| 
photograph by Todd V. Wolfson
|
Last Wednesday was one of those special nights in Austin film lore:
Robert Rodriguez and
Elizabeth Avellán's first public presentation of their new movie The Faculty at the Paramount Theatre in front of an appreciative hometown audience. The screening was a benefit for the
Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund (TFPF), and the house was packed. That means the event turned out to be a sensational fundraiser for the TFPF, which in its first three years of existence has granted $130,000 to emerging film and video artists across the state. This benefit helps to ensure that the work of the TFPF continues. Future recipients of TFPF grants weren't the only lucky ones in the house.
Corina B. Morales was the fortunate ticket holder who won the souped-up 1970 hot rod used in the film. Rodriguez, who recorded the crowd with his digital camera all the while he was onstage, had earlier egged on the crowd to cheer every time the car appeared onscreen. By the time he and his cheerleader assistants pulled the winning ticket from the drum, the audience was pumped. Rodriguez encouraged any "fat cats" who might win the car and do nothing with it but let it sit idly in their front yard to say thank you and toss the car back to allow someone who really "needed transportation" to have a shot. Morales won the car on the first shot as she exclaimed that it was just what she needed for the new driver in her family, her "16-year-old baby daughter." Happy trails...
Bill Wittliff is a man of many hats. He is a screenwriter (Legends of the Fall, Black Stallion, Raggedy Man), a film director (Red-Headed Stranger), a producer (Lonesome Dove, Barbarosa), and publisher (his independent Encino Press has produced many seminal works including Larry McMurtry's In a Narrow Grave). Yet Wittliff is also a photographer and a collector (whose passions have helped foster the Texas Literature collection at Southwest Texas State University. An exhibit of some of Wittliff's photographic work is on display through January 16 at the Stephen L. Clark Gallery (1101 W. Sixth, 477-0828). Also on display is the eerie photographic work of Rocky Schenck, whose photos Wittliff has been collecting. The Chronicle ran a photo spread on these two artists' works a few weeks ago in issue #13 (November 27). They can be found online at http://www.auschron.com/issues/vol18/issue13/xtra.wittliff.html and http://www.auschron.com/issues/vol18/issue13/xtra.schenck.html.
