After trudging through the summer dry spell (in every sense of the phrase), signs are everywhere that this toddling film town is springing back to life. Generally, the best place to find out about these screenings is in the “Revivals and Special Screenings” section of each issue’s “Film Listings”. But here are some reminders in case your summer lethargy, like mine, still thinksit’s running the show. The Austin Film Society is presenting three nights of award-winning films by visiting panelists in town to evaluate grant submissions for funds from the Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund. The panelists include documentarian Robb Moss, who chairs the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers; Christopher M�nch, the director of speculative John Lennon/Brian Epstein film The Hours and Times and the lyrical Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day; and acclaimed filmmaker of shorts, Britta Sjogren. The screenings are Monday, Aug. 24-Wednesday, Aug. 26 at 8pm at the Texas Union; admission is free. The Cinemaker Co-op has not one, but two special screenings this week: an experimental event called Exquisite Corpse,that screens on Saturday, August 22, at 4pm at Public Domain (807 Congress) and a Super-8 festival titled Fast, Cheap, and Out of Focus on Monday, Aug. 24 at 8 & 10:30pm and Tuesday, Aug. 25 at 7pm at the Ritz Lounge.For more infosee their Web site at http://cinemaker.austin.tx.us/. Another uniquely Austin screening will be the screening of Fritz Lang‘s Metropolis Thursday, 9:30pm, at the Alamo Drafthouse. The group ST-37 will be providing live musical accompaniment in what should be a perfect melding of sight and sound. ‘Round midnight at the Alamo, the tricked-out theatre will be home to a weekend showcase of William Castle‘s The Tingler. For more on the screenings see http://www.drafthouse.com…
Another change that’s about to occur, and should hopefully be seamless, is the ACT III theatre chain’s immersion into the Regal Cinema chain based out of Knoxville. Management and attention to local details should be just about as hands-on as it has been all these years that ACT III has been front-officed in Portland, Oregon and San Antonio…
My favorite show on ACAC, The Show With No Name, is changing time slots. It’s moving up a half hour to 11pm-midnight, Sunday nights on cable channel 10. The show’s freewheeling programming is hard to categorize, but suffice to say there is always something on of interest to film fans and culture junkies. A good example is this week’s show which will present a half-hour-long documentary titled Making The Shining. The film is by Vivian Kubrick, the famed director’s daughter, and it originally aired on the BBC. Hosts Charlie and Max report that the video includes rare footage of Kubrick talking, coaching, and berating his actors, Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. These guys have a real Kubrick thing. They’ve shown numerous obscure pieces of Kubrickana over the last few months. Guess they have to do something to compensate for those hilariously tacky clips of William Shatner reciting Hamlet’s soliloquy…
Women in Film-Austin is celebrating its first anniversary with a gathering Thursday, Aug. 27, 6:30pm in the boardroom of the Hancock Building at the LCRA Complex (3701 Lake Austin Blvd). A silent auction that includes such things as a feather fromTravolta‘s angel wings in Michael and the back of Jennifer Aniston‘s Office Spacedirector’s chair will be the fundraising highlight. To donate items or get more info about the organization, call Dianne Hooper at 243-1630.
This article appears in August 21 • 1998 and August 21 • 1998 (Cover).
