In the dog days of 2020, local musician Daniel Sanchez went down a YouTube rabbit hole of influential NYC public-access variety show TV Party, as well as Eighties area counterparts like Austin Community Television’s Carmen’s Banana Cooking. Even though he’d never held a camera himself, Sanchez texted a group of friends – filmmakers, musicians, artists, and otherwise – with a pitch. “The only parameters I give is that it’s a video, two to five minutes long,” said Sanchez. “People find their own niche based on their skills. I didn’t have much of an outline for it.”
The resulting community art project, Austin Sunset Public Programming, combines those varied interests into roughly hourlong episodes broadcast monthly on YouTube. Fuzzy Nineties commercials and vintage news segments cut between homemade short films by largely Austin-based creators, like Sanchez (whose own singer-songwriter work appears as Rulitos) and filmmaker Matt Stryker (producer of SXSW award winner Inbetween Girl). The mini-movies, filmed only weeks prior to their premiere, allow topical themes to emerge naturally – like Halloween, or lots of house cats. After Sanchez rounds up the footage, Stryker and audio engineer Will Kurzner edit the episode for the last Sunday of every month.
The season 2 finale premieres Dec. 26, 6:30pm, at youtube.com/austinsunsetpublicprogramming. Find all past episodes free on the channel, and familiarize yourself with a number of comforting regular contributors. “There’s a family that participates [Memo and Jessica Guerra as Alameda], who are phenomenal cooks, and that’s one of the more popular ones,” explained Sanchez. “There’s another photographer [Steven Ray Martinez] who made a very moving interview with a person transitioning. My mom saw it, and we had a really productive conversation.”
Other recurring segments include experimental video artist Natalia Rocafuerte, who made a surreal “Come to Texas” spoof ad this season. YouTuber Texas Whisperer ASMR contributes state history lessons at low volume. Someone known as Turnip offers furiously dramatic poetry readings, such as Bukowski, acted out by a Pillsbury Doughboy figurine. “You can find a million excuses not to make something,” said Sanchez. “Turns out, getting text after text from Daniel – bordering on bullying them into it – really allowed some people to blossom. It’s the best part.”
“[Unlike] the outside projection the city has now, there’s still a ton of creative people here that want to have a good time together and play.”-Daniel Sanchez
For the first-ever episode, Austin writer and director Kayla Abuda Galang created “Learning Tagalog With Kayla,” a beautifully shot mashup of language lessons and pandemic stir-craziness. Cementing ASPP as a proper filmmaking incubator, the movie received an Audience Award at South by Southwest’s 2021 Texas Shorts Competition. Galang recently crowdfunded over $19,000 for her next project, Filipino American teen stoner comedy “When You Left Me on That Boulevard” (and premieres a new piece during next week’s ASPP finale). “ASPP pushed me to make ‘Learning Tagalog,’ so without it, I probably wouldn’t be in preproduction for my next short,” she said. “With ASPP, a freewheeling process with a really supportive group allowed me to not overthink things and see what I connected with, like a playground.”
Even before season 2 wraps, the production team plans a third season for late 2022, and is already looking for fresh contributors to join what Sanchez estimates is a “95% Austin-based” group. “The best piece of feedback we got was from someone outside Austin: They said, ‘I didn’t realize Austin was still like that,'” he recalled. “Compared to the outside projection the city has now, there’s still a ton of creative people here that want to have a good time together and play.”
Catch all episodes of Austin Sunset Public Programming on their YouTube channel. To get involved, message ASPP via Instagram (@austinsunsetpp) or email at helloaspp@gmail.com.
This article appears in December 17 • 2021.