AFS Announces Its May/June 2023 Program Calendar
(Lou Ye’s SUZHOU RIVER, 2000)
MEDIA CONTACT
Will Stefanski
Will@austinfilm.org
April 6, AUSTIN, TX— The Austin Film Society announces its calendar for May and June 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 May/June calendar includes two new Essential Cinema series, one highlighting the films of Marlene Dietrich and Josef von Sternberg and another focusing on the early works of Makoto Shinkai, the director best known for the anime romance Your Name. To celebrate the Juneteenth holiday, there will be an encore screening of Miss Juneteenth by Channing Godfrey Peoples, a two-time AFS Grant recipient. Among many newly restored titles, AFS Cinema will show James Baldwin Abroad: A Program Of Three Films — a trio of documentary shorts from the late sixties and early seventies — presented as a Free Member Monday on June 12. In partnership with Bat City Cinema and the American Genre Film Archive (AGFA), AFS will host MONSTR-O-VISION!, a family-friendly medley of ’30s and ’40s monster films and shorts shown in 16mm. On June 15, AFS will present a special screening of the sexploitation sequel Emanuelle In America, which will include a panel of special guests and the screening of a new documentary by filmmaker and archivist Elizabeth Purchell. At the end of May, the Austin Film Society will also host AFS Doc Days, its fifth annual festival of non-fiction cinema spotlighting exceptional documentary work from around the globe. June 2 and 3, AFS will host Los Angeles’ famed Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) for three screenings from their 2023 festival.
Calendar highlights in detail:
In May, the Austin Film Society presents Essential Cinema: Dietrich/Sternberg, highlighting four collaborations between actress Marlene Dietrich and director Josef von Sternberg. Dietrich had her major breakthrough in Sternberg’s German film The Blue Angel, which became a hit in the States as well. This led to the duo making numerous films together in Hollywood, further establishing Dietrich’s reputation as a mysterious femme fatale and von Sternberg as a master of visual composition. The AFS series highlights four of the films they made together — Shanghai Express (1932), Blonde Venus (1932), The Scarlet Empress (1934) and The Devil Is A Woman (1935) — which will run between May 9 and June 3.
The Austin Film Society presents Essential Cinema: The Early Works Of Makoto Shinkai, screening throughout the month of June. Makoto Shinkai is known for his highly successful anime fantasy-romances Your Name, Weathering With You, and, more recently, for Suzume, which was the first anime to compete in the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) since Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away in 2002. Some of his earlier films have recently become available in the United States, and to celebrate that, AFS will be showing The Place Promised in Our Early Days, 5 Centimeters Per Second and Children Who Chase Lost Voices. These three films will be presented in Japanese with English subtitles.
In partnership with Bat City Cinema and the American Genre Film Archive (AGFA), AFS presents MONSTR-O-VISION!, a program of family-friendly 16mm films, shorts, cartoons, and trailers. The evening will be hosted by “Morbo the Middling,” a programmer from Seattle paying tribute to the “monster kid” generation of film lovers. The term “monster kid” refers to children who grew up watching the classic horror programs of the ’60s and ’70s that appeared on TV after Universal and other film studios released many of their creature-based films for syndication. The two-hour medley of material will screen on May 13, and it marks the third collaboration between Bat City Cinema and the Austin Film Society.
On June 16, the Austin Film Society will screen the sexploitation film Emanuelle In America, part of the Black Emanuelle series, with a panel of special guests involved in an upcoming box set from Severin Films called The Sensual World of Black Emanuelle. The Emmanuelle films began with the titular 1974 feature directed by Just Jaeckin, which embraced its X-rating and became an international box-office hit, despite being largely disliked by critics. The success of the first film resulted in numerous sequels as well as a rip-off film, Black Emanuelle (using one fewer “M” in its name to avoid copyright infringement), which became an unofficial spin-off series. The screening at AFS Cinema will also be paired with a new documentary about the Mondo film genre by filmmaker, archivist, and guest-programmer of AFS’s Queer Cinema: Lost & Found series, Elizabeth Purchell.
The AFS Doc Days Festival will take place May 25–28, and the lineup will be released in mid-April. Also, the AFS Cinema will host its several nonprofit film festival partners IndieMeme (April 12–16), Cine Las Americas (June 7–11) and The Austin Asian American Film Festival (June 21–25).
The full May/June 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 MAY/JUNE CALENDAR
ESSENTIAL CINEMA: DIETRICH/STERNBERG
OVERVIEW
There have been few director-star partnerships more sublimely symbiotic than that of Josef von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich. Their first German film together, THE BLUE ANGEL, was an international hit, and they both found themselves sought-after commodities in Hollywood. It was in pre-code Tinseltown that they truly flowered as a filmmaking team. Sternberg’s visual mise-en-scène — involving layers of fur, feathers, and gauze — was perfectly complemented by the icy-hot glamor and insolence of Dietrich. It’s an explosive combination, and one that still translates well to contemporary audiences.
SHANGHAI EXPRESS
Josef von Sternberg, USA, 1932, DCP, 80 min.
5/9, 5/13
“Dressed in decadence, awash in chiaroscuro, Dietrich is unforgettable … and as it turns out here, she can deliver one-liners with the best of them.”
—Cine-File
In this pre-code drama, Marlene Dietrich and Anna May Wong play a pair of “fallen women” on a refugee-laden train as it hurtles through civil-war-torn China. There is danger, romance, intrigue, and, as always, Dietrich and Wong are untouchably cool.
BLONDE VENUS
Josef von Sternberg, USA, 1932, DCP, 94 min.
5/16, 5/20
“Atmospheric and visually stimulating.”
—Empire
In desperate need of money to pay for her husband’s medical treatment, a former nightclub entertainer, played by Marlene Dietrich, returns to the stage as the tough and titillating Blonde Venus, whose signature number involves her doing a striptease while wearing a full gorilla costume. This film was banned for decades after the Production Code was imposed in 1934.
THE SCARLET EMPRESS
Josef von Sternberg, USA, 1934, DCP, 104 min.
5/16, 5/20
Josef von Sternberg’s love of overlapping textures and layers is given full rein in this historically questionable biopic of Empress Catherine the Great of Russia. Stunningly designed in every way and a perfect showcase for Marlene Dietrich’s sardonic wit.
THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN
Josef von Sternberg, USA, 1935, DCP, 79 min.
5/30, 6/3
“A heartless parable of man’s eternal humiliation in the sex struggle.”
—The New York Times
“As precisely aimed as a whiplash to the coccyx … Unique now as it was then.”
—Time Out
The final Sternberg/Dietrich film. If the idea of Marlene Dietrich playing a Spanish femme fatale in a soapy, anti-capitalist, dominance-and-submission parable appeals to you, then get in line. This is the cinema of sidelong glances and astonishing, elegant hats and corsages that take up half the frame. In many ways, this is the culminating example of the Sternbergian kitsch aesthetic.
ESSENTIAL CINEMA: THE EARLY WORKS OF MAKOTO SHINKAI
OVERVIEW
Makoto Shinkai brings to life fantastical tales of youthful exuberance with his visually striking, impressive, and vivid style imbued with heartrending realism. Considered one the finest animators working in Japan today, his early films push the medium forward and challenge the conventions of anime as we know them.
THE PLACE PROMISED IN OUR EARLY DAYS
Makoto Shinkai, Japan, 2004, DCP, 90 min. In Japanese with English subtitles.
6/6–6/11
“By any standard, it’s impressive anime; as a feature debut, it’s a remarkable achievement.”
—Seattle Times
“Makoto Shinkai has directed an intriguing, entertaining and often quite touching story about friendship, love and the importance of dreams in our lives, whose character design, animation and themes will likely linger on for quite some time with its viewers.”
—Asian Movie Pulse
In this visionary debut from the then thirty-two-year-old Makoto Shinkai (here, co-directing with Yoshio Suzuki), an alternate post-war Japan — one divided into the Union-controlled north and the US-controlled south — the teens become obsessed with a mysterious tower which seems to reach high into the heavens. Hiroki and Takuya hatch a plan to visit the tower, but before it can be achieved, their friend Sayuri disappears. Years later, the tower activates, and the two friends reunite to uncover the fate of their friend, whose disappearance may hold the key to the fate of the world.
5 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND
Makoto Shinkai, Japan, 2007, DCP, 63 min. In Japanese with English subtitles.
6/13–6/18
“A light-drenched tone poem.”
—Variety
“Shinkai has got a delicate touch with sentiment that will have receptive viewers reaching for a Kleenex.”
—Seattle Times
First love, unrequited with its every breathtaking ache, is measured out in three vignettes detailing the young lives of Takaki and Ankari as they navigate every unsaid emotion against a dazzling display of animated virtuosity in Shinkai’s striking 2007 follow-up, which cemented his reputation as one of the most formidable talents working in anime today.
CHILDREN WHO CHASE LOST VOICES
Makoto Shinkai, Japan, 2011, DCP, 116 min. In Japanese with English subtitles.
6/20–6/29
“Perceptive, intense — and heartbreaking.”
—Japan Times
“Shinkai is, unmistakably, one of Japan’s most beloved writers to date and for good reason: CHILDREN WHO CHASE LOST VOICES is as poignant as it is beautiful.”
—Asian Movie Pulse
A mysterious song on the radio leads a girl into the mythical land of Agartha and sends her on the adventure of a lifetime, bringing her face-to-face with death, monsters, gods, and the hope of resurrection in this awe-inspiring send-up to the works of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.
BEST OF THE FESTS
GODS OF MEXICO
Helmut Dosantos, Mexico/USA, 2022, DCP, 97 min.
4/30–5/5
“Never anything less than visually and sonically engaging.”
—The Playlist
“GODS OF MEXICO is as captivating as it is formally invigorating.”
—Slant
Every frame is a painting in this artfully composed documentary that shows us a series of tableaux depicting the “old ways” of living off the land as practiced in Mexico. These methods, which honor the land and do not deplete the environment, are shown in all their balletic grace in luminous black and white.
DANCING THE TWIST IN BAMAKO
Robert Guédiguian, France/Mali, 2021, DCP, 129 min. In French with English subtitles.
5/21, 5/24
“Nimbly captures both the kind of youthful ecstasy Wordsworth recalled and the disillusionment that so often follows … Beautiful … Elegant, kinetic, color-filled frames …conjure a lost but nonetheless vivid moment of bliss.”
—The New York Times
“A beautiful romantic love story. A dive into the past, punctuated by a multitude of hits from the early 60s whose fragrance of effervescent happiness is tinged with nostalgia and tragedy.”
—Cineuropa
In Mali, circa 1960, young people are gripped with revolutionary fervor for socialist ideals and an equally driving passion for dancing the night away to American R&B music. In the midst of this heady environment, a young man and woman strive to be together as the old ways threaten the new way of life.
THE COW WHO SANG A SONG INTO THE FUTURE
Francisca Alegria, Chile, 2022, DCP, 98 min. In Spanish with English subtitles.
6/14, 6/17
“Mysterious and elegiac, a tale of warning about a collapsing ecosystem and about deep family wounds.”
–Vox
“A magical realist eco-fable … teeming with thought-provoking ideas.”
–Screen Daily
“Offers a hopeful vision for collective healing.”
– Little White Lies
In the midst of an environmental disaster, a suicide-scarred family is again left reeling when a long-lost loved one emerges from a river of dead fish to heal wounds both emotional and natural. This truly fantastical debut from director Francisca Alegria announces the filmmaker as a talent to watch.
ONE OF THESE DAYS
Bastian Günther, Germany/US, 2020, DCP, 119 min.
5/31, 6/4
“Poignant and effective.”
—Screendaily
“Bastian Günther’s watchable story is told with conviction.”
—The Guardian
Texas-based German director Bastian Günther (HOUSTON) offers unique insight into American society with this small-town Texas drama, taking place around a fictional “Hands On” pick up truck contest. Featuring stellar performances from leads Carrie Preston (True Blood) and Joe Cole. Director Bastian Gunther in attendance for both screenings.
BIG SCREEN CLASSICS
AFTER HOURS
Martin Scorsese, USA, 1985, 35mm, 97 min.
5/12–5/18
“A rich, wincingly funny metaphysical farce.”
—Chicago Reader
“Delirious and challenging, a postmodern Ulysses in Nighttown.”
—Time
“A tight and witty script and perfectly tuned performances, perilously balanced between normality and insanity, keep the laughs flowing, while the direction is as polished and energetic as ever … inventive filmmaking of the first order.”
—Time Out
Martin Scorsese’s sublime “one crazy night” movie follows a square young New York professional (Griffin Dunne) bored to death by his workaday life who, over the course of a night, becomes entangled with a number of women who inhabit the Downtown night world. With Rosanna Arquette, Linda Fiorentino, Teri Garr, Catherine O’Hara, Verna Bloom, John Heard, and, of course, Cheech and Chong. In 35mm.
WILD AT HEART
David Lynch, USA, 1990, DCP, 125 min.
5/19–5/25
“Imagine THE WIZARD OF OZ with an oversexed witch, gun-toting Munchkins and love ballads from Elvis Presley, and you’ll get some idea of this erotic HELLZAPOPPIN from writer-director David Lynch.”
—Rolling Stone
“As cheekily goofy as it is achingly passionate.”
—Brooklyn
“Not for the weak of heart, one of the best Lynchian outings with some fantastically memorable dialogue.”
—Empire Magazine
David Lynch sends two lovers (Laura Dern and a snakeskin-clad Nicolas Cage) on the yellow brick road to Hell in this masterpiece of doomed romance, featuring one of the greatest casts ever assembled.
3 WOMEN
Robert Altman, USA, 1977, DCP, 124 min.
6/14–6/18
“This shape-shifting movie is rich in brilliant oddities and juxtapositions, never more so than when Duvall and Spacek are encompassed in the same frame.”
—Artforum
“A daring piece of cinema that glides along the edge of weirdness and somehow manages not to fall off.”
—Slant
“Casually foreboding and mysteriously mundane, the picture demands to be savored, not solved; its lucid performances and expressive zooms achieve an emotional clarity that transcends mere sense …”
—Time Out
Robert Altman’s examination of the intersecting orbits of three socially outcast women — Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek, and Janice Rule — operates in a wholly unique narrative sphere as the three titular women huddle together as a de facto alternative family unit until certain events cast a nightmarish light over the trio. Co-written by Altman and Patricia Resnick.
THE LAST OF SHEILA
Herbert Ross, USA, 1973, DCP, 120 min.
6/28, 6/30
“Sharp-edged and mean, and very good.”
—Roger Ebert
“A murder mystery that has been dressed up fit to kill.”
—The New York Times
“It’s the script that’s the real star here as the dialogue and the intrigue sparkles.”
—Empire
The rules of the game are simple: don’t die. A hanger-on, a fading starlet, a has-been, a never-was, and more gather for a game of whodunit on the yacht of an eccentric movie producer (James Coburn). As the seas rise, so do the stakes, and soon a bevy of mounting secrets threaten to sink the ensemble’s island getaway. Starring the greatest assemblage of stars this side of Hollywood Squares — Raquel Welch, James Mason, Ian McShane, Dyan Cannon, and more — this one-off, razor-tongued puzzler from screenwriters Steven Sondheim and Anthony Perkins is to die for. Simply put: Tinseltown’s a real bitch.
WORLD CINEMA CLASSICS
RED DESERT
Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy/France, 1964, 35mm, 117 min. In Italian with English subtitles.
5/13, 5/17
“Antonioni’s most mysterious and awe-inspiring work.”
—The New Yorker
“Michelangelo Antonioni’s visual ode to female angst …”
—The Village Voice
In Michelangelo Antonioni’s masterpiece of alienation, Monica Vitti plays a woman who seemingly has everything she needs but is depressed and horrified by the emotional devastation around her, signified cinematically by some of the most industrially toxic and oddly beautiful landscapes ever captured on film. In 35mm.
MODERN MASTERS
R.M.N.
Cristian Mungiu, Romania, 2022, DCP, 125 min. Various languages with English subtitles.
5/8, 5/10
“A superb social realist western with its finger on the erratic pulse of Europe … another very special film from this exceptionally gifted and thoughtful (and extremely angry) director.”
—Little White Lies
“A rigorous, naturalistic, and devastating cross-section of xenophobia … a must see.”
—Vox
Romanian writer-director Cristian Mungiu (FOUR MONTHS, THREE WEEKS AND TWO DAYS) depicts a struggle that afflicts many Western democracies through the lens of a small Transylvanian village. When a bakery hires immigrant workers, an epidemic of xenophobic hysteria engulfs the town with only a few holdouts against the tide of violence and intolerance. Free Member Monday — free admission for all AFS members on May 8.
PACIFICTION
Albert Serra, France/Spain, 2022, DCP, 165 min. Various languages with English subtitles.
5/31, 6/4
“A dreamy meditation on post-colonial geopolitics.”
—The New York Times
“An immersive tropical thriller/reverie that’s like Weerasethakul meets Pakula — it’s one of the great experiences in cinema.”
—Indiewire
Benoît Magimel stars as a French colonial administrator in Tahiti who oozes both charm and the stench of corruption and institutional evil as he goes about the business of oppression against a backdrop of indescribable physical beauty and lugubriously tacky nocturnal socializing.
THE NOVELIST’S FILM
Hong Sang-soo, 2022, DCP, 92 min. In Korean with English subtitles.
5/15, 5/18
“[Hong’s] most openly emotive and personal filmmaking to date … palpably life-affirming.”
—In Review Online
“Suggests that Hong has yet to exhaust his methods of deriving significance and beauty from the most quotidian of details, and perhaps that his strongest work is yet to come.”
—Slant
“One of the director’s sweetest films, registering ultimately as a touchingly sincere tribute to his life in filmmaking and to love discovered through art-making.”
—Little White Lies
Writer-director Hong Sang-soo’s cycle of micro-budgeted films about creative people having crises, getting drunk, and revealing the depths of their souls continues with this characteristically sneakily funny story about a novelist and filmmaker who attempt to collaborate on a film.
NEWLY RESTORED
PARTY GIRL
Daisy von Scherler Mayer, USA, 1995, DCP, 94 min.
5/4–5/7
“A time capsule in every sense.”
—Dazed and Confused
“Many movies have tried to tell the story of the ’90s underground New York club scene, but few have done so with the charm and authenticity of PARTY GIRL.”
—Vogue
“What makes it delicious fun is Posey, a party girl for the ages.”
—Rolling Stone
Parker Posey stars in one of her defining characterizations as a club-obsessed party animal who tries, with varying degrees of success, to straighten up after getting busted at an illegal rave. One of the best comedies of the ’90s and a showcase for the remarkable talent and charisma of Parker Posey.
SUZHOU RIVER
Lou Ye, China, 2000, DCP, 83 min. In Mandarin with English subtitles.
5/14–5/18
“It’s hard not to be swept up by the strong current of SUZHOU RIVER: a seductive and atmospheric conundrum that works pleasingly as an exercise in storytelling.”
–Sight and Sound
“As much about style as about love, SUZHOU RIVER echoes a lot of films, from the Hong Kong style of Wong Kar-Wai to Kieślowski’s THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE, but the sum total is something with a freshness of its own.”
–Los Angeles Times
Petty thief Marda (Jia Hongsheng) kidnaps Moudan (Zhou Xun) to demand a ransom from her rich father, but before he can get a return on his gamble, she escapes him by jumping into the Suzhou River. After his arrest, he meets a beguiling woman, MeiMei (also played by Zhou Xun), whose face resembles that of his victim and lost love. From director Lou Ye (SATURDAY FICTION) comes a torrent of love and obsession. Newly restored in 4K.
WILD REEDS
André Téchiné, France, 1994, DCP, 110 min. In French with English subtitles.
6/27, 6/29
“A remarkable and passionate film.”
—Adrian Martin
“Touching and honest.”
—Roger Ebert
The personal is political for the delicate François (Gaël Morel) whose tender youthful romance, built on a shared love of cinema and rock’n’roll, with the fiery feminist-communist Maité (Élodie Bouchez) comes to a sudden and abrupt end with the arrival of Serge (Stéphane Rideau) whose brutish appeal awakens unspoken desires within the boy. But it is the arrival of a fourth, the politically opposed Henri (Frédéric Gorny), that will soon thrust the quartet into adulthood with a sudden and violent shove in director André Téchiné’s unforgettably coming-of-age tale set amidst the last days of the French-Algerian war. Winner of four César Awards, including best film.
JAMES BALDWIN ABROAD: A PROGRAM OF THREE FILMS
Various, DCP, 84 min.
6/12
In these three newly restored films, made between 1968 and 1973, the great American novelist, essayist and activist James Baldwin’s travels and encounters with fellow intellectuals are documented in Istanbul, Paris, and London. The films in this program are JAMES BALDWIN: FROM ANOTHER PLACE (1968), MEETING THE MAN: JAMES BALDWIN IN PARIS (1971) and BALDWIN’S N****R (1968). Free Member Monday — free admission for all AFS members on June 12.
QUEER CINEMA: LOST & FOUND
NITRATE KISSES
Barbara Hammer/Max Almy, USA, 1992/75, Digital, 86 min.
5/20, 5/24
Lesbian experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer explores the erasure of queerness from both the arts and the archive throughout history in her groundbreaking first feature-length documentary. An underseen but foundational film from the much-vaunted New Queer Cinema of the early 90s, NITRATE KISSES is a fearless look at sex, censorship, and the movies. Paired with Hammer and videomaker Max Almy’s earlier short, SUPERDYKE MEETS MADAME X (20 min.). Queer Cinema: Lost & Found programmer Elizabeth Purchell will join us for a discussion at the screening on Saturday, May 20.
THE DEVIL QUEEN
Antonio Carlos da Fontoura/Wakefield Poole, Brazil/USA, 1974, DCP, 111 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles.
6/17, 6/20
The Black femme Devil Queen rules over Rio de Janeiro’s criminal underworld with an iron fist — no, a straight razor, which she uses both for shaving her legs and slitting throats — in this underseen classic of Brazilian genre cinema. Newly restored in 4K as part of Cinelimite’s Brazilian Film Digitization Initiative, THE DEVIL QUEEN is an outrageous, sleazy, and shockingly mean queer crime epic that epitomizes the saying “be gay, do crime.” Paired with gay porn pioneer Wakefield Poole’s short portrait of the 1974 San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade. Queer Cinema: Lost & Found programmer Elizabeth Purchell will join us for a discussion at the screening on Saturday, June 17.
LATES
THE DOOM GENERATION
Gregg Araki, USA, 1995, DCP, 83 min.
5/5–5/7
“Zany, violent, erotically charged … [this restoration is] the most fearless cinematic achievement of Sundance 2023.”
—IndieWire
“A savagely funny ride fueled by Araki’s insight and blunt compassion.”
—Rolling Stone
“Inspired by Godard’s classic BANDE À PART, Araki’s fifth feature is his most audacious and most technically accomplished film to date.”
—Variety
Two aimless lovers (Rose McGowan and James Duval) wander across the sprawling suburban wastelands of America until they cross paths with an aimless drifter (Johnathon Schaech) who brings excitement and trouble their way. The second film in Gregg Araki’s Teenage Apocalypse trilogy, THE DOOM GENERATION is a nihilistic ode to going nowhere. Now restored in 4K.
WARM WATER UNDER A RED BRIDGE
Shōhei Imamura, Japan, 2001, DCP, 122 min. In Japanese with English subtitles.
5/12, 5/13
“An enlightening, even liberating, experience.”
—Roger Ebert
“Nonchalantly freaky and uncommonly pleasurable.”
—The Village Voice
“Like its bizarre heroine, it irrigates our souls.”
—Chicago Tribune
Love is wet. And a woman’s excited emissions just may hold the key to the local pollution crises when an unemployed salaryman (Koji Yakusho, star of CURE) embarks on a steamy affair with Saeko (Misa Shimizu), an ordinary woman with an exceptional problem: inside she holds a well warm water, longing for release. Utterly absurd, delightfully magical, and — for some — unsettlingly erotic, this final film from two-time Palme d’Or winner Shōhei Imamura presents a one-woman solution to dry land.
CALVAIRE
Fabrice Du Welz, Belgium/France/Luxembourg, 2004, DCP, 88 min. In French with English subtitles.
5/19, 5/20
“A brilliant black comic nightmare.”
—The Guardian
“It’s hard to think of a constituency that won’t be offended.”
—New York Times
“A surrealist fairy tale bringing gothic glee to its meditations on performance and passion.”
—An Eye for Film
Following car trouble, traveling performer Marc finds himself under the care of a friendly village innkeeper whose sanity is hanging by a thread and surrounded by equally strange villagers. Once described by Guillermo Del Toro as a “lucid nightmare,” this cunning Belgian number was released at the height of the early-00s French Extremity wave and went on to garner a fervid cult following.
SAILOR SUIT AND MACHINE GUN
Shinji Sōmai, Japan, 1981, DCP, 122 min. In Japanese with English subtitles.
6/16, 6/17
“A delightful film, filled with very entertaining moments and cinematic artistry, and one of the most iconic productions of Japanese cinema during the ’80s.”
—Asian Movie Pulse
John Hughes meets Ozu in a mind-melting, genre-bending tale of a high-school girl (Kadokawa idol Hiroko Yakushimaru) turned yakuza boss from Shinji Sōmai (TYPHOON CLUB).
SPECIAL EVENTS
BAT CITY CINEMA & AGFA Present: MONSTR-O-VISION!
Various, 16mm, 120 min.
5/13
In the late 1950s, the classic monster movies of the ’30s & ’40s were syndicated on television, giving rise to creature-feature hosts like Zacherly and Ghoulardi — and a generation of horror-obsessed “Monster Kids.” Join Morbo the Middling as he takes you on a fright-filled tribute to Monster Kids past, present, and future; filled with mummies, vampires, Frankensteins, werewolves, and all manner of foul monstrosities. Thirteen classic creature features plus cartoons, shorts, and trailers. One lucky attendee will win a real dead body! All in three shock-inducing hours! All on glorious 16mm film!
EMANUELLE IN AMERICA
Joe D’Amato, Italy, 1977, DCP, 95 min. Dubbed in English.
6/15
After the Just Jaeckin movie EMMANUELLE became a global smash hit, there was a shadow series of films that followed, the so-called “Black Emanuelle” series, starring the Indonesian-born model-actress Laura Gemser. These films were made by Italian filmmakers Bitto Albertini and Joe D’Amato and combined the erotic thrills of the original EMMANUELLE with some Mondo elements to create rough, sex-filled travelogs. For this special screening of the completely insane EMANUELLE IN AMERICA, we will be joined by a panel of special guests who will discuss the film after the screening. Exploitation film scholar Elizabeth Purchell will also present a new documentary she has made about the Mondo film genre.
MISS JUNETEENTH
Channing Godfrey Peoples, USA, 2020, DCP, 99 min.
6/19
“A joyful observation of Black lives.”
—Sight & Sound
“A tale of hopefulness — and a reason to hope in itself.”
—The Guardian
Turquoise Jones is a single mom who holds down a household, a rebellious teenager, and pretty much everything that goes down at Wayman’s BBQ & Lounge. Turquoise is also a bona fide beauty queen — she was once crowned Miss Juneteenth, a title commemorating the day slaves in Texas were free two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Life didn’t turn out as beautifully as the title promised, but Turquoise, determined to right her wrongs, is cultivating her daughter, Kai, to become Miss Juneteenth, even if Kai wants something else. MISS JUNETEENTH is a two-time AFS Grant recipient. We are proud to offer this encore screening on the Juneteenth holiday.
DOC DAYS 2023 (May 25-28)
Save the date for AFS’s annual festival of new documentary cinema, returning May 25–28. The event features some of the most exciting new voices and visions in non-fiction, often with filmmakers in attendance.
THE PAN AFRICAN FILM & ARTS FESTIVAL PRESENTS (June 2 & 3)
AFS welcomes Los Angeles’ famed Pan African Film and Arts Festival (PAFF) for their first ever Austin series, presenting a selection of the most acclaimed films from their February 2023 festival. Established in 1992 by Hollywood veterans Danny Glover, the late Ja’Net DuBois (Good Times), and Ayuko Babu (Executive Director), the Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that has remained dedicated to the promotion of Black stories and images through the exhibition of film, visual art, and other creative expression. As the critically acclaimed largest Black film and arts festival and Black History Month activation in the United States, PAFF has become the quintessential global celebration of Pan-African cultures, and an international beacon for the African diaspora film and arts communities. Pan African Film Festival leaders, including longtime Artistic Director Asantewa Olatunji, will be in attendance to introduce the films.
