While You Were Out Dept.: So it’s 2am last weekend and I’m at home clogging bandwidth courtesy of Napster when my cell phone burbles at me. Turns out it’s a film buddy who’s out in Park City partying his ass off. “Hey, man. What hotel are you staying at? Seen anything good? You really oughtta get your butt over here and check out this party I’m at,” et cetera. I tell him I’m not in Park City, dude, I’m at home minding the fort, and the last cool thing I saw was Iron Chef Masarharu Morimoto kick some poor sucker’s tastebuds down his throat about an hour ago. Said buddy fills me in on the fest details in an alcoholic comp-ticket haze and rings off. The bastard. Whether you spent the last week at Sundance, Slamdance, NoDance, Lap Dance, or whatever-Dance, you’re presumably back by now, and more than likely in need of a real vacation. Hey, don’t look at me: I stayed put and tended the home front. As usual the Austin filmmaking community has flooded my in-box with announcements of upcoming events. Onward… Tuesday, Feb. 13, 8pm, at the Mercury (214 E. Sixth St., above Jazz), Cine Las Americas will present a concert to benefit their fourth annual Festival of New Cinema of the Americas, which will take place at the Alamo Drafthouse and Millennium Youth Entertainment Complex, April 13-19. The very impressive lineup of performers slated to appear includes Patti Griffin, Abra Moore, Darden Smith, and Trish Murphy, among others. The event is co-sponsored by The Austin Chronicle, Mexic-Arte Museum, Latin Works, Latino USA, and the city of Austin. Pre-sale tickets are $15 (call 454-TIXS) or $17 at the door… The small Texas township of Elgin is known more for its sausages than any sort of film community, but that looks like it’s about to change. Witness “New Austin Film and Video,“ a “two-part exhibition exploring the interactions between traditional art practices and the media of film and video.” Part One is running Feb. 2-11, 7-9pm at UT Associate Art Professor Margo Sawyer‘s 1/4 Hora Project Space (104 S. Ave. C, in Elgin). Part One features local Austin artists Francesca Talenti, Karen Skloss, and Aaron Valdez. Part Two, featuring Gabel Karsten, Spencer Parsons, and Luke Savisky, will run March 8-18. For more info (including complete directions) call 512/281-4808 or e-mail romulus@mail.utexas.edu… Last year’s fest was an overwhelming success, and so once more CinemaTexas 2001 has issued a call for entries for their sixth annual International Short Film + Video Festival (Sept. 14-23, 2001). The entry deadline for the international competition is May 1, with a $30 entry fee. The late international deadline is May 22, with a $35 entry fee. The UT competition deadlines are May 14 and June 8, $25 and $30 entry fees, respectively. Complete info and online registration forms can be found at www.cinematexas.org or by calling 471-6497… Today, Thursday, Feb. 1, 7:30pm, at the Arbor Theatre, the Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival will present a double screening of the feature film Chutney Popcorn and the short “What Is Normal?” The latter is locally produced by the Gay Youth Media Project (GYM) and shot by four Austin teens with an eye toward understanding the title query from a queer perspective. More info? Call 458-1515 or check out aGLIFF’s Web presence at www.agliff.org… Finally, it’s been just shy of forever since I mentioned in the column the local access film review show The Reel Deal. They’ve got a newly revamped Web site up with streaming shots of host Korey Coleman and his cohorts and gobs of other nifty stuff. Check it out at www.thereeldeal.com.
This article appears in February 2 • 2001.