Short Cuts

Sorry, Vincent Ward ... Xena: Warrior Princess has it all over you this week. In the first of her two-part season premiere this week, Xena goes back to hell and beyond to retrieve her dear Gabrielle and what she endures makes your vision of hell in What Dreams May Come look like a walk in the park. She faces much worse nightmares than WDMC's prospect of stepping over the giant scowl of Werner Herzog's face and demonstrates once more why there's no better job description on earth than that of "warrior princess"...

Don't know if it's the snap of cooler weather in the air or the 24/7 saturation of film festival screenings in recent weeks, but it suddenly feels like a good time to cuddle up indoors in front of the TV. Even on the home-sized screen, though, there's plenty going on this week to keep us glued. Filmed in Texas is an hour-long program about filmmakers who work and make films set in Texas. The show marks a new collaboration between public television station KLRU and the Austin independent film community and is, hopefully, the first of many more co-joined projects to come. It airs Sunday, October 11, 8pm on cable 9/channel 18. (For a more complete rundown of the show, turn to this issue's "Film Listings.")...

You might also stick with KLRU Friday, October 9, 9pm, for a wonderful election-year political satire, Man With a Plan, by John O'Brien, that chronicles the congressional campaign of Fred Herman Tuttle, a 73-year-old man in search of a job...

Over on the Independent Film Channel (ch. 67), the Production Three students in Steve Mims'FilmWorks class will be profiled on this week'sepisode of John Pierson's Split Screen TV show. All the students in this class have pooled their talents to produce one 16mm feature-length comedy, In Flagrante, that was filmed in July and will premiere at the Dobie on December 3. Too-long-gone Austin filmmaker George Ratliff(Plutonium Circus) has been back in town recently filming the all-for-one-and-one-for-all project for Split Screen. The segment can be seen on Monday, Oct. 12, 7 & 10pm; Tuesday, Oct. 13, 12:30pm; Saturday, Oct. 17, 4:30pm & 1am; and Sunday, Oct. 18, 8:30pm...

Some of you, I realize, might actually want to venture out of the house this week and a great opportunity for sociability exists Wednesday night, 6:30-8pm, at the monthly Film Alliance happy hour at the Top of the Marc (618 W. Sixth). These networking events are free to members and $5 for non-members. Call 467-2015 for more info...

Robert Schenkkan, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Kentucky Cycle, will speak on his work as both a playwright and a screenwriter, on Thursday, October 15, 7:30pm, in the 4th Floor auditorium of the Harry Ransom Center on the UT campus. The engagement is presented by the Michener Center for Writers and is free to students and the public...

Mark your calendars for the start of a new Funhouse Cinema series beginning on Monday, October 12 (8 & 10:30pm) at the Ritz Lounge. The season kicks off with a special program, "Slacker Revisited: The D. Montgomery Award Benefit Show."The award honors the creative inspiration of Montgomery, who died last year but is still widely recognizable from her onscreen role in Slacker. The award is earmarked for interdisciplinary artists, with the goal of funding non-project-specific experiments and explorations. This "Slacker Revisited" benefit will feature video clips, outtake cut-ups, a film by D., and an intro by the Slacker gang. Admission is on a $5-10 sliding scale. (More information about submitting contributions to the D. Montgomery Award can always be obtained by calling the Austin Film Society, which administers the award, at 322-0145.