“I started out making films the normal way, with a camera,” says indie/underground Ithaca College film professor David Gatten. This from the man whose What the Water Said, Nos. 1-3 chronicled the sub-aquatic sounds and visions of the Atlantic Ocean via loose strips of film trapped inside lobster cages off a remote East Coast beachhead. Lucky for you, oh cameraless friend, Gatten is in town on a special engagement with the UT Dept. of Radio-TV-Film and the Cinemaker Co-op to present a screening of his arresting, semi-soggy filmcraft in Studio 4-E of Communications Building B on the UT campus, on Sat., Jan. 15, at 7pm, with an all-inclusive workshop to follow Sun, Jan. 16, noon-4pm. Does the removal of the camera from the filmmaking equation equal a new apex in filmmaking? “Hardly,” says Gatten. “Since the 1890s people have been doing this. People have been working in this way, have been painting directly on film, or been scratching on film. That’s been a subculture, a parallel, that occasionally crosses lines and enters the mainstream from time to time, but it’s nothing new.” Interested? How couldn’t you be? Call 236-8877 for more info… That’s not all that’s going on this week, of course. The fine folks over at the Alamo Drafthouse and The Show With No Name are thoughtfully, relentlessly giving you one final chance (yet again — what is this, The Who?) to check out their Andy Kaufman Tribute night, Tue., Jan. 18, 9:30pm, at the Alamo… Yo, SXSW 2000 Volunteers: Wed. evening, Jan. 19, and Sun. afternoon, Jan. 23, at the Hyatt Regency on Barton Springs Rd., are your final days for getting spiffy: Wanna badge? Like last year, you’ve got to show up at a time that corresponds with the alphabetical placement of your name. Just because you’re a personal friend of John Lurie and starred as “the Sofa” in Stranger Than Paradise gets you nowhere. Duh. Questions? See the ads on pages 6 and 71 of this issue or call 467-7979 for more you know what… Austin’s favorite place to get hammered and watch pretty pictures move around onscreen, the Alamo Drafthouse, will present Charlie Chaplin‘s 1925 classic The Gold Rush, accompanied by live music by the Asylum Street Spankers, Wed, Jan. 19, and Thu. Jan. 20, at 7 and 9:30pm. If you haven’t bothered to check out the Alamo’s continuing series of live music/silent film pairings, this is your — wait for it — golden opportunity to do so… While we’re on the subject of The Show With No Name, this week’s episode, airing Sunday at 10pm on cable access channel 10, features a particularly notable short film, none other than Magnolia and Boogie Nights director Paul Thomas Anderson‘s short “Cigarettes and Coffee,” which was later expanded into Anderson’s first feature, Hard 8. As far as I know, this bit of Anderson arcana is unavailable elsewhere, so get your VCR heads scrubbed well in advance… A call for extras has arrived from Demolition Film Corp., which is shooting a Dimension Films project in town this spring co-produced by scene übermenschen Mike Judge and Richard Linklater. The e-mail we received says they’re looking for “teenagers, children, demolition derby fans [and really, who isn’t?], Bubbas [and really, who isn’t?], bowlers, interesting faces, and men and women of various ages.” That about covers everyone I know (excluding one-legged midget racers with prodigious smallpox scarring, but frankly we’ve got enough of those, haven’t we?), and hey, all positions are paid. Ah, the magic word: “cash.”
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This article appears in January 14 • 2000.