Short Cuts

Uncle Festivus Dept.: Richard Linklater and his production company Detour FilmProduction have scored a remarkable coup over in fabled Park City, Utah. The director has had not one but two feature films accepted to this year's Sundance Film Festival, which runs Jan. 18-28, 2001. Both the animated Waking Life, starring Wiley Wiggins, Nicky Katt, and Timothy "Speed" Levitch, and Tape, with Ethan Hawke, are part of the director's initial foray into DV film production, the former employing Austin animators Tommy Pallotta and Bob Sabiston's unique animation/video hybrid software (currently being showcased on various local network affiliates in the pair's Earthlink.com ad). Formatting issues aside, Linklater is the first director in the history of Sundance to have more than one feature screening concurrently, though neither film is (thankfully) in direct competition with the other... Also on the current festival circuit is Athina Rachel Tsangari's feature The Slow Business of Going, which the Cinematexas head has been laboring over for nearly six years. The film recently had its world debut at the 41st annual Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Tsangari's native Greece and will also be playing both the upcoming international festivals in Rotterdam and Berlin during January-February 2001... Closer to home, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema hosted the second annual Harry Knowles' Butt-Numb-A-Thon birthday bash 'n' benefit blowout. The event, which had sold out in mere minutes a good month or so before, drew a packed house of 230 or so slavering souls who reveled in the agonies of the flesh while sitting still (more or less) for 24 straight hours of cutting-edge cinematic hooch. Venue owner Tim League reports only about 10 zombified walkouts over the marathon weekend, with a total of $6K going to benefit the Austin Big Brothers/Sisters and Knowles' own Saturday Morning Film Program at the Alamo. Featured films included Sam Raimi's The Gift and the wildly anticipated Guy Ritchie caper flick Snatch with attending actor Ade swarmed by autograph hounds post-screening. Says League, "Snatch was his first picture and I don't think he was ready to deal with that many fanboys. He started screaming into the microphone, 'Help! Harry! Get these people the fuck away from me!'" A taste of chaos to come, perhaps, in light of Ritchie's impending nuptials to Madonna. (For more on the event see the feature report also in this section.)... Just when you thought things couldn't possibly get any better for the Austin Film Society (and you have to admit the opening of Austin Studios -- overseen by AFS -- is pretty hard to top) comes word from U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-Travis County) that the AFS will be among nine Austin arts organizations "to receive a total of $205K in federal funds to support the creation and presentation of their artistic work." Of the total amount, AFS will get a sizable $30K, guaranteeing (among other things) more free Tuesday film series... Finally, small-gauge filmmaking enthusiast/guru Barna Kantor of the Center for Young Cinema has forwarded a press release from industry giants Eastman Kodak stating that the dreaded "streamlining" is underway, due in part to substantially lower fourth-quarter earnings than originally projected. "So what?" you cry. Kodak, of course, is still the industry standard when it comes to both 35mm and Super-8 (and everything in between) film stock, which means non-DV infatuated filmmakers can expect not only price increases on stock and materials but also conceivably discontinued production of some of Kodak's more avant-garde small gauge stocks. Not a good time to be Stan Brakhage it seems.