by Jen Scoville
Last week I reported with disappointment that there were no Austin-based
feature films going to Sundance this year, but after the Festival’s
announcement of short films that made the cut, it turns out the Third Coast
will have a local emissary after all. Making the trip to the Utah tundra along
with such noted artists as Gus Van Sant (Allen Ginsberg’s Battle of the
Skeleton), Helen Stickler (Andre the Giant Has a Posse), and
first-time director actress Sandra Bullock (Making Sandwiches), is
Austin filmmaker George Langworthy with his second short, BREEZEWAY,
shot in and around Hyde Park at the end of last summer. A recent graduate of
UzT’s prestigious Texas Center for Writers, Langworthy wrote, directed and
co-produced (Chron friend and former employee Heather McClellan also
co-produced) this 12-minute comedy about an architect who is trying to quit
smoking while on deadline for a huge project. The work was completed with the
help of a grant from the Texas Filmmakers Production Fund which Langworthy was
awarded in August. In fact, the whole project had a very quick turnaround — it
was shot at the end of August/beginning of September — and Sundance accepted
the 35mm short after viewing only a rough cut. Sending the rough cut to be
judged was certainly a gamble, says Langworthy, but it’s in line with the whole
idea of spending the extra money to shoot a short in 35mm in the first place.
“I took a lot of flak for using such an expensive medium, but it paid off. I
really wanted to get that super high-quality black-and-white effect.” And pay
off it did, because BREEZEWAY was chosen (one of 55) out of the 1,500
submitted to Sundance, and it was also selected to be shown combined with a
feature instead of in a grouping of shorts, ensuring the film five screenings
instead of the usual three. If Langworthy’s luck continues and BREEZEWAY gets noticed, he’ll no doubt have a better time finding financing for his next
project — a feature based on one of his numerous self-penned and ready-to-go
scripts. Langworthy’s first short, Skeletons, played at various film
festivals and recently ran on PBS as part of the alternative film and video
series, The Territory…
Only a few seats remain for the Austin Film
Society’s December 17 benefit premiere screening of Nora Ephron’s latest film
Michael, which was shot in Austin last spring and stars John Travolta,
Andie MacDowell, William Hurt, and Bob Hoskins. The screening will be held at
8pm at the Paramount Theatre. Tickets are $15 and are on sale at the Paramount
box office and all UTTM outlets (charge at 477-6060); proceeds benefit AFS and
the Texas Freedom Network. Michael will open nationally on December 25.
AFS’ current film series, The Masterworks of Satyajit Ray (Tuesdays,
8pm, Union Theatre, free) and Gangsters and Outlaws (Wednesdays at
7:30pm and the following Saturday at 12 noon, Dobie Theatre, admission $5)
continue with, respectively, Ray’s most controversial film, Devi (1960),
in which a superstitious feudal landlord becomes convinced that his
daughter-in-law is a holy goddess; and William Wellman’s Wild Boys of the
Road (1933), the story of three unemployed young men during the Depression
who set out on a life of rail-riding and petty thievery.
This article appears in December 13 • 1996 and December 13 • 1996 (Cover).