Austin Film Society Announces March and April 2019 Programming
AUSTIN, TX (February 4, 2019) — AFS announces its March and April programming with a unique selection of New Releases and repertory films, all curated by AFS programmers. Of the vast programming, major series include the Essential Cinema of Jean Vigo and Hitchcock Before Hollywood, highlighting the four movies that made him a household name.
MEDIA CONTACT
Christine Lee, Director of Marketing and Communications
christine@austinfilm.org | Office: 512-322-0145 x 3213 | Cell: 214-908-2704
AFS welcomes author Victoria Riskin in celebration of her parents, screenwriter Robert Riskin and actress Fay Wray. The screenings include Meet John Doe and King Kong, followed by an audience discussion. Riskin will be signing copies of her new Random House book Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir.
In March, AFS celebrates two notable films with Texas ties. Writer and director Mike Judge joins AFS for the 20th Anniversary of Office Space with a screening at the Paramount Theatre on March 6. Remembering the legacy of Townes Van Zandt, director Margaret Brown and special guests join AFS on March 30 for a 15th anniversary screening of Be Here to Love Me: A Film about Townes Van Zandt.
In April, AFS will present its annual New French Cinema Weekend, showcasing the year’s best French language films. The full program will be announced in March. Newly restored films by the maverick Japanese filmmaker Teruo Ishii will be shown.
During SXSW, AFS is excited to host the Holodeck Records SXSW Re-Score Showcase. RA: Path of the Sun God, an obscure animated masterpiece, will be accompanied by a new original score performed live by Holodeck artists.
AFS-supported filmmaker Kelly Daniela Norris presents a historical overview of an overlooked chapter in film history–the era of silent movie action heroines in a hybrid screening and discussion of the silent serials
Ticket prices range from $9 to $11.25, with discounts for AFS members. Special pricing is noted if applicable.
Specialty cocktails will be served, including The Lumbergh ($7) with gin, coconut water, tonic water, and lime juice, inspired by Office Space’s iconic character Bill Lumbergh. The other featured cocktail will be the Moloko Milk Plus ($9), AFS’s take on the highball cocktail from A Clockwork Orange. The clarified milk punch has rum and hints of citrus, tea, and vanilla, evoking the tastes of a creamsicle.
For a complete list of film screenings and special events, please visit www.austinfilm.org. A digital press kit, including the two-month calendar PDF and high-res images, is available.
AUSTIN FILM SOCIETY MARCH AND APRIL 2019 CALENDAR
Special Events
20th Anniversary Screening: Office Space
March 6, Paramount Theatre
Mike Judge, USA, 1999, DCP, 89 min.
Tickets will go on sale to the public on February 15. Special pricing applies.
Get out your flare, crank up the Geto Boys, and destroy all printers. Mike Judge returns to Texas to celebrate Office Space at 20. The film that turned the Kafka-esque travesty of the modern office environment into comedy fodder quickly became a cult classic and preceded Judge’s current hit show, HBO’s Silicon Valley. After a 35mm screening, Judge will reminisce about the making of this Texas classic, the recipient of the 2019 Star of Texas Award at the Texas Film Awards.
Kelly Daniela Norris presents: Action Heroines of the Silent Serials
Various, Discussion and Screening, 90 min.
March 20, 6 p.m.
In this hybrid screening and discussion, artist, scholar, and AFS-supported filmmaker Kelly Daniela Norris presents a historical overview of a little-known chapter in film history, the era of silent movie action heroines.
15th Anniversary Screening
Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt
March 30, 7 p.m. Special pricing applies.
Margaret Brown, USA, 2004, DCP, 99 min.
Margaret Brown’s seminal 2004 film about the Austin music legend assured that Townes’s story would live on for a new generation to discover. Margaret Brown and key special guests join us for an anniversary screening and a post-screening conversation about Townes, his music, and his legacy.
New French Cinema Weekend
April 18–April 21
Save the date for the annual New French Cinema Week which brings the year’s best French language films by up and coming Francophone auteurs to Austin, with international guests and filmmakers in attendance. A partnership with the Premiers Plans Festival d’Angers, and supported by UniFrance, Cultural Services of the French Embassy, and Austin Angers Creative. The full program will be announced in March.
Hotel by the River
Hong Sang-Soo, South Korea, 2018, DCP, 96 min.
Opens March 1
Korean writer-director Hong Sang-Soo is making some of the most surprising and insightful work in the world right now, much of it on a small, subdued, but powerful scale. This film, about an aging poet who calls his two sons to join him at an inn for a life reckoning, only to have his resolve shaken by the presence of a pair of vivacious young women, is nestled in the Lagrange point between Larry David and Ingmar Bergman.
Christina Gallego and Ciro Guerra, Columbia, 2018, DCP, 125 min.
Opens March 15
The new film by Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra spans decades in the life of an indigenous Colombian tribe as their way of life is corrupted and violently upturned by the monetary influx of the ganja trade. A devastating critique of American-style crony capitalism is wrapped in a pulsing, violent Goodfellas-style epic.
Transit
Christian Petzold, Germany, 2018, DCP, 101 min.
Opens March 29
From brilliant “Berlin School” writer/director Christian Petzold (Phoenix) comes this narratively bold story of European fascism and shifting identity. A.A. Dowd of AV Club writes, “Anyone who appreciates cinema’s underrated capacity to confound-to really sabotage our understanding of what’s transpiring -will get a rush from the way Petzold constantly shifts the ground underneath our feet.”
American independent film owes a tremendous debt to Jean Vigo, who reshaped the cinema of his time to create a spirited realism soaked in humor and soul. The son of an anarchist dissident, Vigo brought an outsider’s point of view, and a rejection of the establishment, to his artistic work, which resulted in his films being censored by the French authorities. While Vigo died young and poor, his films became legendary, and in time they would preface the future of independent film in France and beyond. Vigo’s audacious work took a nod from the physical comedy of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, the propaganda films of his era, and the surrealist movement that gave birth to poetic realism. These influences were adapted into a singular, breathtaking, and unforgettable cinema that was far ahead of its time. We invite all the uninitiated to become Vigo completists in this all-too-short series of the work he completed before his untimely death at age 29.
Zero for Conduct & À Propos De Nice
Jean Vigo, France, 1933/1930, DCP, 66 min. Silent with English Subtitles.
March 21, 7 p.m.; March 24, 2 p.m.
Vigo’s first work, a rhapsody for the possibilities of camera and montage, precedes his perfect memoir of childhood, the riotously funny Zero for Conduct.
A perfect memoir of childhood, the riotously funny Zero for Conduct lays bare the misbehavior of pre-adolescent boys in the schoolyard in a fabulous display of pranks, epic battles, and ill-advised schemes. The film on which every subsequent coming of age story was built, in particular Truffaut’s 400 Blows and Pocket Change.
À Propos De Nice, Vigo’s first short film, poked fun at newsreels and propaganda films in order to lay bare the harsh realities of the economic struggles of the 1930s in France. Vigo relishes the opportunity to experiment with camera and montage, taking the freedom to incorporate a range of visionary styles and techniques.
Jean Vigo, France, 1934/1931, DCP, 98 min. Silent with English Subtitles.
March 28, 7 p.m. ; March 31, 2 p.m.
Jean Vigo’s only narrative, a subtly revolutionary dreamscape about a young married couple who begin their life together aboard a barge, is accompanied by his documentary short about a swimming champion.
Essential Cinema: Hitchcock Before Hollywood
By the time Alfred Hitchcock made the films represented in this series, he was an experienced and respected director who had directed 20 features, some of them quite successful. But it was this run of movies that made him a household name and a sought-after property in Hollywood, where his legend, bank account, and waistline all grew to legendary proportions. These are magnificent entertainments. As the master himself told Francois Truffaut, “Some films are slices of life, mine are slices of cake.”
Alfred Hitchcock, United Kingdom, 1934, DCP, 75 min.
April 4, 7 p.m.
This thriller, which Hitchcock himself remade 22 years later with significant alterations, is about an ordinary British family on holiday who become embroiled in international intrigue. Featuring Peter Lorre, who steals the show in his first English language role after fleeing the Nazis.
Alfred Hitchcock, United Kingdom, 1935, DCP, 86 min.
April 11, 7 p.m.; April 13, 7 p.m.
This film, a major critical and popular success, stars Robert Donat as a man on the run, faced with the dual burden of trying to elude capture for suspicion of a murder he did not commit, while trying to break up a spy ring he accidentally discovers in the process.
Alfred Hitchcock, United Kingdom, 1936, 35mm, 76 min.
April 17, 7 p.m.
SABOTAGE is one of the films that made Alfred Hitchcock’s reputation as a master of suspense. The story of a woman (Sylvia Sidney) who suspects her husband of nefarious doings contains some of Hitchcock’s best suspense set-pieces.
Alfred Hitchcock, United Kingdom, 1938, DCP, 96 min.
April 25, 7 p.m.; April 28, 2 p.m.
This sophisticated romantic thriller, much of which is set aboard a moving train hurtling through middle Europe, is a perfectly engineered entertainment machine, starring the very funny and charming tandem of Michael Redgrave and Margaret Lockwood.
Doc Night
Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché
Pamela B. Green, USA, 2018, DCP, 103 min.
March 23, 2:30 p.m.; March 26, 7 p.m.
Outside the halls of academia, the name Alice Guy-Blaché is little recognized. This new film seeks to right that wrong as it tells the story of one of film’s true pioneers. Narrated by Jodie Foster. Donna Kornhaber, Associate Professor of English at The University of Texas at Austin, will join for a post-screening Q&A at the March 23 screening.
Gordon Quinn and Jerry Temaner, USA, 1968, DCP, 60 min.
April 1, 7 p.m.
This utterly charming doc, made in Chicago in 1968 and now newly restored, follows a pair of curious young nuns as they conduct person-on-the-street interviews with the central question “Are you happy?”.
Adina Pintilie, Romania, 2018, DCP, 125 min. In German with English Subtitles.
April 3, 8:30 p.m.; April 7, 6:15 p.m.
Winner of multiple awards at the 2018 Berlin Film Festival, Touch Me Not is a thought-provoking study of human intimacy like you have never seen before. An ambitious, experimental work that negates categorization, the film forgoes cultural attitudes and assumptions to show human sexuality as profoundly individualistic, and totally uncharted territory.
Newly Restored: Two by Teruo Ishii
Teruo Ishii, Japan, 1970, DCP, 85 min. In Japanese with English Subtitles.
April 7, 4 p.m.
Japanese maverick filmmaker Teruo Ishii is hardly a household name in the US – or Japan for that matter – but his films, with their pulp energy and sometimes grotesque imagery, really deliver the goods. This is perhaps the best Yakuza Revenge/Ghost Cat movie ever made, and the presence of Meiko Kaji (Lady Snowblood) in the lead role pushes the whole enterprise into delirium territory.
Teruo Ishii, Japan, 1969, DCP, 99 min. In Japanese with English Subtitles.
April 14, 4 p.m.
Filmmaker Teruo Ishii’s “ero-guro-nansensu” (erotic-grotesque-nonsense) masterpiece is a visually astounding story of laboratory-created freaks, insanity, and the weirdest island on earth.
Victoria Riskin Presents
We are honored to welcome author Victoria Riskin for a special day of screenings in celebration of her parents, screenwriter Robert Riskin and actress Fay Wray. There will be an audience discussion after the Saturday films, and Riskin will sign copies of her new Random House book Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir.
Frank Capra, USA, 1941, 35mm, 122 min.
April 6, 2 p.m.
Author Victoria Riskin, daughter of Meet John Doe screenwriter Robert Riskin, joins us for a special screening of this thought-provoking Frank Capra classic starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck.
Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, USA, 1933, DCP, 100 min.
April 6, 5:30 p.m.; April 9, 7 p.m.
Author Victoria Riskin, daughter of King Kong star Fay Wray, joins us for the Saturday screening of this iconic tale of an misunderstood island King in New York.
Newly Restored
Edgar G. Ulmer, USA, 1945, DCP, 68 min.
March 17, 3:30 p.m.; March 20, 8:30 p.m.
“That’s life. Whichever way you turn, Fate sticks out a foot to trip you.” Edgar Ulmer’s microbudget crime cornerstone has over time become recognized as one of the most significant American noirs. Newly restored in 4K for the first time. Steve Wilson, Curator of Film at the Harry Ransom Center, will join for a post-screening discussion of actress Ann Savage and her archive at the March 20 screening.
One Plus One (Sympathy for the Devil)
Jean-Luc Godard, France, 1968, DCP, 110 min.
March 29, 7:30 p.m.; March 30, 4 p.m.
The most provocative filmmaker of the New Wave meets the Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the World. An in-studio chronicle of the recording of one of The Rolling Stone’s best-known songs, “Sympathy For The Devil,” placed in the radical context of its times.
Mikhail Kalatozov, Cuba/Soviet Union, 1964, DCP, 141 min. In Spanish with English Subtitles.
March 27, 7 p.m.; March 31, 4:30 p.m.
Hailed by Gaspar Noe as one of the ten best films ever made, I Am Cuba is the brilliantly provocative penultimate film from legendary Soviet filmmaker Mikhail Kalatozov (The Cranes Are Flying).
Takashi Miike, Japan, 1999, DCP, 115 min. In Japanese with English Subtitles.
April 27, 9:30 p.m. ; April 28, 6:45 p.m. ; April 30, 7 p.m.
20th Anniversary. One of the most influential modern terror films, Takashi Miike’s story of a relationship with a seriously disturbing gender dynamic became a surprising arthouse/horror crossover hit upon release in 1999. Not for the squeamish.
Holodeck Records SXSW Re-Score Showcase
RA: Path of the Sun God
Lesley Keen, Ireland, 1990, DCP, 72 min.
March 13
Before time all forms of what was to be lay hidden… In 1990, a dazzling and cerebral animated masterpiece faded into obscurity. In 2019, the light of RA will fill the world. Featuring the premiere of a new original score performed live by Holodeck artists Majeure, True Creature, and Curved Light.
Screenings of some of our most popular and critically acclaimed favorites.
Stanley Kubrick, USA, 1971, DCP, 136 min.
March 17, 7 p.m.; March 18, 7 p.m.; March 21, 9 p.m.; March 22, 7 p.m.; March 23, 10 p.m.; March 24, 6:45 p.m.
Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Anthony Burgess’s dystopian fable about technological culture’s struggle with the unsavory aspects of human nature is, if anything, too effective. Chilling, disturbing, and undeniably powerful.
Dario Argento, Italy, 1977, DCP, 98 min.
March 31, 7 p.m.; April 2, 7 p.m.; April 5, 7 p.m.; April 10, 8:30 p.m.; April 11, 9:15 p.m.; April 12, 7 p.m.
In his story of a young ballet student who uncovers terrifying ancient forces, Dario Argento throws the whole filmmaking toolbox into the mix. Genuinely frightening and strangely beautiful, Suspiria is a film like no other.
Paul Thomas Anderson, USA, 2007, DCP, 158 min.
April 26, 6:30 p.m.; April 29, 7 p.m.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2007 epic presents the story of an oilman’s insatiable desire for wealth and power during Southern California’s oil boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Daniel Day-Lewis won the Best Actor Oscar and numerous other awards for his iconic performance.
Toyoo Ashida, Japan, 1985, DCP, 80 min.
April 14, 7 p.m.; April 16, 7 p.m.
This very fun (and very violent) anime, set in the distant future, is about a woman who hires a super-cool Vampire Hunter to protect her from the millennia-old Lord of the Undead. Imaginative, cool, and maybe a tiny bit silly.
Lates are late-night weekend screenings of the new cult film canon. The first showing of each title is introduced by programmer Jazmyne Moreno.
Tony Williams, Australia, 1982, DCP, 89 min.
March 1, 10 p.m.; March 2, 10 p.m.; March 3, 6:30 p.m.
Previously only available to US audiences on VHS, home is where the horror begins in this brain-bending gothic chiller from down under. Now restored in 4K — with music by Klaus Schulze.
Nietzchka Keene, Iceland, 1990, DCP, 75 min.
March 22, 10 p.m.; March 23, 7:45 p.m.; March 25, 7 p.m.
After their mother is burned for witchcraft, two sisters seek shelter with a father and son, but find their lives threatened by sorcery in this new 4K restoration of the very dark fairy tale. Starring Björk in her first screen role.
Beth B and Scott B, USA, 1982, DCP, 90 min.
March 29, 10 p.m.; March 30, 10 p.m.
Murder is no match for P.I. Lydia Lunch in this No Wave noir from Beth B & Scott B. Featuring Bill Rice, Ann Magnuson, and the sax stylings of John Lurie.
Olivier Assayas, France, 2002, 35mm, 129 min. In English, French, and Japanese with English subtitles.
April 5, 9:30 p.m.; April 6, 8:30 p.m.
The spy becomes the hunted when Olivier Assayas (Personal Shopper) plays his hand at corporate espionage games in this Sonic Youth-scored techno thriller set in the world of hentai distributors.
Peter Greenaway, United Kingdom, 1985, 35mm, 115 min.
April 12, 9:15 p.m.; April 13, 9:15 p.m.
In this psychotronic head-scratcher from Peter Greenaway, a swan collides with a car, leaving its driver an amputee and two twin widowers whose obsession will lead to a tripedal love affair with sex, death, and decomposition.
Robin Hardy, United Kingdom, 1973, DCP, 88 min.
April 26, 10 p.m.; April 27, 7 p.m.; April 28, 4:25 p.m.; May 1, 8:30 p.m.
In 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.
Savage Gold: The Last Supper April 22, 7 p.m.
Change is a part of life. Sometimes it’s fun. Sometimes it’s not. Recent renovations at Austin Studios have removed access to the small screening room that hosted the cult video series Savage Gold for the last few years, but we did not want to say goodbye without one last blowout. Join programmers Lars Nilsen and Maximillian Meehan (at the Cinema this time) for one final show.
Science on Screen
Laura Nix, USA, 2018, DCP, 87 min.
April 24, 7 p.m.
The world’s most scientifically visionary teenagers convene annually at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, where they compete against each other by proposing unique solutions to the most pressing environmental problems of the day. This screening of the critically-acclaimed documentary will be followed by a discussion with science educators. With director Laura Nix in person.
Antonio Méndez Esparza, Spain/US, 2017, DCP, 114 min
March 2, 3:15 p.m.; March 4, 7 p.m.
This remarkably realistic narrative film, which won the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award, takes us into the day-to-day lives of an African American family in Florida as they cope with the reality of poverty and racism.
Family Friendly
Marilyn Agrelo, USA, 2005, DCP, 105 min.
April 13, 4:15 p.m.; April 14, 1:15 p.m.
Bring the family to this modern classic documentary about a New York City-wide ballroom dancing competition. It’s funny, revealing, and moving—a celebration of diversity and the power of togetherness.
Ed Wood, USA, 1970, DCP, 80 min.
March 19, 7:30 p.m.
Unseen for almost 50 years, this recently rediscovered bizarre smut film by the legendary Ed Wood returns in a new 2K restoration.
Gus Van Sant, USA, 1991, 35mm, 104 min.
April 23, 7:30 p.m.
Gus Van Sant’s landmark film of the New Queer Cinema movement chronicles the lives of two street hustlers, played by River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves.
March 17, 1 p.m.; April 21, 1 p.m.
Spend your Sunday morning enjoying the best classic and contemporary French films, brought to you by the Alliance Française Ciné-Club.
Partner Events
Unlikely Collaborators: Celebrating Salvador Dali and the Marx Brothers
April 8, 7 p.m.
Sam Wood, USA, 1935, DCP, 96 min.
AFS is pleased to partner on a special event and screening of A Night at the Opera, in conjunction with the new graphic novel Giraffes on Horseback Salad by Manuela Perega and Austin-based author and pop culture historian Josh Frank. In the novel, Surrealism melds with Hollywood and film history, turning an unproduced script by Salvador Dali into a fantastic comedy starring Groucho, Chico, and Harpo Marx. The book will be available for purchase at the screening.
ABOUT AUSTIN FILM SOCIETY
Founded in 1985 by filmmaker Richard Linklater, the Austin Film Society’s mission is to empower our community to make, watch, and love creative media. AFS curates and screens hundreds of repertory, international, and art house films annually at the AFS Cinema; delivers financial support to Texas filmmakers through the AFS Grant; operates Austin Studios, a 20-acre production facility, and Austin Public, a space for our city’s diverse media makers to train and collaborate. Through its award-winning after school classes, intern training, and the Ed Lowry Student Film program, AFS encourages media and film literacy and provides a place for youth of all backgrounds to learn the craft of filmmaking and gain access to tools for media production. By hosting premieres, special events, local and international industry events, and the Texas Film Awards, AFS shines the national spotlight on Texas filmmakers while connecting Austin and Texas to the wider film community. To learn more about the AFS Cinema or about Austin Film Society’s mission visit: www.austinfilm.org and follow @AustinFilm on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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