by Jen Scoville
The South by Southwest Film Festival & Conference has awakened from its
off-season hibernation clear-eyed and assiduous — in fact they’ve just
announced a preliminary line-up of panelists for the spring to-do. So far the
list includes Festival veteran and resident celebrity filmmaker Richard
Linklater (subUrbia); SXSW alumni John Pierson (executive producer,
Chasing Amy), Michael Barker (Sony Pictures Classics), George Ratliff
(Purgatory County), and John Sloss (producer, Lone Star);
SXSW sophomores Bruce Sinofsky and Joe Berlinger (Paradise Lost: Child
Murders at Robin Hood Hills), Emanuel Levy (Variety), and Bob
Berney (Orion Pictures); and first-timers Michelle Forman (40 Acres and a Mule)
and Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy). Remember the deadline for film
competition submissions is Dec. 13. Call 467-7979 for info, and stay tuned for
updates…
UT’s Continuing Education division is trying its hand at their own
film industry conference. Behind the Scenes: Business Savvy for Independent
Filmmakers will take place over three days, Dec. 3-5 on the UT campus. Advice
on the business aspects of indie projects will be dispensed by guest speakers
Polly Platt, Sleepless in Seattle producer; Louise Levison, UCLA film
industry program consultant; and members of the local film community, Dwight
Adair, Scott Perry, and Lucy Frost. Program tuition is $299 for the entire
seminar or $110/day; deadline to register is November 26. For more info or to
obtain a registration form, call Lori Franz at 471-2924…
The 1997
International Women’s Day Community Media Festival happens in March, but a
call-for-entries party launched by co-sponsors WATER, KOOP, Monsterbit Media,
and KAZI will take place this Sunday, Nov. 24, at the Victory Grill on E.
Eleventh. Stop by between 8-11pm to pick up a program proposal for an entry in
radio, video, or multimedia (WWW projects included); video bits will be
screened for inspiration, and Tammy Gomez y la Palabra will perform. Suggested
donation is $5. Call WATER at 444-1672 if you’d like to be involved in the
Festival’s planning …
AIVF Austin’s monthly meeting is coming up on Mon.,
Nov. 25, 8pm at the Electric Lounge with the discussion to focus on music
video. Videos made in town this year will be screened with directors in
attendance. Anyone with a music video they’d like to have considered for the
party should call Tara Veneruso at 322-9707…
The Austin Film Society can’t
get enough of noir — a new series, Gangsters and Outlaws, debuts on Wed., Nov.
27 (7:30pm at the Dobie) with William Wellman’s 1931 classic Public
Enemy, the film that made James Cagney an eternal gangster. Admission is $5
and films are each screened a second time at noon the following Saturday. AFS
Tuesday night free series (8pm, Union Theatre) continues with the films of
Satyajit Ray. Aparajito (1956) is the second installment of the family
saga that began with last week’s showing of Pather Panchali. AMOA’s
short video series by
and/or about African-American women moves along on
Tues., Nov. 26 with four shorts. Saundra Sharp’s award-winning Picking
Tribes (1988), a work which uses vintage photos and watercolor animation to
depict one woman’s identity struggle during the Forties, is a highlight.
Admission is $4.
This article appears in November 22 • 1996 and November 22 • 1996 (Cover).