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Thousands head to Downtown Austin for first day of SXSW

This year's 10-day event will feature everything from technology to the arts.

AUSTIN, Texas — South by Southwest (SXSW) kicked off Friday as hundreds of thousands of people flocked to Downtown Austin. This year's 10-day event will feature everything from technology to the arts.

"We're hoping to change the world, one viewing, one screening at a time," Dieterich Gray said. 

Gray comes from California as a producer on a documentary feature called "Who I Am Not," which will premiere at SXSW. According to SXSW's website, the film gives "a voice to the long ignored and mostly silent two percent of the world's population: the intersex community."

"Tells the story of two intersex individuals, and these are lovely human beings who are born with elements of both genders," Gray said. 

Corine Meijers, the founder of Studio Biarritz, is visiting from the Netherlands to showcase a virtual reality project.

"We bring you into a future world, a speculative future world which is going to make you think of how we live today and how we take care of ourselves and nature," Meijers said.

That world is part of the project known as Symbiosis.

From virtual reality to hitting the road, Scott Colosimo is the founder and CEO of an electric bike manufacturer called LAND. Colosimo is pitching to investors to help grow the company. He said the company's vision is to get more people out of their cars. 

"If we were in a car and came like 8 blocks to here, we probably would have been stuck for 20 minutes. On the e-bikes, we were here in, I think, 3 minutes," Colosimo said.

Many creators like Gray are hoping to change hearts and minds at SXSW.

"We think we know what's right and what's wrong, we think we understand everything. And if we can stay teachable and stay curious, I think we'll find a more common ground as a people and I think this film helps us achieve that," Gray said. 

Several speakers have already taken center stage at SXSW including former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki and Priyanka Chopra Jonas. On Saturday, Kerry Washington and Jose Andres are expected to speak.

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