AFS Announces Its July/August 2023 Program Calendar
(Charlotte Le Bon’s FALCON LAKE, 2022)
June 7, AUSTIN, TX— The Austin Film Society announces its calendar for July and August of 2023 featuring signature programs, special screenings and events, and a new, diverse lineup of films from around the globe that filmgoers can only see at the AFS Cinema. The full calendar and more information can be found at www.austinfilm.org.
The upcoming July/August calendar includes two new Essential Cinema series, the first of which, You’re My Greatest Treasure: 10 Exercises in Intimacy, explores the hyper-personal video diary medium. The second series of Essential Cinema, called Jeanne Moreau, Filmmaker, explores the directorial work of the iconic, award-winning French actress. Producer Carolyn Pfeiffer will be at AFS Cinema from July 22–23 to discuss her remarkable career in a series called Chasing The Panther (made possible in part by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities). On July 7–8, John Doe Noir Weekend welcomes the co-founder of the LA punk band X who will host a series of classic films to complement a screening of the 2022 remake of D.O.A., which he stars in. To celebrate the work of animation pioneer Max Fleischer (Betty Boop, Popeye), AFS Cinema will present three unique shows of The Fleischer Studios Legacy with his granddaughter Jane and animation historian Ray Pointer, including a family-friendly screening on August 5. David Lynch’s film oeuvre will be spotlighted through screenings of both The Elephant Man (1980) and a feature-length video essay called Lynch/Oz featuring critic Amy Nicholson, director John Waters and others. Returning to AFS Cinema on July 31 is Everything Is Terrible: Kidz Club, a multimedia, live performance of brightly colored found footage from the VHS/DVD era. Also, coinciding with its 50th anniversary, AFS Cinema will show a new 4K restoration of The Wicker Man.
Calendar highlights in detail:
Throughout the month of July and early August, AFS will present a series of Essential Cinema called You’re My Greatest Treasure: 10 Exercises in Intimacy. The series celebrates the medium of the video diary — documentaries typically about the filmmakers creating them — with up-close looks at a range of subjects including love, loss, family, travel, sex and more. Included are Jonah Mekas’ Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania; Naomi Kawase’s “The Grandmother Trilogy;” Modesty and Shame and No Sex Last Night by filmmakers Hervé Guibert, Sophie Calle and Greg Shephard; Le Filmeur by Alain Cavalier and two pieces by Caveh Zahedi, In The Bathtub Of The World and I Was in a Film Starring Laura Dern.
Between August 8–26, Essential Cinema: Jeanne Moreau, Filmmaker will look beyond the numerous acting accolades of Jeanne Moreau toward her directorial work. To many, Moreau was known for her films with François Truffaut, Louis Malles and Michelangelo Antonioni, and she also won the Best Actress award at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival for Seven Days… Seven Nights. However, the series at AFS explores the two dramatic films and the single documentary she directed later in her career: Lumière, An Adolescent Girl and Lillian Gish.
Carolyn Pfeiffer: Chasing The Panther is a weekend-long series at AFS Cinema from July 22–23 celebrating the fascinating life of producer Carolyn Pfeiffer. Coinciding with the recent release of her new memoir Chasing the Panther: Adventures and Misadventures of a Cinematic Life, audiences will dive into the film history that Pfeiffer helped shape. Titles in the series include the Palme d’Or winning The Leopard; the indie film Dancehall Queen from her time in Jamaica; and Roadie, the shot-in-Austin film she produced featuring Meatloaf, Debbie Harry, and other musical legends. This program is made possible in part by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Newly Restored series of films at AFS will include recent 4K restorations of the Scorsese masterpiece Raging Bull, Cauleen Smith’s ’90s American indie landmark Drylongso as well as the iconic post-New Wave French autofiction The Mother and The Whore.
AFS will host John Doe, co-founder of the 1980s LA punk band X, for the John Doe Noir Weekend at AFS Cinema. While Doe is largely known for his musical impact, his career also includes countless film and TV credits, including appearances in Boogie Nights and Rowdy Herrington’s Road House. On July 8, audiences will be invited to see D.O.A. (2022), a remake of the noir classic starring Doe with a post-film Q&A as well as the original version of D.O.A. (1950) beforehand, which Doe will introduce. Then, on July 9, AFS will present Out of the Past and Kansas City Confidential, two genre classics, in 35mm.
As part of Queer Cinema: Lost & Found, AFS announces two films guest programmed by filmmaker and archivist Elizabeth Purchell. In July, the series will feature Pumping Iron II: The Women (the sequel to the body-building film that helped make Arnold Schwarzenegger famous), which focuses on two women competing in the 1983 Caesars World Cup and societal expectations around gender. The film will be shown in 35mm and followed by a post-film Q&A with Purchell at the July 15 screening. Then, in August, the series will present Taxi Zum Klo, a semi-autobiographical film about cruising culture that was banned in many countries upon its initial release. The film will be paired with the 2022 short film from the festival circuit Bros Before by Henry Hanson. A post-film Q&A with Purchell will follow the screening on August 30.
The full July/August lineup continues below, and a complete list of all film screenings announced to date and special events are on our website at www.austinfilm.org. Ticket prices range from $11 to $13.50, with discounts for AFS members. Special pricing is noted if applicable.
AUSTIN FILM SOCIETY JULY/AUGUST CALENDAR
ESSENTIAL CINEMA: YOU’RE MY GREATEST TREASURE: 10 EXERCISES IN INTIMACY
OVERVIEW
From transcendently delicate portraits of love to gut-wrenching sketches of death to cringeworthy lessons in excess — the film diary is cinema at its most intimate, personal, and exposed. Few tricks, one camera, and the desire to truly “show,” the films in this program offer viewers a look at life in close-up.
REMINISCENCES OF A JOURNEY TO LITHUANIA
Jonas Mekas, UK/Germany, 1972, Digital, 88 min.
7/4, 7/8
Who says you can’t go home? Returning to Lithuania after 27 years abroad, Jonas Mekas and younger brother Adolfas’ homecoming is documented as an exquisite triptych which sees the pair reunite with siblings, neighbors, and their mother. One of the most acclaimed works of Jonas Mekas’ impressive oeuvre, REMINISCENCES OF A JOURNEY TO LITHUANIA is the perfect entry-point to cinema’s greatest diarist. Screening with a short film from Mekas.
NAOMI KAWASE: THE GRANDMOTHER TRILOGY
Naomi Kawase, Japan, 1994-96, DCP, 90 min. In Japanese with English subtitles.
7/11, 7/15
In three films, filmmaker Naomi Kawase explores the daily life, love, and growing distance between herself and her grandmother. In her fearless desire to scrutinize the inner-workings of her familial bonds, Kawase cements her status as one of the most compelling and quietly radical filmmakers of her generation. Featuring KATATSUMORI (1994), SEE HEAVEN (1995), and THE SETTING SUN (1996).
NO SEX LAST NIGHT and MODESTY AND SHAME
Hervé Guibert/Sophie Calle and Greg Shephard, France/USA, 1991/92, Digital, 134 min. In French and English with English subtitles.
7/18, 7/22
“The video kept us together, but now that it is finished what will become of us?” ponders Greg Shephard, photog and then-boyfriend of French artist Sophie Calle as the pair document the end of their relationship in painstaking detail while they make their way from New York to California driving a Cadillac that’s in every bit the same state of ruin as their love. Dedicated to writer and activist Hervé Guibert (TO THE FRIEND WHO DID NOT SAVE MY LIFE), friend of Sophie Calle, who, in MODESTY AND SHAME, his final work, chronicles “everything that could enter into the field of experience [and become] a potential episode” in the film that was to mark the end of his life.
LE FILMEUR
Alain Cavalier, France, 2005, DCP, 97 min. In French with English subtitles.
7/25, 7/29
With hushed curiosity, filmmaker Alain Cavalier invites us to linger and asks we rest — still with the mundanity of life in all its fragility, its impermanence, and its wonder. A patchwork of moments captured over the course of ten years, LE FILMEUR is an inimitable portrait of details, from its many close-ups of birds and mirrored reflections to the deaths of his loved ones. Cavalier reveals all with tender honesty.
IN THE BATHTUB OF THE WORLD
Caveh Zahedi, USA, 2001/1995, DCP, 91 min.
8/1, 8/5
Caveh Zahedi knows no limits. For over 30 years, he has spared himself no critique from the public. Intensely personal to the point of exhibitionism, his work dares you to attempt to separate the work from the man. Impossible. This is his video diary. Shot from January 1, 1999, it began with the idea to shoot one minute each day for a year. Screening with his short film, I WAS IN A FILM STARRING LAURA DERN.
ESSENTIAL CINEMA: JEANNE MOREAU, FILMMAKER
OVERVIEW
“It was Orson Welles who said to me: ‘If you want to be a director, you’ll be a director.'” —Jeanne Moreau
Between 1975 and 1983, the iconic French actress Jeanne Moreau moved behind the camera to direct three films. Little known to even the most ardent of fans, this series sees the actress lend the trademark wit, grace, and daring, which brought her fame and fans the world over, to a trio of delicate portraits of women in various stages of life.
LUMIÈRE
Jeanne Moreau, France, 1976, DCP, 95 min. In French with English subtitles
8/8, 8/12
Four actresses, led by the incomparable Jeanne Moreau, reflect on art, life, and romance on the sidelines and in the limelight of success. In LUMIÈRE, her directorial debut, Moreau crafts a tale of female friendship and of one’s own legacy in cinema. Co-starring Keith Carradine, Lucia Bosè, Bruno Ganz, and Niels Arestrup. Newly restored in 4K.
AN ADOLESCENT GIRL
Jeanne Moreau, France, 1979, DCP, 90 min. In French with English subtitles.
8/15, 8/19
Summer, 1939. Marie, age 13, experiences the pangs of first love with a handsome, Jewish doctor (Francis Huster) as the charms of the French countryside are threatened by a looming war, both within her heart and mind, and soon, across Europe in this delicate portrait of one girl’s becoming.
LILLIAN GISH
Jeanne Moreau, France, 1984, DCP, 58 min.
8/22, 8/26
Two actresses. One tribute. A love letter to a life lived in the cinema. Jeanne Moreau pays homage to the American silent film star and looks back on her career first as a child star and later in works such as D.W. Griffith’s BIRTH OF A NATION and INTOLERANCE.
BEST OF THE FESTS
FALCON LAKE
Charlotte Le Bon, Canada, 2022, DCP, 100 min. In French and English with English subtitles.
7/2, 7/5
In an indelible debut, multi-hyphenate Charlotte Le Bon (THE WALK) crafts a wistful experience that hones in on the horrors of growing up. Adapted from the graphic novel by Bastien Vivès and set against the backdrop of rural Quebec, two teenagers forge a connection during a summer vacation. FALCON LAKE is a coming-of-age film as much about the uncertainty of impending adulthood as it is ghostliness, the loss of innocence, and life in the wake of the unknown.
RICEBOY SLEEPS
Anthony Shim, Canada, 2022, DCP, 117 min. In Korean and English with English subtitles.
7/10, 7/12
Anthony Shim’s formally innovative and emotionally devastating semi-autobiographical feature depicts the challenges faced by a young Korean mother and her son as they make a new life in Canada.
CHILE ‘76
Manuela Martelli, Chile, 2022, DCP, 95 min. In Spanish with English subtitles.
8/20, 8/23
In Chile, during the reign of dictatorial terror under Augusto Pinochet, a comfortable, successful middle-aged woman is faced with the fraught choice of whether or not to shield an injured young man from the authorities in this acclaimed arthouse thriller.
BIG SCREEN CLASSICS
CARMEN JONES
Otto Preminger, USA, 1954, DCP, 105 min.
8/27, 8/28
In post-war America, Carmen Jones, a vivacious factory worker, finds herself embroiled in a crime of passion after seducing a naive soldier. A musical adaptation of Georges Bizet’s opera featuring an all-Black cast led by the late Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge. Free Member Monday—free admission for all AFS members on August 28.
RAISING ARIZONA
Joel Coen, USA, 1987, DCP, 94 min.
8/19–8/24
An exhilarating comedy masterpiece. Holly Hunter and Nicolas Cage star as a young couple who desperately want a child of their own but are unable to conceive. Then, when a local businessman and his wife have quintuplets, the dam breaks.
THE GREEN RAY
Éric Rohmer, France, 1986, 35mm, 98 min. In French with English subtitles.
7/7–7/12
Éric Rohmer’s portrait of perpetual loneliness. A masterpiece in the yearning for human connection, THE GREEN RAY sees Delphine (Marie Rivière) in the midst of her self-imposed isolations against tactile backdrops in the French summer.
ELEPHANT MAN
David Lynch, USA/UK, 1980, DCP, 124 min.
7/1, 7/2
David Lynch lends his magic visual touch to this biopic of John Merrick, an English man whose deformities caused him to be seen as a freak and exhibited for pay. Nominated for eight Academy Awards®, the film stars John Hurt in a career-defining performance as Merrick, with Anne Bancroft, Anthony Hopkins, and John Gielgud.
DOC NIGHTS
THE MELT GOES ON FOREVER: THE ART & TIMES OF DAVID HAMMONS
Judd Tully/Harold Crooks, USA, 2022, DCP, 101 min.
7/16, 7/19
This new documentary looks at the life and work of art-world provocateur David Hammons whose manifold creative endeavors are inspired by his own life growing up Black in America and who seeks to challenge the very notion of art’s place within society.
NAM JUNE PAIK: MOON IS THE OLDEST TV
Amanda Kim, USA, 2022, DCP, 107 min.
8/19–8/23
The life and work of pioneering video and performance artist Nam June Paik is explored through interviews with those who knew him best and lots of amazing archival footage.
MY ARCHITECT
Nathaniel Kahn, USA, 2003, DCP, 110 min.
7/31, 8/2
The 20th-anniversary restoration of one of the most popular and influential documentaries of the century so far. Filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn looks at the extraordinary life and achievements of his famous father, architect Louis Kahn, as well as exploring the darker side of the senior Kahn’s life, which included multiple, separate families.
LYNCH/OZ
Alexandre O. Philippe, USA, 2022, DCP, 108 min.
7/1, 7/5
A movie-length video essay that takes as its starting point the many references to THE WIZARD OF OZ in David Lynch’s work. Featuring the insights of Amy Nicholson, John Waters, David Lowery, and other perceptive observers.
WORLD CINEMA CLASSICS
PAPRIKA
Satoshi Kon, Japan, 2006, DCP, 97 min. In Japanese with English subtitles.
7/26–7/29
Writer/director/artist Satoshi Kon (PERFECT BLUE) takes us into the shadow-world between dreams and reality in an inventive and beautiful phantasmagoria of a film. A modern classic of Japanese animation.
THE WICKER MAN
Robin Hardy, UK, 1973, DCP, 94 min.
8/14, 8/16
On the 50th anniversary of this cult classic (literally), a puritanical policeman investigates a young girl’s disappearance from a bizarre Scottish island village in which nothing is as it seems. Newly restored in 4K.
PERSONA
Ingmar Bergman, Sweden, 1966, DCP, 84 min. In Swedish with English subtitles.
8/25–8/30
Ingmar Bergman’s spiritually and visually astonishing masterpiece tells a tale of dualities as a nurse caring for a famous and suddenly mute actress begins having trouble distinguishing herself from her patient. With Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann.
YOJIMBO
Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1961, 35mm, 110 min. In Japanese with English subtitles.
8/10–8/13
The dynamic duo of director Akira Kurosawa and star Toshiro Mifune make their special magic in this exciting story of a samurai who hires himself out to two warring factions with the aim of destroying both. A practical blueprint for the modern action film. In 35mm.
MODERN MASTERS
TORI AND LOKITA
Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Belgium/France, 2022, DCP, 88 min. In French with English subtitles.
8/6, 8/12
In this latest masterwork from the Dardenne brothers (TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT), young African immigrants Lokita and Tori are fighting for asylum in Belgium only to encounter dangers as great as what they experienced in their crossing.
PASSION
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Japan, 2008, DCP, 115 min. In Japanese with English subtitles.
8/27–8/31
Before becoming the Oscar®-winning director of DRIVE MY CAR, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi was a filmmaking student at Tokyo University of the Arts. In his thesis film, Hamaguchi explores the coils of contemporary romance in Japan. Never before released in the States, PASSION reveals a burgeoning director exploring the themes and machinations which still interest him today.
NEWLY RESTORED
CHOCOLAT
Claire Denis, France, 1988, DCP, 105 min. In French with English subtitles.
7/1, 7/2
Claire Denis (BEAU TRAVAIL) made her astonishing debut with a semi-autobiographical ode to her childhood. Set in French colonized Cameroon, a white woman looks back on her friendship with her Black servant from childhood, examining desire and the nebulousness of memory. Denis’ early fascination with the dynamics of sensuality and identity — as well as the beginning of her creative partnership with actor Isaach de Bankolé — are observed in this new 4K restoration.
DRYLONGSO
Cauleen Smith, USA, 1998, DCP, 86 min.
7/26, 7/30
After being confronted with the bleak statistics surrounding Black male life, young art student Pica Sullivan — in a striking performance by Toby Smith — begins photographing the Black men around her as a means to preserve their memory. An amalgamation of genre and an emblem of DIY filmmaking, Cauleen Smith’s DRYLONGSO is a saturated and prescient confrontation of race, gender, and class in 1990s America.
RAGING BULL
Martin Scorsese, USA, 1980, DCP, 129 min.
7/14–7/20
Martin Scorsese’s searing biopic of former middleweight champion Jake LaMotta is adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin from LaMotta’s autobiography. Featuring a devastating lead performance from Robert De Niro as LaMotta. With Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty.
THE MOTHER AND THE WHORE
Jean Eustache, France, 1973, DCP, 219 min. In French with English subtitles.
8/6, 8/9
A young man forms a love triangle between his girlfriend and a nurse in Jean Eustache’s drama which sees the revolution move from the streets to the sheets in the wake of May ‘68. Starring Nouvelle Vague icons Jean-Pierre Léaud (here a far cry from Truffaut’s Antoine Doinel) and Bernadette Lafont (OUT 1, LE BEAU SERGE) alongside Françoise Lebrun (VORTEX).
WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES
Béla Tarr/Ágnes Hranitzky, Hungary, 2001, DCP, 145 min. In Hungarian with English subtitles.
8/26, 8/31
Chaos and unrest simmers when a mysterious traveling circus descends upon a desolate Hungarian town. Comprised of just 39 atmospheric, black-and-white shots, Béla Tarr (SÁTÁNTANGÓ) crafts a hypnotic parable on social collapse, complete with a freakishly large stuffed whale and nightmarish dread.
QUEER CINEMA: LOST & FOUND
PUMPING IRON II: THE WOMEN
George Butler, USA, 1985, 35mm, 107 min.
7/15, 7/17
A group of female bodybuilders — including butch Australian powerlifter Bev Francis and the more traditionally feminine Rachel McLish — prepare for and compete in the 1983 Caesars World Cup in this lesser-known sequel to the film that made Arnold Schwarzenegger a superstar. A fascinating exploration of gender, femininity, and society’s expectations of womanhood, PUMPING IRON II: THE WOMEN is the rare sequel that’s better than the original. In 35mm. Queer Cinema: Lost & Found programmer Elizabeth Purchell will join us for a discussion at the screening on Saturday, July 15.
TAXI ZUM KLO
Frank Ripploh/Henry Hanson, Germany/USA, 1981/2022, DCP, 114 min. In German with English subtitles.
8/26, 8/30
A gay school teacher tries to balance his newfound relationship with his compulsive addiction to cruising public toilets for sex in this fearlessly semi-autobiographical debut from writer/director/star Frank Ripploh. Seized by customs and banned in several countries upon its original release, TAXI ZUM KLO is both one of the greatest and most controversial gay films of the 1980s — hilarious, shocking, hot, and thought-provoking, often all at the same time. Paired with Chicago filmmaker Henry Hanson’s 2022 queer film festival favorite short, BROS BEFORE. Queer Cinema: Lost & Found programmer Elizabeth Purchell will join us for a discussion at the screening on Wednesday, August 30.
LATES
SPACKED OUT
Lawrence Lau, Hong Kong, 2000, DCP, 91 min. In Cantonese with English subtitles.
7/28–8/2
For friends Cookie, Banana, Bean Curd, and Sissy, life is anything but sweet. As the gang fights, does drugs, plays hooky, and shoplifts to escape predictable ruin in the seedy housing blocks of Hong Kong, this harrowing Category III-dive into the girls’ secret world of karaoke bars and malls — recalls the searing imagery of KIDS and CHRISTIANE F., albeit with a hell of a lot more Hello Kitty.
RED SUN
Rudolf Thome, West Germany, 1970, DCP, 89 min. In German with English subtitles.
7/7, 7/8
Five days. Four women. One man. You do the math. German Belmondo lookalike Marquard Bohm (KINGS OF THE ROAD, DEADLOCK) finds himself outnumbered, and possibly outwitted, by an ex (model and icon Uschi Obermaier) and her gang of girlfriends who kill the men in their lives after five days time. Enthusiastically hailed as a live-action comic strip with its director Rudolf Thome dubbed the future of cinema by none other than Wim Wenders, this pastiche of post-’68 ideals and women’s lib is the pop-art escapist fantasy we all need right now.
VASE DE NOCES (aka WEDDING TROUGH)
Thierry Zéno, Belgium, 1974, DCP, 82 min. No dialogue.
7/14, 7/15
Shocking. Fascinating. Grotesque. At the age of 24, Belgian filmmaker and artist Thierry Zéno, under the influence of Rops and Pasolini, unleashed this most unspeakable object “about the life of a solitary man in love with a sow” onto an unsuspecting festival circuit. Banned in Australia, and likely many other countries if it ever had the chance to be released, VASE DE NOCES “can be classed among those most powerful artworks which imprint unforgettable images and wounds on the memory of the spectator” (Jacquelin Aubenas).
MARQUIS
Henri Xhonneux, Belgium/France, 1989, DCP, 88 min. In French with English subtitles.
8/4–8/7
Leave it to Belgian filmmaker Henri Xhonneux and Roland Topor (one of the minds behind FANTASTIC PLANET) to take the piss, and a number of other fluids, out of a historical figure like the Marquis de Sade. This depraved mix of live action, puppetry, and claymation sees the infamous libertine as a dog-faced prisoner of the Bastille with only his fantasies and talking penis for company.
TOKYO POP
Fran Rubel Kuzui, USA/Japan, 1988, DCP, 99 min. In Japanese and English with English subtitles.
8/11–8/13
“Wish you were here …” After receiving a postcard from Japan emblazoned with the phrase, bleach-blonde Wendy (Carrie Hamilton, daughter of Carol Burnett) hops on a plane and checks into a hostel for gaijin. Penniless, she soon takes work as a hostess before meeting Hiro (played by real-life Japanese rock star Diamond Yukai, also seen in LOST IN TRANSLATION) whose band is anxiously awaiting their big break. A charming tour through bubble-era Japan, when the world ran on credit and credit ran on dreams, from Fran Rubel Kuzui (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER). Featuring title art by Keith Haring and a cameo by metal band X Japan and original songs by various local bands Red Warriors, Rin Kotogawa, and more.
OLDBOY
Park Chan-wook, South Korea, 2003, DCP, 120 min. In Korean with English subtitles.
8/18–8/21
VENGEANCE IS HIS. Park Chan-wook’s masterpiece returns to theaters for its 20th anniversary. Restored and remastered.
JOHN DOE NOIR WEEKEND
D.O.A. (REMAKE STARRING JOHN DOE)
Kurt St. Thomas, USA, 2022, DCP, 82 min.
7/8
Legendary musician and actor John Doe stars in this reimagining of the classic noir tale of a detective who, dying from a slow-acting poison, must bring his own killer to justice. Shot in black and white with a cast that includes Matt Pinfield and John Byner. John Doe will join us to introduce the film and participate in a Q&A afterwards.
D.O.A. (ORIGINAL)
Rudolph Maté, USA, 1950, DCP, 84 min.
7/8
This original classic noir stars Edmond O’Brien as the man who must track down his own killer. This screening will be introduced by music and cinema legend John Doe.
OUT OF THE PAST
Jacques Tourneur, USA, 1947, 35mm, 97 min.
7/9
John Doe joins us to introduce this noir classic. Jacques Tourneur, best known for his atmospheric horror films for producer Val Lewton, directs a superb cast (Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas, Jane Greer, Rhonda Fleming) in this story of a former low-rent detective established in a new, wholesome life, who is drawn back into the world of darkness he barely escaped. In 35mm.
KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL
Phil Karlson, USA, 1952, 35mm, 99 min.
7/9
One of the toughest noirs. John Payne stars as an ex-con, living on the straight and narrow, who is framed for a heist he never committed and must re-enter the criminal underworld to prove his innocence. With Coleen Grey, Lee Van Cleef, Neville Brand, and Jack Elam. In 35mm. Introduced by music and cinema legend John Doe.
CAROLYN PFEIFFER: CHASING THE PANTHER
OVERVIEW
Film producer Carolyn Pfeiffer has led a remarkable life — working for European stars Claudia Cardinale and Alain Delon, forming her own publicity company with such clients as Robert Redford and the Beatles, helping to revolutionize the American independent film scene in the ’70s and ’80s, and even producing two of the most successful Jamaican films of all time. It is such an interesting life, in fact, that she has written a new memoir, Chasing the Panther: Adventures and Misadventures of a Cinematic Life. She will join us for this special weekend to talk about her many cinematic adventures and will sign copies of the book. This program is made possible in part by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
THE LEOPARD
Luchino Visconti, Italy/France, 1963, DCP, 195 min. In Italian with English subtitles.
7/22
In this Palme d’Or winner, praised by Martin Scorsese as one of the greatest films ever made, Burt Lancaster gives a powerful performance as an aging aristocrat struggling to preserve his family amid the tumultuous social upheavals of 1860s Sicily. This program is made possible in part by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
DANCEHALL QUEEN
Don Letts/Rick Elgood, Jamaica, 1997, Digital, 98 min. In English and Jamaican Patois.
7/22
This infectious Jamaican low-budget reggae film veers between hard-bitten realism and the logic of the musical. A female street vendor trying to make ends meet on the mean streets of Kingston goes incognito as a dancehall superhero called the Mystery Lady to win a dance contest and attain financial stability for herself and her daughter. This program is made possible in part by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
ROADIE
Alan Rudolph, USA, 1980, 35mm, 105 min.
7/23
Shot in Austin and the surrounding areas, Alan Rudolph’s rock musical follows the most talented roadie in the world (Meat Loaf) as he navigates the musical scene of the late ‘70s. With Blondie, Asleep At The Wheel, and Austin art-punkers Standing Waves. This program is made possible in part by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
SPECIAL EVENTS
THE FLEISCHER STUDIOS LEGACY: BETTY BOOP & FRIENDS
Various, 90 min.
8/4
Celebrate the films of Max Fleischer with new HD restorations of some of the most entertaining cartoons featuring Betty Boop and friends. Max’s granddaughter, Jane, will be joining animation historian Ray Pointer for a Q&A after the show to discuss the legacy of Fleischer Studios.
THE FLEISCHER STUDIOS LEGACY: FAMILY FUN
Various, 90 min.
8/5
Celebrate the films of Max Fleischer with a selection of new HD restorations of Fleischer Studios cartoons that the whole family can enjoy together. Max’s granddaughter, Jane, will be joining animation historian Ray Pointer for a Q&A after the show to discuss the legacy of Fleischer Studios.
THE FLEISCHER STUDIOS LEGACY: PRECODE RARITIES
Various, 90 min.
8/5
Celebrate the films of Max Fleischer with a selection of new HD restorations of Fleischer Studios cartoons that would not have made it to screens after the introduction of the censorious Motion Picture Production Code. Max’s granddaughter, Jane, will be joining animation historian Ray Pointer for a Q&A after the show to discuss the legacy of Fleischer Studios.
DOGLEG
Al Warren, USA, 2023, DCP, 82 min.
7/23
An ambitious, low-budget indie comedy from a talented Los Angeles crew blends the anxieties of a lost dog and indie film production into a surreal comedy soufflé.
EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE: KIDZ CLUB
Multimedia and Live Performance, 90 min.
7/31
Everything Is Terrible! returns with an encore of one of their most popular and fantastical expeditions into found footage … but this time the adults can stay home! EIT! has unearthed thousands of forgotten DVD and VHS tapes aimed at yesterday’s youth to bring you their most mind-melting movie to date. Watch in awe as all colors of the rainbow join forces to destroy the tyranny of adult civilization once and for all!
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