KNIFE IN MY BACK DEPT.: I'd been planning to give you a blow-by-blow rundown of the multiplicity of film festivals we have in town right now, but unfortunately I've been about as ambulatory as a background artist in
Coma, thanks to a disastrously timed bout with lower-back meltdown. Instead, I'll just note that
QT Quattro, currently unspooling over at the Alamo Drafthouse, is by all accounts a rousing success, with fans and friends of the
other Mr. T arriving from all over (some notables include
Amanda Plummer and
Chainsaw-master
Tobe Hopper, as well as New Zealand's
Anthony Timson of
The Incredibly Strange Film Festival) to bask in celluloid weirdness. On the other end of the festival spectrum, the
Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival 2000 (at the Dobie, Arbor, and Paramount Theatres) is breaking previous attendance records, uh, straight across the board, according to festival artistic director
Scott Dinger, from the record opening night screening of
Sordid Lives to the following GSD&M bash that went well into the wee hours of the morn. Both fests are a long way from over as you read this, with QT wrapping up Sunday, Sept. 3 and aGLIFF continuing through Thursday, Sept. 7. There are still plenty of tickets, memberships, and, most importantly, films to be seen, so turn off AMC already and get out there, you. More info can be had at
www.drafthouse.com and
www.agliff.org, respectively... The
Austin Film Society has announced the recipients of the
Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund 2000, disbursing a whopping $50,000 among 11 Texas filmmakers. Of 155 applications received, 92 were from Austin, 10 from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, two from El Paso, 16 from Houston, seven from San Antonio, and 25 from other areas in Texas. A full listing of the winners, their films, and the amounts awarded can be found elsewhere in this section, but for now, congratulations are in order for
Kathleen Candler,
Mocha Jean Herrup,
Dina Kagan,
Susan Kirr,
Sara Mayer,
Andre Silva,
Meredith Decotiis Szypula,
Timothy Wilkerson,
Diane Zander,
Gary L. Watson, and
Adam Robinette... Although it's played here before,
University, Inc.,
Kyle Henry's scathing indictment of the current state of higher education and the death of UT's Texas Union Film program, is returning as part of the
McCollege Disinformation Tour, paired with
Laura Dunn's equally biting
The Subtext of a Yale Education. Both documentaries will screen Tuesday, Sept. 5, 7pm, at the Alamo Drafthouse. With the tour underwritten by
Richard Linklater,
Michael Moore, AFS, and the
Detour Film Foundation, both films have become even more prescient than perhaps first assumed by the powers that be. Their current press release includes a lengthy section covering the upcoming Sept. 6-8 UT sickout, which seeks to gain better wages and benefits for UT employees in all positions via a massive, 6,000-persons-plus walkout. There's much more to the issue than we have room to go into in this limited space; suffice to say if you're up for stickin' it to the man (and who isn't?), you'd be well-served to catch both of these polished, stimulating docs while they're in town and before the university system crushes yet another worthy artistic endeavor... A benefit to support
Andrea Tucker's documentary film
Ladies Nite, about the culture of male strip clubs, will be held at the Red Eyed Fly on Thursday, Sept. 7, from 8pm to 2am. Playdoh Squad, Pop Unknown, Ringer, and Westbury Squares are scheduled to perform, and footage from the documentary will also be shown.
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