“Once you’ve lived through one of our performances, survival takes on a whole
new meaning,” says Mark Pauline, founder/director of Survival Research
Laboratories. Billed as “art for the wired world,” SRL’s mission is like any
good parent (or Dr. Frankenstein for that matter), to “let their robot
creations play in the world they’re about to take over.” I’ve never been to a
show myself, but after reading somewhere that I might expect to see
“intelligent steam shovels clawing apart dead cows,” I consulted Deb, our
resident cyberchick who, space allowing or not, would surely push her way
through to the front row. (Live) animal lover that she is, Deb did confirm that
along with ritualized actions involving giant robots, machines, and special
effects devices, a SRL show does sometimes include the mechanical animation of
beasts dearly departed –an explosive id-boost, pure and simple. Since 1979,
SRL has staged over 45 robot performances here and in Europe where humans are
present only as audience or operators. This October, Pauline hopes to bring
SLR’s showcase of socio-political satire to Austin. In preparation and with
hopes of securing a venue (no small feat considering fire codes and the weight
of the giant robots), he will be appearing at Emo’s on Friday, August 9 at 7pm.
Pauline will be presenting the latest SRL video and lecturing about the group
and the upcoming show. There will be a modest admission — probably around $2.
SRL has quite a following here, Austin is also home to the Robot Group, a local
gathering of artists striving to integrate advanced technology into the arts.
Their annual event, Robofest 7, will take place next month. Anyone who is
interested in getting involved with the October production of SLR should attend
Pauline’s presentation; the group can use volunteers for all aspects of the
show. For more information on SRL, visit their Website at http://www.srl.org,
or check out one of the two SRL videos available for rent at Vulcan… As a
benefit for the Austin Film Society and the Texas Filmmakers Production Fund,
Quentin Tarantino has been enthusiastically sharing his favorite films all week
with audiences at the Dobie. For all the remaining evening screenings,
individual tickets ($10) will go on sale to the general public once all the
series pass holders have been seated (around 7:20pm) — and intriguing double
bills still remain. Tonight’s (Thurs. 8) theme is Epic Adventures; Fri. (8/9)
it’s Good ol’ Boy movies; Sat. (8/10) Spaghetti Westerns and Sun. (8/11)
Quentin’s Miscellaneous Faves. And two more single admission (series passes not
honored) Midnight Screenings will be shown on Friday and Saturday (12am, $10 —
titles TBA). On top of these, Tarantino (who’s really just a big kid himself)
is offering two more single admission Kiddie Matinees (titles TBA; adults pay
$10 but can bring two children under 12 in for free) on both Saturday and
Sunday afternoons at 2:30pm, again at the Dobie. In fact, this Saturday is
perfect for an all-kid movie marathon; the regular AFS Children’s Film Series
at the Paramount is presenting the 1940 Arabian Nights fantasy-adventure The
Thief of Baghdad at noon ($3), and there’ll be plenty of time to get to the
kid portion of the Tarantino Filmfest directly following… It’s hard to
believe it has been a whole year, but AFS’ Tenth Anniversary Retrospective
Celebration — the series of free screenings at the Union Theatre on Tuesday
nights — is about to come to a close. The series, which began at the end of
last summer with a temperamental showing of Robert Frank’s Pull My
Daisy, continued weekly through over 50 rarely seen films from past AFS
programs, and will end on Tuesday, August 13 with a special surprise screening.
As always, the film starts at 8pm and admission is free. Come out and show
appreciation for the wonderful films AFS has shared with us over the past year,
and to see what final celluloid delicacy they’ll be threading through the
projector… August 15 is the last day to submit a film to the Austin Heart of
Film Festival, which runs in conjunction with their Screenwriters Conference,
October 10-13. Local film collective in*situ has been invited to curate an
additional category in the competition: Super-8, Hi-8, and 8mm. All subject
matters and lengths will be considered, but the films must be “narrative
driven.” Although no cash prize will be awarded the winning film in this new
category, the filmmaker will receive air fare, accommodations, a festival pass
and, of course, the work will be screened during the festival. Entries must be
postmarked by the aforementioned date, and accompanied by an entry fee of $30.
This year’s Screenwriter’s Conference is boasting confirmed guests including
Wes Craven, Emilio Estevez, Michael Moore (Roger & Me), Mary Stuart
Masterson, and Peter Masterson (A Trip to Bountiful). For information on film
submissions or the conference in general, call 800/310-FEST… Good news
outside the city! subUrbia (see feature articles starting above), a
Richard Linklater film based on the Eric Bogosian play of the same name
(Bogosian in fact, wrote the script), has been selected for exhibition at this
fall’s New York Film Festival.
This article appears in August 9 • 1996 and August 9 • 1996 (Cover).