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Kenneth Anger, the groundbreaking pioneer of the American avant-garde cinema and the scandal-rich author of the Hollywood Babylon book series, is making his first return visit to Austin in nearly 20 years, courtesy of local film group in*situ. The appropriately timed Halloween weekend visit includes a Friday, Oct. 31 screening in Burdine Auditorium on the UT campus (8-11pm), a Saturday, Nov. 1 panel discussion in the Huntington Gallery Auditorium (4-5:30pm), a Saturday night event titled Re-Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome: A Hollywood Babylon Ball and Casting Call Party at the Ranch Studios, and a Sunday, Nov. 2 booksigning at Borders (1pm). For details, see the interview in this week's "Screens" or call 481-0493. Suffice it to say that Anger's 1964 film Scorpio Rising invented the modern music video format and that scores of today's syndicated scandal junkies would be out of work were it not for Anger's Hollywood Babylon books...

Check out the Alamo Drafthouse for some other Halloween-themed screenings: Thursday, Oct. 30 at 7pm the Cinemaker Co-op presents The Attack of the 50-Foot Reel, a local collection of scary 8mm shorts; screening at midnight this Thursday and Sat., Nov. 1 is Carrie, and on Friday, Oct. 31 at midnight is The Night of the Living Dead...

Sunday, Nov. 2, 4-7pm in Zilker Park, the Austin region of the Texas Association of Film/Tape Professionals hosts Production in the Park during which various vendors will demo their gear. Call 888/630-7373 for more info...

Later Sunday evening, 7 & 9:30pm at the Dobie Theatre, the Austin Film Society (AFS) presents the Best of Austin FilmWorks, a screening of some of the best student shorts produced under the tutelage of local filmmaker Steve Mims. This always proves to be one of the most interesting screenings of the year and the $5 admission also directly benefits the Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund...

Bill Daniel's underground film series Funhouse Cinema continues on Monday, Nov. 3, 8 & 10:30pm at the Ritz Lounge, with Craig Baldwin's intriguing experimental documentary feature Sonic Outlaws, which explores the realm of artistic piracy and focuses on such things as Negativland's infamous U2 appropriation and the activities of the Barbie Liberation Organization...

The AFS-sponsored Survey of the American Avant Garde continues on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 7pm in the Union Theatre with several shorts from the early 1960s. Included are Bruce Connor's seminal Cosmic Ray, Peter Kubelka's brain-tickling Arnulf Rainer (hey, isn't Kubelka Viennese?), Robert Breer's Eye Wash, Ken Jacobs' Little Stabs at Happiness, and Joseph Strick's The Savage Eye...

When you return home Tuesday night, don't forget to tune into this week's installment of The Territory on KLRU-TV at 10pm. The topic is Digital Animation and features a clip from local filmmakers Rose X Media House's Strange Attractor...

The AFS Musicals series screens Carmen Jones with Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte on Sat., Nov. 1 at noon in the Dobie Theatre and the Gene Kelly classic It's Always Fair Weather on Thursday, Nov. 6 at 7:30pm at the Dobie. This is a rare opportunity to see a true CinemaScope gem that gets butchered when shown anywhere else but the big screen.