Short Cuts

Congratulations to Luke Savisky, the first recipient of the D. Montgomery Award, an annual award established just last year to acknowledge and encourage the work of a local multimedia artist who is working in the eclectic spirit of the fund's namesake. Savisky certainly makes a most appropriate inaugural recipient for this year's $2,500 award. Savisky's film and projection installations have been been seen in many guises around town over the last several years, whether standing on their own or accompanying various ventures in art, film, and music. His work with Bill Daniel at the weekly Funhouse Cinema series has been especially notable, as has his work with such bands as Ed Hall and Sixteen Deluxe. Two prime opportunities to witness samples of his work are possible this weekend. On Friday, Nov. 13, film projections by Savisky, Bill Daniel, and Gonzalo Gonzalez will be on display as part of the multi-disciplinary Circa 1998 exhibition at the Brown Building Lofts (8th St. & Colorado), from 8-11pm. Then, on Saturday, Nov. 14, Savisky's work will also be included in the a special all-night outdoor independent film and video festival in which works will be projected directly on the walls of the Texas Fine Arts Association building as part of the organization's opening celebration and street party. The projections will continue from 8pm-6am at 700 Congress, and the party also features lots of contemporary artwork and music...

The speaker at the next meeting of Reel Women will be award-winning filmmaker, Ramona Diaz, who will discuss ethics and the documentary film show a sample from her feature-length documentary about Imelda Marcos. She and her crew spent a month with Marcos last May filming her in the Philippines during the elections. The meeting takes place on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 7:30pm, at GSD&M Advertising (828 W. 6th St.)...

We'd think it was just another case of kowtowing to the demands of product placement if local filmmaker Bob Ray were to go ahead with his plan to switch the title of his work-in-progress from Rock Opera to Rohyponol Summer. But seeing as how the new title doesn't even spell the name of the pharmaceutical correctly, we're thinking it's more a case of wishful thinking. However, Ray wants us all to know that anyone who thinks "both of these titles suck," should visit his "vote for the film title" Web page at http://lonestar.texas.net/~crashcam/name.html. The movie tells the story of a scuzzy Austin musician trying to get his act on the road and makes use of the work of numerous local musicians...

Leave it to the pundits to figure out why Disney's new Adam Sandler film, The Waterboy, broke all kinds of box-office records for an opening weekend, and why the company's highly touted, high-profile, Oprah-promoted, Toni Morrison adaptation, Beloved, hit the skids. We here in Austin are blessed with a wealth of smaller, alternative, independent films playing on an impressive number of dedicated screens each and every week. Currently, three films are playing locally that first sneak-peeked to Austin audiences at film festivals over the last couple of years. The LastBig Thing debuted at the Austin Heart of Film Festival in 1997 and was reported to be one of programmer Jason White's favorites. Marcusvan Bavel's Austin-made Redboy 13 debuted at the SXSW Film Festival in 1997 and in its second week of play at the Dobie Theatre, the film's run has been extended to a couple of afternoon weekend screenings in addition to its midnight slots. Another Texas-made film, Bob Byington's Olympia was the opening night film at this year's SXSW and is starting a local run this Friday at the Dobie. Byington will conduct a Q&A session after the 7:35pm screenings on Friday and Saturday.