Milli Vanilli, the documentary by Austinite Luke Korem, is getting a rare public screening later this month in honor of being named as the Austin Film Critic Association’s Best Austin Film of 2023. Best of all, the Jan. 20 screening will be free and open to the public, with the director and crew in attendance.
Korem’s documentary explores the meteoric rise and catastrophic fall of pop sensation Milli Vanilli, and the scandal that came when it was revealed that Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus were not actually singing, but miming to backing tracks recorded by other artists. However, Korem looks beyond the scandal and explores the impact on the two men caught up in the madness and the broader complicity of the music business.
The AFCA’s Best Austin Film award is selected by the society’s members (which includes writers from The Austin Chronicle), and is open to any feature whose director was resident in Austin during production. Milli Vanilli joins an incredible roster of previous winners, including Terence Malick’s A Hidden Life, Macon Blair’s I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, and Andrew Bujalski’s Support the Girls, plus multiple wins for Richard Linklater, including Boyhood and Before Midnight. In recent years, the winner has also received a special screening at AFS Cinema, and Milli Vanilli is no exception
The documentary beat out stiff competition from a packed year from Austin filmmakers. The AFCA’s short list included another music documentary, The Mojo Manifesto: The Life and Times of Mojo Nixon, about the career of the Southern fried maniac; Sorry About the Demon, the new horror-comedy from Emily Hagins; eco-psycho-thriller Thirst, the directorial debut of Black Pistol Fire drummer Eric Owen; and the latest paper animated magic from Eric Power, the gorgeous fable When You Get to the Forest.
The screening will take place 1:45pm, Jan. 20, at AFS Cinema, 6259 Middle Fiskville. Tickets are available now at austinfilm.org.
This article appears in January 19 • 2024 and January 12 • 2024.
