Graphic: The 2009 SXSW Film Family Tree

An illustrated look at how everything is connected at this year's fest.

From its accidental 2005 birth to its 2007 peak and beyond, “mumblecore” (that DIY pigeonholing non-movement we hate to call by name, yet keep doing so anyway) always had two defining characteristics: a social-cum-artistic relationship between its filmmakers, and a direct link to the SXSW Film Festival. Two years ago this month, I half-jokingly decided to illustrate a chart depicting how incestuous the “m-word” scene had become, connecting the collaborators to each film and one another. Now, as SXSW 2009 approaches, IFC has asked me to update the chart with this year’s players, and if the lineup reveals anything, it’s that the creative alliances are still multiplying within the Amerindie scene… regardless of how articulate (non-mumbly!) or polished (a Joe Swanberg film produced by Noah Baumbach!) or divergent (documentaries!) the new crop looks to be. Welcome to the post-mumblecore world.