Is That a Bilich in Your Pocket or Are You Just Happy to Screen Me? Dept.: The last time we checked in with Austin filmmaker/actor/creative whirlwind Steve Bilich, he was manning the Hero Highway at Ground Zero and working with the firefighters of FDNY Ladder 10 Engine 10 in both the societal and bureaucratic chaos of post-9/11. At that time he was also putting together his haunting short film of 9/11, “Native American in Manhattan,” produced by Continental Club and 8 1/2 Souvenirs honcho Jack Hazzard, which eventually made it into Sundance in 2002 to great acclaim. Time has passed, and Bilich, who lost a number of friends in the towers’ collapse, is back in Austin with a slew of notable projects on his hands, not least among which is a screening of his 1996 feature, Ruta Wakening, as part of Austin coffeehouse and community stronghold Ruta Maya‘s 10th anniversary celebration on Thursday, Dec. 11, at their new location at 3601 S. Congress. Looking at that film now, with its twisty, hippified storyline set at Ruta Maya’s much-missed Fourth and Lavaca location (now Halcyon), is akin to viewing something of a lost Austin postcard, pre-tech boom/bust, when downtown was more freak, less geek, and all caffeinated (and not on Starbucks, either). It seems worlds away from where we are now, and former regulars of the old Ruta will be forgiven if they mist up at the recollection of those — you’ll forgive the woeful pun — pre-halcyon days. But time marches on, regardless of whether you’re java’d-up or no, and Bilich also has a new, 14-minute short titled “Manhattan: A Picture Postcard,” premiering at the Smithsonian Institution‘s National Museum of the American Indian in Lower Manhattan at Bowling Green on Saturday, Dec. 6. That film, as Bilich explains, “uses a segment of footage of the towers that I had previously shot, but it emphasizes the journey of the Native Americans in Manhattan, from Inwood Park, where they traded the island for beads, down a little Native American footpath we now call Broadway, to the old site of Fort Amsterdam, where, ironically, the Smithsonian’s Native American museum now sits.” Edited by Gangs of New York assistant editor Gordon Grinberg, who “crunched it together” alongside Bilich, the new film expands part of Bilich’s initial short into a longer, more narrative version featuring Coyote, Bilich’s Native American pal from the first film. Long story short, it’s a doozy, black-and-white with enough eerie NYC subtext to create genuine frissons up the spine. Produced by Bilich’s friends Booka and Edythe Michel, who also had a hand in getting Ruta Wakening off the ground way back when, there’s a good chance Bilich might screen it at the Ruta event if you pester him long enough. (We’re working on it.) “Once the Smithsonian screens the film, it stays in their archives,” says a bemused Bilich, “which is an honor, but how I ended up in the Smithsonian is beyond me.”… Dept. of Corrections: Our last column carried info on upcoming footballer auditions for Imagine/Universal’s Friday Night Lights adaptation, but we’ve since received word that the dates originally listed have been altered. The information is: Thursday & Friday, Dec. 4 & 5, noon-8pm, and Saturday, Dec. 6, 6-9pm, at the Omni Austin Hotel Downtown, eighth floor. All other info — players chosen will be asked to return in January for a four-day tryout football camp, etc. — is, as far as we know, still good. Get ballin’, y’all.
This article appears in November 21 • 2003.