Indie Filmmaker Navigates to South by Southwest Using Compass

In an act of radical resistance against mainstream Hollywood, indie filmmaker Trip Rickles navigated from his apartment in Bushwick to the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas, on foot using only a compass.

“South By is all about that underground, do-it-yourself, indie spirit,” said Rickles during a SXSW panel on low-budget filmmaking. “My success is proof that you don’t need some major studio or financier or airline or train or car or bus or bike to back your vision.”

Rickles does admit that navigating to the festival was more difficult than he initially anticipated: “My work is all about going back to the basics. That’s why I tried just following my compass’s south by southwest direction with no deviation,” a strategy which led to Rickles being hit by cars and semi-trucks on more than fifteen occasions during the trek.

Rickles arrived at SXSW barefoot and with scrapes and bruises covering his body from head to toe. When questioned about what appeared to be a fungal infection spreading across his left leg, he proclaimed, “This is real. Nothing is real anymore.” Rickles then let out a wolf-like howl that pierced through the night. “Sorry, just instinct,” Rickles explained. “When I was lost in the Chihuahuan Desert, I was adopted by a pack of lobos. I learned their customs, their way of life.” Rickles then licked the backs of his hands before gnawing on a piece of raw meat which he produced from his waistband.

A Harvard Lampoon parody