Finding Subjective Truths at SXSW AUSTIN, Tex. - The crop of documentaries at this year's festival covered a wide and diverse range of topics. Below is a look at three films that allowed audiences to view their subjects in a different way. Waiting for Lightning "Waiting for Lightning" is a portrait of Danny Way, who has spent over 20 years as a professional skateboarder. The film's director, Jacob Rosenberg, got his start in the late 1980s working on skateboard videos; some of his early video footage of a very young Danny Way appears in his film. He uses those clips and interviews with Mr. Way's family and friends to tell the story of a talented skater with a penchant for risk-taking (like jumping the Great Wall of China on his board) and a desire to move the sport to places it hadn't gone before. When approached to make a film about the skateboarder, Mr. Rosenberg was interested, but didn't want the film to just be another skate video. "I knew Danny's life and what he'd been through, so I knew there was ripe material," said Mr. Rosenberg. Both of us had common ground with some issues in our childhood, and I felt like I had good insight and a level of respect for Danny and the sport. Tchoupitoulas The brothers Bill Ross and Turner Ross brought their first feature, "45365," to SXSW in 2009 where it won the grand jury award for best documentary feature. They returned this year with "Tchoupitoulas," a whimsical ride through the city of New Orleans with three young boys acting as a guide. It's a look at the the lives and places that keep the city vibrant. "These aren't issue based films or narratively structured films," said Turner Ross. We're trying to allow people to experience something we are also experiencing. Pieces of the truth to tell a greater truth. The filmmakers consider New Orleans like a second home and have spent time there since they were children. They aimed to capture the childlike wonder of the city they had when they were young. To be a kid and see New Orleans with child's eyes, to have that kind of wonderment and illusion was like a dream. So basically, we tried to make a dream. The Ross brothers shot for several months before they began to see their film taking shape, namely by meeting the boys who they ended up using as their guide to the city. "We went in with a broad idea of what we hoped it would be, but we always allowed ourselves to be open to new possibilities," said Bill Ross. Trash Dance In Andrew Garrison's documentary "Trash Dance," garbage becomes art. Its primary subject is Allison Orr, a choreographer who sees elements of dance in unlikely places. The film follows her on her quest to create a performance using sanitation workers and their equipment. Ms. Orr spoke about her process at the festival. For about 10 years now, I've been exploring this idea of making work with people who don't identify as dancers, but using the routines that come from their daily life as basic material for the choreography. In the past, Ms. Orr has worked with the fire department, a group of Venetian gondoliers and regulars at a skating rink. Her process for the Trash Project featured in "Trash Dance" involved hanging out in the community of Austin sanitation workers and getting to know the individuals in the profession. She joined them on their shifts and observed their work to craft her choreography. The result was a public performance on a tarmac using the workers, their garbage trucks and more, all set to music. "I look for people who are highly skilled and almost virtuosic in their performance of a particular movement and I highlight that," she said. Then I use the performance as a way to tell a fuller story about who that person is. The film takes a deeper look at the lives of the men and women in waste management and Ms. Orr's project creates a way to both honor and celebrate the employees" efforts.