Chris Elley produced and directed Barbecue: A Texas Love Story, which is being screened at the SXSW Film Festival.
See the world premiere at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 14 at the Austin Convention Center or at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 16 at the Dobie Theatre. Tickets are $7 unless you have a SXSW Film Pass.
News 8 Austin's Todd Boatwright spoke with Elley and public relations manager Susan Stanford.
Q: Why make a film about Texas barbecue?
Elley: Because no one’s done it. It’s a way of life here in Texas; it’s what encapsulates who we are, so I don’t know why anyone hasn’t done it up to this point. So we jumped in a car and drove over 3,000 miles across the state, ate wonderful barbecue, and most of all we found some amazing stories everywhere we went.
Q: It’s interesting too, because you have stories about Texas celebrities. Tell me about that.
Elley: A number of well-known Texas people in the film, from Dan Rather, Ann Richards narrates it, Ray Benson, Liz Carpenter … Thing is, we had the magic beans, really, we had the topic of barbecue, and no one turned us down.
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'Barbecue: A Texas Love Story'
Watch the complete interview with Chris Elley and Susan Stanford.
 
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Q: What is it about barbecue and politics?
Elley: Well, as I mentioned, barbecue just permeates every part of Texas life, and it’s a tool of sorts for us to bring people together. And politics is about bringing people together, and what better tool in Texas than barbecue. In one of the segments in the film, we go back to the LBJ presidency and Liz Carpenter and Cactus Pryor share with us that barbecue was responsible for a great amount of diplomacy during his administration. Even to the Middle Eastern folks who didn’t eat pork.
Q: Susan, what will people get out of this film?
Stanford: We want people to walk away with a feeling of how important barbecue is to the Texas culture, whether it’s a family reunion or a political fundraiser. It just impacts every part of our lives as Texans.
Q: What has been the public’s reaction so far?
Stanford: It’s just overwhelming, the positive feedback we’ve gotten from the film. Because everybody loves barbecues. The one question we always get is, “Have you been to…” because we couldn’t hit every barbecue place in Texas.
