Short Cuts

One year short of a quarter-century... 24 years of life is what ACAC (Austin Community Access Center) will be celebrating this weekend. (Technically, ACAC will be celebrating less than a year of life this weekend since, until very recently, ACAC was known as ACTV... but a rose is a rose is a rose is a test pattern. Happy birthday, ACAC.) To celebrate, ACAC will cablecast the 1997 Austin Video Awards in a live ceremony from 5-7pm, Saturday, June 7 on channel 16. During the live cablecast, clips from the winning entries will be shown and winners will receive their awards live on the air as they're given out at the ACAC Main Studios. Earlier in the day, two documentaries by filmmaker and Texas Commission on the Arts-sponsored visiting artist Brian Huberman will also screen at the Main Studio (1143 Northwestern) as part of the festivities. Screening at 11am is Huberman's 1992 film, John Wayne's Alamo, about the actor-turned-director's obsession to make the movie The Alamo; screening at 1pm will be another Huberman movie about the making of a movie (although this 1994 Austin-filmed sequel remains unreleased), The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Documentary. Admission is $2 for the public and $1 for ACAC producers and students; the screenings will be followed by a Q&A and reception at 3pm. Call 478-8600 for more info...

Also on TV the next two weekends is the return of the show Split Screen, the funny and no-holds-barred look at the world of independent filmmaking hosted by "indie guru" John Pierson. The Independent Film Channel (IFC) show airs on Mondays at 7pm on that network; however, the first six episodes of this show have also screened as part of sister station Bravo's "IFC Fridays." Part V of Split Screen (featuring a hilarious study of the David S. Freeman screenwriting seminar, and interviews with pregnant filmmakers Katherine Dieckman and Mary Harron by Go Fish's Guinevere Turner) airs this Friday, June 6 at 10:30pm; Part VI airs the following Friday, June 13...

Two great reasons for going downtown to the movies also present themselves this weekend. The Paramount's Summer Film Classics series is showing the 1945 pre-release version of Howard Hawks' The Big Sleep, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. This is Hawks' first cut of the film before the 1946 re-shoots and edits (which, by all accounts, made for a sexier and less coherent storyline). The program includes a "companion reel" which illustrates the difference between the two versions. Call 472-5470 for times and prices. The Alamo Drafthouse Theater helps to usher in its new "dinner, drinks, and a movie" concept with Great White North theme nights, June 5-7, to accompany their presentation of Strange Brew, starring Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas. Their kitchen will be serving up special-edition Canadian bacon pizzas and limited-edition bottles of "Elsinor" beer. Call 867-1839 or visit http://www.drafthouse.com for more theme schedules...

Jean Simmons delivers perhaps her finest performance as a wide-eyed murderer in the 1952 film Angel Face. The Otto Preminger classic is the Austin Film Society's entry this week in its "Femmes Fatales" series, Wed., June 11 at 7:30pm and Sat., June 14 at noon at the Dobie