Reel life at SXSW: The Network and An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story

Two of my favorite films at SXSW this year were nonfiction features. An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story -- from Al Reinert, director of the Oscar-nominated For All Mankind -- is an illuminating and infuriating account of a luckless Texan who spent 25 years behind bars after being falsely convicted -- thanks, apparently, to prosecutorial misconduct -- for the murder of his wife. You can read my Variety review of this one here.

Meanwhile, off in Afghanistan, director Eva Orner -- producer of the Oscar-winning Taxi to the Dark Side -- examines the power of television to reflect and effect change in a society during an epochal period of transition in The Network. You can my review of that one here.