Three Canadian films and an XR project are among the latest additions to the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film and TV Festival in Austin, Texas.

The festival unveiled the second wave of titles for its 31st edition on Wednesday (Feb. 7), with all four newly-announced Canadian titles set to make their world premieres.

Among the selections are three documentaries features — writer-director Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee’s Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story; Yuqi Kang’s 7 Beats Per Minute, and director Simon Ennis’s The Hobby — and the XR project Last We Left Off.

Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story, which reveals the story of the Black trans soul singer, is coproduced by Banger Films and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). The doc is produced by Mabbott, Banger’s Amanda Burt, Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen, and the NFB’s Justine Pimlott.

Executive producers include Banger’s Dunn and McFadyen; Chanda Chevannes and Anita Lee for the NFB; Elliot Page and Matt Jordan Smith of Page Boy Productions; Nia Long; and CJ Mac. NFB is the distributor. Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story will premiere in the 24 Beats Per Second section, which showcases films about the influence of music and musicians.

NFB also coproduced writer-director Kang’s 7 Beats Per Minute with Montreal-based Intuitive Pictures. The film is produced by Intuitive’s Ina Fichman and NFB’s Sherien Barsoum. Executive producers include Fichman, Shirley Vercruysse and Lee for NFB, Kate Baxter and Neeraj Bhargava.

The film follows the world-record attempt of freediving champion Jessea Lu. NFB is distributing the film, which will premiere in the Documentary Spotlight section.

Also making its bow in the Documentary Spotlight program is The Hobby. The film is described as a character-driven portrait of the subculture of board games. The Hobby is produced by Vancouver-based Sepia Films’ Kim Roberts and Tina Pehme, and Justin Rebelo, and is executive produced by Meyer Shwarzstein.

The XR project Last We Left Off is directed by The Expats (Connor Illsley, Jon Riera, Grayson Moore and Aidan Shipley), and written by Grayson Moore. Producers include Cameron MacLaren, Peter Fisher, Connor Illsley and Jon Riera. The dramedy centres on a family whose fantasy characters go on a quest to find an evil entity, while at the same time discovering that their Dungeon Master’s marriage is falling apart in real life.

The projects are in addition to the Canadian titles announced in January, which include the French-language feature Hunting Daze, the documentaries Plastic People and Adrianne & The Castle, and the copro Kryptic.

The 31st edition of SXSW runs from March 8 to 16.

Image courtesy of Banger Films and the NFB