Alamo Blog-a-thon: Fassbinder, the Village & QT Fest

From AFS Executive Director Rebecca Campbell ...

FASSBINDER
The Leagues don't waste too much energy planning; they are big on action. When I took over the Film Society in 1998 we were planning a Fassbinder retrospective, but the Goethe-Institut refused to lend us the prints without an archival 35mm projector. The Paramount was the only venue that had that type of system, which uses two reel-to-reel projectors to keep the print from getting roughed up as it moves from theater to theater. I told Tim, who I barely knew at the time, that this was the obstacle. Next thing I know, he calls to say he has found a used reel-to-reel projector for $5,000 which they will buy if we do something in exchange (I have forgotten what). That is how we made that extraordinary 16-series retrospective with new prints happen. Those films were my bonding moment with the Austin Film Society and the Alamo Drafthouse. I keep a poster of VERONIKA VOSS and FEAR EATS THE SOUL on my wall to this day.

THE VILLAGE
Everyone recognizes their programming genius, but less has been said about the other critical piece to their success: their work ethic. One Saturday in 2001, around midnight, my husband Andy and I were headed home on Anderson Lane and saw a light coming from the closed Village Four. We had heard the Leagues were reopening it as the Alamo North and stopped in to see what was going on. We found that the entire crew consisted of Tim and Karrie, covered from head to foot in grease and paint, coated with drywall dust, and perfectly happy.

QT FEST
It was the beginning of 1999, and I was in the process of convincing the AFS board of directors that running the Film Society was actually a full-time job. Working into the evening had its rewards, however, the night Quentin Tarantino called and said he wanted to come down in a few weeks and have another festival. I called Scott Dinger at the Dobie Theater, scene of the first two Quentin Tarantino film festivals, but Scott said it would be difficult and expensive to bump the programming they had planned. When I called Tim, there was not even half a beat between the time I said "are you interested" and he said "yes," and the rest is history: Quentin and the Alamo were destined from birth, it seems. Thanks to whoever listed the fest in Wikipedia, but I need to get on there and correct the name for each one we've done with the Alamo: QT III, QT Quattro (Italian spelling, please), QT 5, QT Six and the Best of the QT Fest. Yes, as a matter of fact, I may not be the foremost expert on the hundreds of films we have shown over seven QT fests, but having named them all since QT III, I am the world's authority in that small regard.