An engrossing and timely documentary, Abduction tells the story of young Megumi Yokota, a Japanese teenager who vanishes while walking home from school one afternoon in 1977. While her parents and the police initially suspect a typical runaway or child abduction scenario, two decades go by without any clue as to her whereabouts. The film lets the viewer know that a larger conspiracy is at play, namely that North Korea has kidnapped Yokota along......

In the 1970's, famed director Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man) walked from Munich to Paris in the hopes that the prolonged journey would keep a dying friend alive. So novice filmmaker Linus Phillips has decided that his life will be made meaningful by emulating the act in an attempt to meet Mr. Herzog. Phillips' journey is a two-month walk from Seattle to Los Angeles, along which he meets various ruffians and eccentrics on the highway.......

No film festival is complete without a contribution to the teenage misfit subgenre, and the Austin Film Festival is certainly no exception. Shot in the damp urban wastes of Seattle, Urban Scarecrow benefits from impressively gritty digital photography and a plethora of endearingly ugly locations. Wesley Downs has problems; when not weathering abuse from skateboarding bullies or enduring pitiful stand-up comedy from his downwardly-mobile father, he finds solace doing Whip-Its with his best friend or......