“Prime time is all the time on the Internet,” says InterneTV president Jay Ashcroft. This is the basic idea that fuels the Austin-based company, InterneTV, which announces itself as the “first broadcast station on the Internet.” Now in its second year of existence, the broadcaster has recently added live video clips on demand to its mix of real-time video feeds of Much Music USA through KVR-InterneTV, the Austin Music Network, radio programs from Justice Records, and other live news and sports broadcasts from the student television affiliate KVR-9. In addition to using CU-SeeMe technology, the video presentation uses VDOLive and Vivo plug-ins; both are emerging technologies that stream video in real time at modem speeds. It’s all easily downloadable from the InterneTV site http://www.internetv.com but the catch is that on your end you need to have at least a Power Mac or Windows operating system. (Note to the computer fairies: I need an upgrade.) I’ve also been noticing numerous other sites starting to use this technology to present short films. The American Film Institute http://www.afionline.org/home.html currently presents two pieces of classic animation on their site — a Disney cartoon from the Twenties, “Alice the Whaler;” and “Modeling,” a Fleischer brothers gem from 1921 that features one of my favorite cartoon characters ever, Koko the Clown. Additionally, Filmmaker magazine http://www.filmmag.com this week announced plans to collaborate with Vivo Software http://www.vivo.com to present short films over the Web, a distribution method that seems to me to be rich with possibilities…
The monthly meeting of Reel Women is scheduled for Wed., June 18, 7:30pm at Movements Gallery (211 E. Sixth). Call Cyndy Kirkland at 280-8706 for more info…
Have the kids been bitten by Batman fever? If so, they may be temporarily appeased by the General Cinema’s special Saturday morning MaTOONays presentation this weekend of the animated feature-length film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. It screens on June 14, 10am at the Highland Cinema; admission is $1.50 for children under 12 and free for adults escorted by children…
The Austin Film Society begins a new series this week called the Summer Free-for-All. Why that title? Well, because admission to all the movies is free to the public and the schedule can’t be categorized by any single theme. Basically, the films are an eclectic batch of titles that AFS programming director Jerry Johnson wanted to present. Films range from a couple of Budd Boetticher Westerns to a couple of works by Russian arthouse darling Andrei Tarkovsky, and Nick Ray‘s largely forgotten gypsy musical Hot Blood to Chantal Akerman‘s latest experimental narrative From the East. Films will screen on Tuesdays at 7:30pm at the Texas Union Theater; for schedules and other info call 322-0145. For Johnson’s impassioned defense of this Tuesday’s opening title (his favorite movie of all time), The Story of Adele H, check out this week’s “Screens” section. On Wednesday, the AFS Femmes Fatales series continues with John Huston‘s second directorial effort, In This Our Life, starring Bette Davis in a role she would later come to condemn. It screens on Wed. June 18 at 7:30pm and Sat. June 21 at noon at the Dobie.
This article appears in June 13 • 1997 and June 13 • 1997 (Cover).
