San Francisco native Rocky Schroeter submitted his first short film Guys and Dolls to this year's South by Southwest Film Festival.

Mockingly titled after the Broadway play, Guys and Dolls is a documentary on doll collecting, shown through the eyes of four middle-aged gay men in San Francisco.

"I grew up in a house among dolls. My mom was a doll collector," he said. "People were always like, 'Isn't that weird that you live with all these dolls all over the place?' and I was like, 'No, not really,' because I had my own GI Joes and Star Wars figures growing up, too. So, I understood the collecting aspect of it: comic books, cards, whatever."

Schroeter, 26, spent his last year at San Francisco State University in film school, where he was assigned to make a short. After racking his brain, frantic for an idea, his memory revealed his mother's hobby, and production began.

"Originally, I wanted to do a short on doll collecting and interview anybody, men and women," he said. "But, a lot of the women were afraid to be on camera. So I called up these guys, and they were all down for interviewing. So, you know what? How about Guys and Dolls?"

Schroeter met two of his collectors at a local social event called Barbie-Q. Friends of his mother introduced him to another.

"I met this dude Franklin who works at a karaoke store. He does an open-mic night. I wasn't able to film in there, but I would have loved to. He said that he sets up a table with Barbie dolls, and he dresses all snazzy. He's a really nice guy."

Schroeter encountered J.B., his fourth and final collector, through chance.

"He's the godfather of doll collectors, and he was the first one that I interviewed. It really set the tone of the documentary. My assistant was this Japanese foreign exchange student, and he was the first to go into the house. He goes in, and he runs right out. He goes, 'I'm not going in again! I'm not going in again! There's dolls everywhere!" He freaked out. This guy has dolls lining the hallway. He has a doll room. He lost count after 3,000."

An avid movie watcher, Schroeter found inspiration for Guys and Dolls from Christopher Guest's Waiting for Guffman (1997) and Best in Show (2000).

He also won the Best Short Documentary Award at a prior festival attended in Winslow, Ariz.

It was there that the audiences picked up on the root of his inspiration.

"Three people came up to me afterwards, and they were like, 'Oh, that reminded me of a Christopher Guest mockumentary. Were those people real? Are they actors?' And I said, 'No, they're really doll collectors.'"

Schroeter spent a great amount of time trying to balance respect for his principal characters and creating humor.

"It's the fine line between parody and a real documentary, where you're sincere. You can tell, because there's a point in the documentary," he said.

"At first, I just go back and forth among the four guys, and they talk about their childhood. All of a sudden, it breaks off where they show their dolls, and everyone busts up because they know that it's okay to laugh," he said.

Schroeter has already written two screenplays, and he plans this summer to move to Los Angeles, where he hopes a studio will either pick up one of them or do another short film project.

Though Schroeter has not yet rubbed elbows with Hollywood big shots, he is grateful for his acceptance into South by Southwest this year and strives for further achievement.

"This place [SXSW] is a success for me," he said. "Three people from the selection committee told me that they loved the movie. Sundance [Film Festival] rejected me. Maybe they're too serious and high-minded. Maybe you have to know people in those big places. I didn't know anyone here. I have never even been to Texas before.

"This is what Sundance used to be, or what it really wanted to achieve, but it just got too popular for its own success. Especially when you have Britney Spears walking out of movies saying, 'I don't know. These movies here at Sundance are so weird. They make you think,'" he said.