Eastside Rules OK! Dept.: Never let it be said that Austin is a community lacking in film festivals. Besides the Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival, which is screening at the Metropolitan theatre as we go to press (check out the screening schedule at austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/ 2003-08-22/screens_string19.html ), there’s also the upcoming Cinematexas International Short Film Festival, running Sept. 16-21, and, as we just discovered over the weekend, the third annual Camacho Film Festival, which kicks off Friday, Aug. 29, 7pm, at the Lorraine “Grandma” Camacho Activity Center (34 Robert Martinez Jr. St.). Camacho Fest was put together a couple of years back to highlight short films created by East Austin youth and brings together more than 60 Eastside kids ages 6-14 who were given digital cameras and editing equipment during the summer with the instructions to go out and make movies. Five finalist films will be screened, including “Amnesia,” which was co-produced with the Austin Film Society, and the intriguingly titled “When Squirrels Attack.” “There’s really two different types of films that we’re going to be showing,” says Camacho Center Program supervisor Don Goerner. “The short films are the products of our summer movie camps, during which the participants had five days to write, storyboard, shoot, edit, and do post-production on. We’ll also be showing a retrospective of a year of CamachoTV, which is the TV show that we produce here at the center and which airs the second Tuesday of every month, at 7:30pm, on cable-access Channel 10. It’s kind of a best-of that we’ll be running in segments between the five other films we’ll be screening.” As if that weren’t enough to make a budding Almodóvar’s head spin, the aspiring filmmakers will be dropped off at the center in limos, with a red-carpet reception and pint-sized paparazzi, to boot. And here you thought Hollywood High got all the glory. More info on both the center and the festival can be had by calling 391-1863… It’s almost time for the Southwest Alternate Media Project‘s annual Texas Film and Video Conference down in San Antonio. The highly regarded daylong event runs from 10am to 7:30pm and is geared toward individuals involved in film and video production and related fields. This year’s conference, which is free, will be held at the North East School of the Arts, 1400 Jackson-Keller Rd., San Antonio, and will feature panels discussing such topics as “Resources and Services for Film and Video Makers” and “Screenwriting: The Long and the Short of It.” S.W.A.M.P., for those of you living in one for the past 26 years, is the organization behind PBS’s excellent short-film series The Territory, as well as providing a variety of services for Texas filmmakers. For more info, call 713/522-8592, or check their site at www.swamp.org… You wanted the best, you got the best: Richard Linklater‘s School of Rock trailer is now online for your stony edification at www.apple.com/trailers/ paramount/school_of_rock . Dig it… Finally, a correction: Last week’s “Short Cuts” listed an incorrect phone number for the Austin Museum of Art. The correct number is 323-6380.
Just in From aGLIFF: Gone, but Not Forgotten, Michael Akers’ riveting “mystery-romance,” has been named “Festival Favorite” and will screen in encore at the Metropolitan (I-35 & Stassney) at noon on Sunday, Aug. 31. Also earning an encore screening is the BBC’s Tipping the Velvet Parts I-III, Saturday, Aug. 30, 1pm, also at the Metropolitan. For ticket information, call 799-6327 or visit www.agliff.org. You won’t need that information, though, on Monday, Sept. 4, noon, when aGLIFF will host a free screening (because of technical problems during its original screening) of Fluff at the Metropolitan.
This article appears in August 29 • 2003.