DOCUMENTARY SHORTS ONE
D: Various.Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly, if you happen to live here), three-quarters of the filmmakers in the Documentary Shorts One program call Austin home, with the lone outsider being David Ellsworth, whose fluid, melancholy “Super-8 Mom” utilizes small-gauge footage originally shot by his mother when he was a child. Hitched to mom’s contemporary musings on film and art and life, it’s like a bite-sized dreamlet, all grainy echoes of a vanished cinematic youth. Jen White’s “Low Light” uses a DV cam’s murky low lighting to document the band 54 Seconds in the studio and (somewhat) in conflict; the pixelated haze mirrors the recording process’ often humorous hardships. Jenn Garrison’s “The Lancebian” finally answers the burning question: Are local filmmaker Mocha Jean Herrup and ‘N Syncster Lance Bass one and the same? Herrup, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the boy-band godhead, is a pop tart in her own right, and Garrison’s DV production is, simply, hilarious. Mike Woolf’s “Growin’ a Beard” follows Austinite Scotty McAfee to Shamrock, Texas’ annual Donegal Beard-Growing Contest, where oversized leprechauns of all stripes vie for the title of “Beardiest.” It’s a comically affectionate look at small towns and big beards and the intersection of both. (Alamo, 3/15, 1:30pm)
This article appears in March 14 • 2003.