Cinescape

A Grin Without a Cat screens Oct. 14 at the Hideout.

Ever since the genesis of that brand of adventurous small-scale film known variously as "experimental," "avant-garde," or "underground," its devotees have searched tirelessly and often fruitlessly for the perfect venue in which to exhibit their work. The multiplexes are, obviously, not interested -- nor are the theatres that specialize in so-called "independent film." Museums are an option, but their sterile institutional aesthetic couldn't be further removed from the grainy, tacky vibrancy of the handmade art movie. Denied steady commercial or institutional prospects, these films appear in big cities irregularly and in smaller ones rarely if ever. Here in Austin, screenings crop up here and there -- sponsored by a handful of local organizations -- but they are often divided between such scattered venues and irregular dates that a large audience for them cannot be nurtured.

Enter "microcinema," a growing national movement that espouses a new method of distributing and screening small-gauge and experimental films, centered on regular repertory cinema programs at nontraditional venues. By focusing on audience interaction and intimate scale -- and often by inviting touring filmmakers along to the screenings of their films -- microcinema's strengths play off of big-budget cinema's weakness, engendering a kind of audience dialogue in place of the monologue of the multiplex. Starting this month, Kyle Henry and Barna Kantor unveil Austin's own nonprofit microcinema program: Cinescape, an ongoing series of fall and spring screenings -- collectively presented by the Austin Cinemaker Co-op, the Center for Young Cinema, Blue Screen, Rude Mechanicals, the Austin Film Society, and Houston's Aurora Picture Show -- to take place Mondays at the Hideout.

For its first fall program, Cinescape will be bringing in both an impressive array of rarely seen gems and a healthy battery of new local works. On Oct. 14 -- a night hosted by Blue Screen -- the Hideout will show A Grin Without a Cat, a recently "re-actualized" version of the bitter, lyrical 1978 requiem for the New Left by radical French pioneer Chris Marker (whose "La Jetée" is the only experimental film to have been remade as an American mainstream blockbuster -- Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys). The following Monday (Oct. 21) Cinemaker Co-op will bring in Patrick Bokanowski's elegant and nightmarish 1982 fantasy epic L'Ange, whose inky and oblique imagery rivals Eraserhead and the animated films of the Brothers Quay for dark, elemental power.

Appearing the same night as L'Ange will be Naomi Uman's hilarious and mysterious "Removed," a battered reel of Sixties soft porn with the actresses systematically wiped away by nail-polish remover and bleach, leaving in their place bursts of orgasmically writhing white light. November brings with it works by young Chicago misanthrope James Fotopoulos (presented by Blue Screen) and seasoned New York independent Jon Jost (presented by the Austin Film Society), as well as a night of stylistically diverse films by new University of Texas film professor Cauleen Smith (presented by the Cinemaker Co-op).

Cinescape's bravura first program -- spanning whole decades without once dipping into the pool of Sixties "greatest hits" -- demonstrates that, faced with an almost total vacuum of regular venues, experimental cinema has miraculously remained alive and well. Perhaps, nourished by the stability of a nonprofit microcinema system, it can flourish -- and audiences along with it.

Cinescape happens Monday nights at the Hideout Theatre (617 Congress). Admission price varies. For more info, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.cinescape.us.