Short Cuts

The second annual CinemaTexas Short Film and Video Festival kicks off this week on the UT campus. Organized and operated by students in the RTF Department, the festival is dedicated to the art of the short-form format. The festival runs Wed. Sept. 24-Sun. Sept. 28 and will be screening works from Austin and around the world. The opening event is an outdoor Super-8 screening on Wed. Sept. 24, 8:30-11pm, in the courtyard between Batts and Mezes Hall, at which four 30-minute programs from around the country will be shown. Then, on Thu. Sept. 25, 6pm, in the Texas Union Theater, author and filmmaker Roger & Me's Michael Moore will be in attendance to present his new film The Big One, a documentary that was shot during the course of his national book tour for Downsize This! At 9pm that evening, the first round of competition shorts will screen. Festival passes ($10 UT students, $15 non-students) are available at the Union Theater box office; single admissions are $2/$3. We'll have more details on the rest of the fest next issue but meanwhile, the hotline number is 471-6657...

Speaking of the Texas Union Theatre, it's encouraging to see how many members of the UT community are rallying against the precipitous and unilateral decision to eliminate the campus film program, coupled with management's vague and non-committal plans for the theatre's continued use as a screening venue. Currently, petitions are being circulated and it's likely to evolve into a more organized protest. It's also important to note the service that the UT film program provides to the community at large. The closure is an issue that affects film viewers throughout our community and the theatre is not something that should be allowed to slip away quietly...

The Chicano/Latino Film Forum hosts the return of filmmaker Carlos Avila on Tue. Sept. 23, 7:30pm, at Mexic-Arte. Named one of "10 to watch" in Hispanic Hollywood by Hispanic magazine, Avila will screen two of the four-part Fotonovelas series, described as a "Latino Twilight Zone," and scheduled to broadcast nationally on PBS in October...

The next installment of Funhouse Cinema is Monday, Sept. 22, 8 & 10:30pm at the Ritz. Titled Honk If You Love Jesus, the program features several shorts, including Lee Daniel's humorous look at the Pope's 1986 visit to San Antonio, "Have You Seen Him?"...

The Austin Museum of Art's Traveling With the Ancients video series continues on Thu. Sept. 25, 6pm, at AMOA/Downtown with Gathering Up Again: Fiesta in Santa Fe by Jeanette Debouzek and Diane Reyna...

The Austin Film Society's Abbas Kiarostami retrospective continues on Tue. Sept. 23, 7pm, at the Texas Union Theatre with one of the director's most acclaimed movies, Through the Olive Trees...

Also, the Film Society is planning a special members-only screening event with Robert Rodriguez on Oct. 1, so if want an opportunity to attend call them at 322-0145 and discover the many other advantages of joining up...

There will be a benefit on Wed. Sept. 24, 8pm, at the Flamingo Cantina to help filmmaker David Zellner recoup his financial outlay for his first feature Plastic Utopia. The project was also recently awarded a distribution grant by the Texas Filmmakers' Production