Short Cuts

You may have noticed a distinct lack of "Short Cuts" in last week's Chronicle -- thanks to our massive Best of Austin coverage we opted to stand down for a week in order to fit in Best Theatre to Eat Your Friends At, which, of course, didn't end up making the final cut anyway. I think the powers that be thought it was supposed to read "... Meet Your Friends At," in which case I would have offered "Meat" as opposed to, well, you get the idea. All of this is a roundabout way of saying that the Alamo Drafthouse's Cannibal Film Festival was a wild success for almost all involved. I say almost all because during the course of the fest, programmer/owners Tim and Karrie League received a number of apparently serious letters and phone calls berating them for serving Soylent Green-esque fare at the screenings, as did John Aielli over at KUT (in the wake of hosting a ravenous Tim on Eklektikos), the 101X morning crew, and other media outlets. One humorless anti-cannibal even went so far as to call the Travis County Health Department, who by law had to trundle down to the theatre to check for signs of Jimmy Hoffa in the "handburgers," wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Hey, gang, let's try some irony in that diet, shall we? It's good for your blood... In other festival news, the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference and Film Festival kicks off on Thursday, Oct. 7 with panels and screenings. Look for the schedules in the following pages, visit http://austinfilmfestival.org, or call 800/310-FEST. The festival continues through Oct. 14... Late news from the Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival: The winners of the Audience Awards just made it to us here at "Short Cuts" and they are Ernest Dickerson's Blind Faith for Best Feature; Lucy Winer's Golden Threads for Best Documentary; Jennifer Arnold's "Maid of Honor" for Best Girl Short; Carl Pfirman's "Boy Next Door" for Best Boy Short; and C. McDougall and S. Harding's Queer as Folk for Audience Favorite. Congrats go out to one and all... On Saturday, Oct. 2 the Acting: A Plan of Attack Conference takes place; it's designed "to educate Texas performers on the business of acting." I suspect that means never give an "agent" named Manny the Mook your home address if you can help it, but then again I'm no actor. All pertinent information on this one-day conference is available by calling 458-2912 or by e-mailing actors@excite.com... If you missed its first airing this past Monday, Lee Daniel and Jon Ausbrooks' film portrait of Kenneth Anger, "Inside the Eye of Scorpio Rising," will rerun as part of John Pierson's TV show Split Screen, Saturday, Oct 2, 4:30pm, on IFC. Expect to learn more than you thought possible about one of the most misunderstood filmmakers of this or any other generation, one who's also been spending time in Austin of late... The indefatigable folks at Cinemaker Co-op are holding their monthly meeting Sunday, Oct. 3, 7 pm, in the Artplex (1705 Guadalupe). It's open to the public, and if you haven't checked them out yet here's your chance to do so... Finally, Steven Soderbergh has decided to come to Austin and present his new film The Limey as a benefit for the Austin Film Society. The director's much-ballyhooed latest screens on Oct 8, 7:30pm, at General Cinema's Barton Creek Square 14. This is the same night the movie opens in New York and Los Angeles. Reservations are $30/$10 students and, not surprisingly, they're going crazy fast. Reservations are available to AFS members only through Friday, Oct. 1; the remaining seats will go on sale to the general public on Monday, Oct. 4. Go by the AFS office (3109 N. I-35) or call 494-1681 for ticket reservations.