Zachary Levy’s Strongman, comes to SXSW after recently having won the Grand Jury Award at the Slamdance Film Festival, but an earlier project, through which Levy partially funded the film got a bit more press. In between shooting and editing his documentary, which he calls “a real-life version of La Strada,” Levy and some friends invented Bush Cards, decks of novelty playing cards, each emblazoned with an image of a different member of the George W. Bush administration and a memorable quote and/or factoid. Donald Rumsfeld’s ace of hearts passes along a typical slice of wisdom — “I don’t know what I said but I know what I think, and well, I assume it is what I said” — without comment. The cards got tons of press and sold like hot (yellow) cakes at indie bookstores and Urban Outfitters alike.

Answering The 5 Questions We Ask Everyone, Levy both proposed restructuring film festival submissions to resemble architecture competitions (without, like, actual architecture), and gave big ups to Uncle Buck. That, and the Strongman trailer, after the jump.

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.

It’s like:  A real-life version La Strada meets The Cruise with the dysfunction of Crumb.  Or maybe like Darkness on the Edge of Town without Adam Raised a Cain.  The quick actually leaves out the dirty which is that it’s a hard-core verite film—in form closer to the Maysles or late 60’s Shirley Clarke than to most current docs—so it requires the audience to do a little work.

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

I started the film with credit cards and finished it with Bush Cards.  They were a deck of playing cards I made at the start of the Iraq War which became a big hit (the cards…not the war.)  You can still buy them online at www.bushcards.com.

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?

Yes…I came as a visitor in 2001.  I ended up literally getting stuck in the mud out at Willie Nelson’s place and Willie had to tow me out with his truck.

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?

Uncle Buck and Grey Gardens.

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?)

I just sent my film in.  But I think there may be some truth in that in general.  My film was in Slamdance in January and in the fall I sent copy to Joe Maggio who’ve I known for years working together in New York as a cameraperson.  Joe really loved it and really recommended it to the Slamdance people.  I don’t think it’s nepotism per se because I’m sure that there are a ton of films that come into every festival programming office that someone has recommended (and don’t get selected), but I’d think a recommendation probably at least keeps it in a programmer’s brain a second longer.

One thing I think might help is to do it like an architecture competition—where people send in their entries in blind without credits attached.  That way, festivals who want to be seen more as purely (art) film festivals can protect both themselves and the filmmakers from that kind of criticism.  Other festivals can then be more of a combination of marketing, sales, and art festivals.  There’s enough room of course for both.  Ultimately, though I don’t pay too much attention to any of it—the politics and the gossip aren’t things which are all that interesting to me, and they won’t make me a better filmmaker, or stop me from making more films.  I figure if I keep on doing what I’m doing, sooner or later someone will get it—and if they don’t—well, then smile and do it anyway.