Hollywood is relentless in its efforts to lure movie-goers to its summer mega-buck movies built on high-tech wizardry and a heavy dash of schmaltz. After buying into the hype � not to mention spending way too much money on popcorn and Twizzlers � it’s startling to see that drama, humor, beauty, erotica, pain, pathos, and the plainly curious can be captured in as little as two minutes of film. This realization is the inspiration behind the CinemaTexas International Short Film, Video, and New Media Festival happening September 16-20.
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“Surviving Desire” by Hal Hartley |
“Our inaugural mission statement was strong on encouraging hybridization, in not obeying segregation between genres or styles,” says CinemaTexas artistic director Rachel Tsangari. “The stuff we received this year reflects our mission. All the material crosses formalistic boundaries.” As a graduate student, Tsangari helped organize the first CinemaTexas festival. Now a lecturer in the University of Texas’ Department of Radio-Television-Film, she and a volunteer student staff of four keep the festival going.
While some associate the short film with shoestring budgets, low production values, and simple camerawork, CinemaTexas’ offerings not only reveal the ingenuity of filmmakers working in a purposely compacted medium, but celebrate the short film as a form with unique possibilities.
“I strongly believe short films are their own genre and deserve their own exposure and public exhibition,” said Tsangari. New York-based filmmaker Hal Hartley agrees.
“It seems to me that short films can achieve a fullness of expression and execution … I appreciate the immediacy.” Hartley is this year’s CinemaTexas “Big Directors, Small Films” featured filmmaker. His work includes Henry Fool, which won this year’s best screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival, and such feature films as Trust and Simple Men.
For Hartley, like last year’s “Big Director” filmmaker, Robert Altman, the short film is not something to abandon once studio or mainstream attention has been received. “‘Big’ filmmakers like Altman who are still making shorts, or someone like [Richard] Linklater who endorses the form, and other feature filmmakers see the short film as the ‘lab’ of cinema … they view and make them to rejuvenate their style and aesthetic,” Tsangari says. “I think most filmmakers understand the importance of learning to master the short form. It’s a school for learning technique and method.”
In addition to screenings of award-winning UT student filmmakers’ work and the winners of the international competition, CinemaTexas will host several special screening events including:
Big Directors, Small Films: Hal Hartley Shorts � Three of Hartley’s rarely seen short films will be screened on Thursday, September 17, 7pm, at the Alamo Drafthouse. The films include “Ambition” (18 min.), “Theory of Achievement” (9 min.), and “Surviving Desire” (60 min.), which was made for PBS’ American Playhouse. All three films were made in 1991.
Linklater’s Favorite Shorts � A reception for Austin filmmaker Richard Linklater will take place at the downtown Austin Museum of Art prior to an evening of short films Linklater credits with influencing his work. Both events take place on Friday, Sept. 18. The reception is at 5pm. The screenings begin at 7pm at the Texas Union Theatre. At press time, Linklater’s film selections ranged from the 1916 film “One A.M.” (10 min.) directed by Charles Chaplin, to Greta Snider’s 1989 “Futility” (9 min.), plus seven other shorts in between. Linklater will be present at both events.
Shorts by members of the jury � Saturday, Sept. 19, 8pm, Texas Union Theatre. Filmmakers and CinemaTexas jury members will be present at the screenings of their work. The works include: “Kitchen Sink,” by Alison Maclean, winner of eight international festival awards for such films as Crush; “Charlie Chimp,” “Tom Wheeler,” “Mammals That Gnaw,” and “The Escape,” four shorts by Chris Smith, the director of American Job; “Tom’s Flesh,” winner of awards at Sundance and other USA Film Festivals, by Jane C. Wagner; “Two or Three Things but Nothing for Sure,” winner of 10 international festival awards, by Jane C. Wagner and Tina DiFeliciantonio; and “The History of Texas City” and “Hokey Stoke” by Funhouse Cinema impresario Bill Daniel. Maclean, Smith, DiFeliciantonio, and Wagner were members of the international jury. Daniel was part of the UT student competition jury.
A Retrospective of German Video Art � This “essential video” retrospective features 11 works made between 1984 and 1996, when video art went from relative obscurity to a respected art form. Curated by Uwe R�th, director of Germany’s Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten, the retrospective promises a keen perspective of the art form “from one of the first institutions to take it seriously,” according to press material. The one-time screening will take place Thursday, Sept. 17, 5pm, at the Alamo Drafthouse. Opportunities to view film rarely seen by U.S. audiences will be part of two programs with screenings throughout the festival.
Cuba: A View From the Inside � Co-sponsored with Cine las Americas (which successfully launched their festival of Latin American film earlier this year), “Cuba: A View From the Inside,” features short documentaries made by or about Cuban women. Program one features: “I’ll Go to Santiago” (1964) and “We’ve Got Rhythm” by Cuba’s best-known woman filmmaker, Sara Gomez. Gerardo Chijona’s “When the Dance Is Over” (1985), and “She Sold Candies” (1986) focus on the challenges of working women, while Miriam Talavera’s “One, Two, That’s It!” (1986) is a boxing documentary that manages to never show boxers on screen. “Venceremitos” (1975), by Octavio Cort�zar, features interviews with American children at the International Pioneer Camp in Cuba. Program one screenings take place Friday, Sept. 18, 9:30pm, at the Texas Union Theatre.
Program two takes place Saturday, Sept. 19, 6pm, at the Texas Union Theatre, and features several extraordinary screenings. “Mi Hermano Fidel” (1977), filmed by Santiago Alvarez, features an elderly blind man being asked to reminisce about the 1895 fight for Cuban independence. During the course of the interview, he slowly realizes that he is being interviewed by Fidel Castro himself. “Cuba and Fidel” (1976), an award-winning documentary from Focal Point Films, is an interview with Castro in which he explains the circumstances leading to severed relations with the U.S. as well as changes in Cuba since the revolution. The remaining Cuban shorts include: “Mama Goes to War” (1984) by Guillermo Centeno, “One More Among Them” (1989) by Rebecca Chavez, and “Prayer” (1983) by Marisol Trujillo.
Mexperimental � A groundbreaking survey of Mexican avant-garde cinema which spans a 60-year period. Curators Rita Gonz�lez and Jesse Lerner, working with the support of the Fideicomiso para la Cultura M�xico/U.S., have brought together work “emerging from diverse sources, styles and modes of production [from] three experimental film competitions, leftist political polemics … the counter-cultural fantasies created by the student movement and hippie culture, as well as punk rants and partisan satires, video art, and Super-8 shorts,” they write in their formidable catalog.
The 17 films will be screened in four thematic programs. Program one, “Surveying the Terrain,” Thursday, Sept. 17, 10pm, Alamo Drafthouse features: “Magueyes” (1962) by Rub�n G�mez, “Humanidad” (1934) by Adolfo Best Maugard, “El Despojo” (1958-60) by Antonio Reynoso, “Pecado Original/Reproducci�n” (1986) by SilviaGruner, and “Medias mentiras” (1994) by Ximena Cuevas. Program two, “The City,” Friday, Sept. 18, 5pm, Texas Union Theatre: “Vicente Rojo” (1964) by Juan Jos� Gurrola, “S�bado de Mierda” (1985-87) by Greforio Rocha, “Un nahual vercru” (1994) by Miguel Calder�n, “Mi co-ra-z�n” (1994) by Pola Weiss, “El Vuelo” (1989) by Silvia Gruner. Program three, “Radical Politics and Counter Culture,” Saturday, Sept. 19, 4pm, Texas Union Theatre: “Comunicados #1: La agresi�n, #2 La respuesta, and 4” (1968) by the Consejo Nacional de Huelga, “El fin” (1970) by Sergio Garc�a, “Segunda primera Matriz,” (1973) by Alfredo Gurrola, “Victimas del Pecado Neoliberal” (1995) by Ximena Cuevas and Jesusa Rodr�guez. Program four, “Mexicanidad,” Sunday, Sept. 20, noon, Alamo Drafthouse: “Coraz�n sangrante” (1993), by Ximena Cuevas and Astrid Hadad, “La formula secreta” (1965), by Rub�n G�mez, Sim�n del desierto (1964), a feature by Luis Bu�uel.
Between three venues, celebrity receptions, and special Midnight Madness events, CinemaTexas audiences should find something to satisfy. “The great thing about short films is that if it’s bad, it goes away real fast. If it’s good it stays around,” says Tsangari.
CinemaTexas screenings take place at the Texas Union Theatre, the Alamo Drafthouse, and the Ritz Lounge. Festival passes are $15 for students and $20 for the general public. Single admission is $3 for students, $4 for the general public. For festival passes or more information call 471-6497, or visit their Web site: http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~cinematx.
This article appears in September 11 • 1998 and September 11 • 1998 (Cover).