Critics and film buffs alike passionately argue the virtues of legendary
director Samuel Fuller, whose films brought to the screen politics atypical to
the movie industry and the brutal violence Fuller experienced during bouts as a
soldier and crime reporter. Possessed of a truly independent spirit, his films
spanned genres from westerns and war movies to thrillers and gangster pictures
— all of them underpinned by controversial and highly original investigations
of steadfast American ideals. Fuller turned the same inspection to the medium
of cinema itself, pulling out all the technical tricks to create an
expressiveness that is virtually unprecedented. Due in part to the popularity
of contemporary directors who have acknowledged Fuller’s influence on their own
works (including Martin Scorsese, Jim Jarmusch, Tim Robbins, and Quentin
Tarantino), his movies are enjoying a kind of renaissance; the director’s
career was recognized last year in the documentary, The Typewriter, The
Rifle, and the Movie Camera. This week begins an exciting 11-film
retrospective, Cinema Fist: The Films of Samuel Fuller, brought to the
big screen by the Austin Film Society (AFS). The program of free Tuesday night
screenings at the Texas Union Theatre begins this Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 9pm, with
Forty Guns, an outrageously melodramatic western starring Barbara
Stanwyck…
Other screenings around town next week include Stealin’ Home — a new independent film by Dallas filmmaker John Carstarphen — a romantic
comedy that reflects a unique southern African-American experience in its
exploration of Nineties relationships. AFS is sponsoring the Austin premiere of
this first African-American feature film shot in Dallas in over 50 years on
Thursday, Feb. 27, 7:30pm at the Dobie. Carstarphen will be in attendance with
producer Rebecca Rice to introduce the film and answer questions following the
screening; admission is free. The Chicano/Latino Film Forum is presenting
Words of Our Ancients, a documentary (just back from Sundance) on the
Hopi tribe by local filmmaker Paige Martinez on Monday, Feb. 24, 7pm at the
Dobie; admission is $2. And check out The Learning Channel on Saturday, Feb.
23, 9pm for recent Austin transplant Ramzy Telley’s The American
Bullfighter, a documentary feature on rodeo clowns shot primarily at the
National Rodeo Finals in Las Vegas…
The Association of Independent Video and
Filmmakers meets Monday, Feb. 24, 8pm, at the Electric Lounge to discuss this
month’s topic: women in multimedia. Speakers will include Cyndy Kirkland,
director of local women’s film collective REEL Women; Amanda Johnston, director
of WATER (Women’s Access to Electronic Resources); and Amy Janota, head of
Austin Webgrrls…
Austin filmmaker Jim Shelton’s short Beyond Babylon,
which was completed with a grant from the Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund,
has been recently accepted by both the SXSW Film Festival and the Santa Barbara
International Film Festival…
And news just in from SXSW reveals that Grosse
Pointe Blank, a new movie written by and starring John Cusack has been added to
the Film Festival line-up, and L.M. Kit Carson, the famed screenwriter (David
Holzman’s Diary, Breathless) and actor (Running on Empty and Sundance “buzz”
film Hurricane) has signed on to participate in the Film Conference
This article appears in February 21 • 1997 and February 21 • 1997 (Cover).