Short Cuts

Everyone's a Critic Dept.: Somehow we missed the fracas at the Cinemaker Co-op's benefit/fundraiser at Gallery Lombardi the other weekend (and we didn't win the raffle, either), but Austin's art and film community has been buzzing with tales of a "riot" that blew up when Jason Archer and Paul Beck's scathing State of the Union video (see How to Get the Government to Pay Attention, the Rotoscope Way for a full rundown of the work in question), in which the Waking Life animators "reimagine" G.W. Bush's meandering address to the nation, screened at the event. Perhaps riot is too strong a word -- S.W.A.T. teams were not dispatched, rubber bullets were unfired, and the only gas involved was emanating from the kegs of beer and those who partook of it. Still, during the screening, according to Beck and Archer, "Some strange, drunk guy started yelling, 'Fuck you!' at the projection screen and then proceeded to walk over to a radio and turned it up full volume to cover the sound of our audio. Our hero, John Bruch, walked over and turned the radio down," and so on, until "a one-man riot broke out," and the unidentified heckler "ripped the projection screen from the wall," at which point he was "subdued" and forcibly ejected from the gallery. This being Austin, however, the Nasty Critic From Hell managed to make his way back inside to give Beck and Archer a piece of his mind regarding their sociopolitical videography. The man's final verdict -- "That's not art, and I hate it" -- wasn't the withering deconstruction most artists would take to heart, though, and Beck and Archer scored a certain sort of riotous panache with the unrehearsed event, which, everyone admits, was pretty cool in an uncool way. (Read more on the riot at www.glasstire.com under "Riot in A-Town at Gallery Lombardi")... No riots are promised, but this Friday, July 4, 9pm, Club DeVille (900 Red River St.) will be hosting the third annual Cinematexas Independence From Mainstream Media Day, with bands, booze, and schmooze, but no Willie Nelson, who, rumor has it, has his own shindig to contend with. Info at www.cinematexas.org... Finally, the 10th annual Austin Film Festival wants your trailers for their Trailer Competition, i.e., ones that specifically promote the festival. For info on tech requirements, prizes, and possible riots, go to www.austinfilmfestival.com.