’d make my heart break for America.  Those sweeping vistas and lost love, they’d be the senses deprived in death.

Bill: That’s an epic answer.  For me: Shawshank Redemption or Escape from Alcatraz - for obvious reasons. Might get me some ideas.  Really, though, I think you’d want to at least attempt to lighten what would probably be a not so good mood.  I asked my friend Juice if he thought it was possible to laugh on death row.  He said “Of course. What About Bob.”  I’ll go with What About Bob and Ghostbusters.

There’s been some criticism that the only way to get into SXSW is by being a part of an “incestuous scene where everybody knows everybody.” So who did *you* have to sleep with to get in? (Metaphorically or literally: are there any SXSW filmmaker(s) past or present that you’re close with personally and/or professionally, and how have those relationships helped or hurt the process of producing your film and getting it seen?)

Turner: We took a chance, thinking there was no way we’d make a big festival with our little film.  If we’d had the opportunity to ‘sleep’ this thing in, we might’ve.  As it stands, we snuck in the back door.

Bill: It definitely feels like we’re getting away with something, here.