Short Cuts

Better Than a Poke in the Eye With a Sharp Gold Statuette Dept.: After literally months of everyone in Austin's film and arts communities scratching their collective noggins and sighing "has it really been 10 years since the release of Richard Linklater's indie masterwork Slacker?" the answer was an irrefutable "oh yeah, baby" at last Sunday's Slacker anniversary fete at the Paramount Theatre. A capacity house listened to writer/director Linklater, DP Lee Daniel, and others reminisce about the blessed event that put a heretofore little-known Austin subculture on the global indie map. Among the attendees from out of town were Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes author and indie guru John Pierson and indie film superstar-attorney John Sloss. The most notable moment came when the Second Annual D. Montgomery Award was presented to Austin small-gauge filmmaking marvel the Cinemaker Co-op. Founder Barna Kantor received both the physical award -- a dangerously cool (and pointy!) "Golden Spiral" sculpture crafted by Lee Daniel -- and a $2,500 check. Considering just how inexpensive Super-8 film stocks remain, we'll be looking for a Shoah-length interpretive neo-something or other in a year or so (which will conveniently be just about the time the Third Annual D. Montgomery Award will move the sculpture on to its next recipient). Congratulations to everyone… Barely a week goes by that we don't mention Cinemaker Co-op in some capacity, and this week you get double the pleasure, double the fun (so to speak): Friday, July 13, 9:30pm, at the Alamo Drafthouse Theatre Downtown (409 Colorado St.), the Cinemaker Co-op presents Craig Baldwin's endearingly warped masterpiece Spectres of the Spectrum. If you've somehow managed to get this far in life without renting any of Baldwin's other genius works (the bizarre Tribulation 99 and the crypto-cool Negativland documentary Sonic Outlaws), you owe it to the left side of your brain to check out this found-footage, stream-of-consciousness mindfuck. $7 general/$3.50 Cinemaker members. As if that weren't enough, Cinemaker presents Bill Daniel's 16mm Dumpster Beatnik Workshop, 10am-4pm, at the Blue Theatre (916 Springdale Rd.), followed by a San Francisco-Austin Optical Shootout at 8pm (also at the Blue Theatre). Prices for Daniel's "lecture/demo/workshop/ screening" are $30/$15 advance and $35/$17.50 at the door. More information on any and all of these events can be had by calling 236-8877… Finally, the brand-spanking-new Alamo Drafthouse Theatre North -- in the former Village Cinema Art location on Anderson Lane -- will open quietly this Saturday, July 7, as a sort of test run before the official grand opening blowout the following Friday the 13th. Call 476-1320 for more info… Congratulations go to local animator Bob Sabiston for being singled out in Entertainment Weekly's annual It List. What "it" just is, we don't know, but a raised glass goes nonetheless to Sabiston, whose recent, jaw-dropping work for Rick Linklater's Waking Life won a standing ovation at Sundance… What Once Was Lost But Now Is Found: You may remember back in May when Karen Arthur's Legacy got bumped from the lineup of AFS's weekly program dedicated to women directors. The print got lost in the mail, but has finally resurfaced -- just in time to serve as the grand finale to the series. The screening starts at 7pm on Tuesday, July 10, at the Drafthouse Downtown. Admission is free.