Double Trouble: James Fotopoulos & Julia Halperin

Christabel (2002), by avant-garde bad boy James Fotopoulos, alternates between 16mm and video projection to spin a web of dreams inspired by the poem by Samuel Coleridge. Fotopoulos' feature-length narrative work poses perceptual and emotional challenges to his viewers - and that's the way he likes it. His sexual symbolism is dense and not for all tastes but it should become even more interesting in contrast with the half-hour film, "Super Doll" (2000) by Austin local Julia Halperin, which is also screening on the bill. Halperin's Cinematexas award-winning short takes us down the slippery slope of an American woman's homicidal crack-up. The film is based on the real-life story of a Japanese woman's murderous rampage to eliminate all rivals after she deemed herself "the most beautiful woman in the world."