The revolution will be digitized. Why? Because digitization is the revolution. Every second that ticks by, millions of pixels pop into existence, flash and burn their cubist code into an alternate, slightly choppier reality, smooth on the surface but hard and angular underneath. Cameras are everywhere: convenience stores, shopping malls, stoplights, cars, phones, pens … and perhaps most disturbingly, in the tremulous hands of legions of aspiring filmmakers. These days, pixels are cheap. Ugliness abounds: bad lighting, composition, directing, editing – but the occasional gems of unrefined genius, those rare jewels of clarity, creativity, and competence sometimes justify the exponentially growing mound of cinematic slag. This weekend some of those films, both digital and analog, will be screening at Cinematexas 9, Austin’s internationally renowned short-film festival. Through Sunday, short films from both UT students and filmmakers from all over the world will be shown in venues throughout Austin. For a $40 pass you’ll get to witness the cutting edge of modern cinema: all of the stuff you normally miss because it doesn’t pad the corporate coffers. Best of all, most of the films clock in at under 20 minutes, so whether you’re highly entertained by what you see or even profoundly disturbed, it will be mercifully brief – like the flash of a pixel.
This article appears in September 24 • 2004.
