Austin Film Society Announces September/October 2021 Film Program
(Still from Lucrecia Martel’s La Ciénaga)
MEDIA CONTACT
Brady Dyer, Communications Manager
brady@austinfilm.org
Austin Film Society Announces September/October 2021 Program
Includes Lucrecia Martel’s Salta Trilogy, films of Billy Wilder, a special Werner Herzog series featuring brand new restorations, AFS’s Third Annual Doc Days, World Cinema Classics, newly restored screen gems, and much more.
August 12, 2021 (AUSTIN, TX)—Austin Film Society announces its September and October 2021 calendar featuring a phenomenal lineup of films that brings the world of cinema to Austin including our signature programs, curated screenings, and special events that filmgoers can only experience at the AFS Cinema. Here are just a few of this season’s highlights:
For our Essential Cinema program this September, AFS presents Lucrecia Martel’s Salta Trilogy +1—a series of films featuring Martel’s home province of Salta that catapulted the Argentinian writer-director to the forefront of Latin American cinema. Collectively known as The Salta Trilogy, we will be presenting all three films: La Ciénaga (2001), The Holy Girl (2004), and The Headless Woman (2008), as well as Martel’s subsequent work Zama (2017), a Colonial-period piece exploring the roots of class-based injustice in Argentina.
The Wilder Touch will be the focus of our October Essential Cinema—featuring some of the most timeless comedies ever to show on screen by the incomparable and celebrated director Billy Wilder, including A Foreign Affair (1948), Love in the Afternoon (1957), The Apartment (1960), Irma La Douce (1963), and beloved classic Some Like It Hot (1959). Noah Isenberg, chair of the University of Texas at Austin’s Radio-Television-Film department, and author of a forthcoming book on Wilder’s Some Like It Hot, will join us for introductions and discussions at select screenings.
This fall we also present Over the Edge: The Herzog Restorations, Part One, a special series showcasing a selection of new restorations by German master filmmaker Werner Herzog. With a career spent exploring the human limits, Herzog delves into the edges of sanity with stories set in the most inhospitable of circumstances, natural and man-made. The films in this series capture just that including Fitzcarraldo (1982), Cobra Verde (1987), Woyzeck (1979), Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1977), Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), and My Best Fiend, Herzog’s 1999 portrait of the complex relationship with longtime collaborator Klaus Kinski.
Our World Cinema Classics program features Satyajit Ray’s newly restored masterpiece The Apu Trilogy, which traces the life of Bengali boy Apu from childhood innocence to adolescent education into the tragedies of adulthood through the films Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1956), and The World of Apu (1959). We will also screen Vera Chytilová’s fun and colorful Daisies from 1966, a key film in the Czech New Wave movement, and two important medium-length films by Senegalese director Djibril Diop Mambéty, Le Franc (1994) and The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun (1999).
Newly restored selections include Horace Jenkins’ beautiful Louisiana-set love story Cane River (1982), only recently rediscovered in 2014; Japanese master filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki’s first feature film, Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979); and Distant Journey (1949), a critically-acclaimed Janus Films release by Czech director Alfréd Radok, a concentration camp survivor who used his own real-life experiences to tell this story in the aftermath of WWII; among others.
In October, AFS’s Doc Days will return for its third year. This annual festival of non-fiction cinema spotlights exceptional documentary work from around the world featuring live filmmaker Q&As. Our full program will be announced in mid-September.
Also taking place in October, we welcome the Sound Unseen festival to Austin and the AFS Cinema for the very first time. Now in its 22nd year, Sound Unseen features a fresh and exciting lineup of new music-related films with visiting filmmakers, and special retrospective events. More information and the 2021 schedule will be announced in September.
The full September/October lineup continues below and a complete list of all film screenings and special events are on our website at www.austinfilm.org. Ticket prices range from $10.50 to $13, with discounts for AFS members. Special pricing is noted if applicable.
AUSTIN FILM SOCIETY SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER 2021 CALENDAR
View a PDF of the calendar and download image stills HERE.
Best of Fests
Cryptozoo
Dash Shaw, USA, 2021, DCP, 95 min.
September 19, September 22, & September 23
Like an ecological storybook from the post-psychedelic late ‘70s, this astonishingly detailed animated allegory about capitalism and the place of wildness in human society is worth watching multiple times. Featuring the voice talents of Lake Bell, Michael Cera, Alex Karpovsky, and many others. A trip.
Eyimofe (This is My Desire)
Arie Esiri, Chuko Esiri, Nigeria, 2020, DCP, 116 min., in Nigerian and English with English subtitles
October 11, October 13
The first feature by Nigerian twin-brothers Arie and Chuko Esiri has been compared to Robert Altman and Claire Denis. Like those masters, the Esiris know how to let the technical aspects of film serve their story of two Lagos residents—a factory electrician facing family adversity and a young hairdresser raising her daughter.
Doc Nights
Lydia Lunch: The War is Never Over
Beth B, USA, 2021, DCP, 77 min.
September 9, September 11, & September 13
This documentary portrait of the No-Wave music and spoken word legend Lydia Lunch, made by her longtime collaborator Beth B, goes beyond the surface of the performer’s outrageous appeal to center her life’s work in its true meaning—as a reaction to trauma both personal and societal.
Nationtime
William Greaves, USA, 1972, DCP, 80 min.
October 3, October 6
In the recently rediscovered Nationtime, William Greaves (Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Two Takes) documents the historic 1972 National Black Political Convention, a pivotal event that gathered Black voices—including Jesse Jackson, Coretta Scott King, Harry Belafonte, Dr. Betty Shabazz, Isaac Hayes, and many others—to deliver a powerful call to action that resonates even more urgently today.
Essential Cinema: Lucrecia Martel: The Salta Trilogy +1
One of the most vital and exciting voices in modern cinema, writer-director Lucrecia Martel made her feature film debut in 2001 with La Ciénaga, set in her home province of Salta, Argentina. Together with her two subsequent films, The Holy Girl and The Headless Woman, it forms The Salta Trilogy: complex, intricate films that are at once humanistic and deeply critical of the Argentine experience. We revisit all three of these works as well as Martel’s subsequent work Zama, a Colonial-period piece exploring the roots of class-based injustice in Argentina.
La Ciénaga
Lucrecia Martel, Argentina, 2001, DCP, 103 min., in Spanish with English subtitles
September 2, September 4
Lucrecia Martel’s first film depicts a middle-class family in Argentina as it slides further and further into malaise and distrust. Psychologically probing and minutely observed, this made Martel a filmmaker to watch.
The Holy Girl
Lucrecia Martel, Argentina, 2004, DCP, 110 min., in Spanish with English subtitles
September 9, September 11
The second film in the Salta Trilogy returns to the town of La Ciénaga. This time we follow a pair of very religious teenage girls as new realities of sexuality and power intrude upon their lives.
The Headless Woman
Lucrecia Martel, Argentina, 2008, DCP, 87 min., in Spanish with English subtitles
September 16, September 18
Martel returns to the Salta region of Argentina for the final film in the eponymous trilogy. This time, a minor car accident sends a woman reeling into a spiral of socially-charged doubt.
Zama
Lucrecia Martel, Argentina, 2017, DCP, 115 min., in Spanish, Guarani, and Portuguese with English subtitles
September 23, September 25
Master director Lucrecia Martel plays with the profound and the absurd in this unprecedented deconstruction of the history of colonial Argentina, heralded as her most ambitious and brilliant work to date.
Essential Cinema: The Wilder Touch
We are joined by our friend, author, and academic Noah Isenberg for a special selection of Billy Wilder’s greatest Hollywood comedies, truly some of the wittiest work ever committed to the screen. Isenberg, editor of Billy Wilder on Assignment and a forthcoming book about Wilder’s Some Like It Hot, will join us for introductions and discussions at select shows.
A Foreign Affair
Billy Wilder, USA, 1948, DCP, 116 min.
September 30, October 2
Set in the rubble of devastated post-war Berlin, this romantic farce concerns a visit by a U.S. Congressional delegation to the occupied city. There, the leading Congresswoman, played by the great Jean Arthur, unravels a plot to cover up an affair between a supposedly notorious nightclub chanteuse (Marlene Dietrich) and an unknown American officer. Filled with observations such as only Wilder could make about the clash of the Teutonic and Yankee mentalities.
Love in the Afternoon
Billy Wilder, USA, 1957, DCP, 132 min.
October 7, October 9
Gary Cooper, who was perhaps a decade beyond his prime romantic lead years, plays an aging Lothario who enters a classic Lubitsch-style romantic pas de deux with the much younger Audrey Hepburn. Cooper’s self-assurance is ultimately no match for Hepburn’s adorable charm. Featuring Maurice Chevalier as Hepburn’s father, and the City of Paris as itself.
Some Like It Hot
Billy Wilder, USA, 1959, DCP, 132 min.
October 14, October 16, October 17, & October 20
In a film that is nearly unanimously considered one of the best comedies ever made, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis play a pair of musicians who witness a mafia hit and go on the run, in drag, as part of an all-female dance band. Their plans to quickly ditch the dresses and makeup is derailed when they meet the band’s star novelty singer played by the beauteous Marilyn Monroe. There are too many gags to explain here, and almost all of them work like a charm. A joy from start to finish.
The Apartment
Billy Wilder, USA, 1960, DCP, 125 min.
October 21, October 23
Always a keen observer and deflater of American mores, Wilder found his dream couple in Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. Lemmon plays a young and ambitious office worker who, in the hopes of currying favor from his higher-ups, lends his apartment to corporate execs for romantic trysts with their mistresses. At the same time, he becomes more and more attached to the elevator operator Fran Kubelik (MacLaine.) When these two aspects of his romantic and work life begin to conflict, he finds himself in a real quandary. A near-perfect film, romantic and world-weary in equal proportions.
Irma La Douce
Billy Wilder, USA, 1963, DCP, 147 min.
October 26, October 30
The magical chemistry between Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine returns in this story of a French gendarme (Lemmon) who truly becomes a fool for love when he spies the Parisian streetwalker of the title, played by Shirley MacLaine. Wilder pushes the romantic farce far beyond the point of discomfort as the two stars deliver a virtuoso comedic duet that more than justifies their place in the hearts of moviegoers.
Evergreens
Nashville
Robert Altman, USA, 1975, DCP, 160 min.
September 1, September 3, & September 5
There’s a reason Robert Altman is so identified with large ensemble casts. It’s because he uses them so well. Altman, by focusing on a political rally in the city of Nashville, Tennessee, he gives us a cross-section of post-Watergate America, somewhat disillusioned but still bound by tradition, horny but in search of spiritual love. The huge cast are allowed to bring their own distinct personalities to Joan Tewkesbury’s scenario. There are star turns from Karen Black, Henry Gibson, Keith Carradine, Lily Tomlin, Ronee Blakley, Geraldine Chaplin, and many others. A film that shows you more and more every time you see it.
F For Fake
Orson Welles, United States, 1975, 35mm, 88 min.
September 4, September 5, & September 7
This quasi-documentary essay film begins as an examination of art forger Elmyr de Hory but soon expands to encompass the essentially intertwined nature of fakery and the arts. Welles is mesmerizing onscreen as he narrates and performs magic tricks, but it is his magic in the editing room and behind the camera that has made this film an immortal classic of the screen.
Godzilla Vs. Hedorah
Yoshimitsu Banno, Japan, 1971, DCP, 85 min., in Japanese with English subtitles
September 20, September 22
“Save the Earth!” As the young generation in Japan became more and more ecologically conscious in the ‘70s, the team behind the popular Godzilla movies made by Toho Studios spotted the trend, hired Akira Kurosawa’s assistant Yoshimitsu Banno to direct, and produced this head-scratching but awesome dayglo artifact about the King of The Monsters fighting a giant glowing rubber tadpole who thrives on pollutants. Free Member Monday — AFS members get in free on September 20.
The Shining
Stanley Kubrick, USA, 1980, DCP, 146 min.
September 24, September 25, & September 27
Kubrick’s symphony of terror is a completely unique theatrical experience. We are accustomed to horror movies with a lot of atmosphere and with shocking jump scares, but when a cinematic master turns his hand to these techniques they become something more like high art. Come see it with us on the big screen and appreciate the performances of Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and company as the peerless spell cast by Stanley Kubrick works its grim magic on your spine.
Bride of Frankenstein
James Whale, USA, 1935, DCP, 75 min.
October 4, October 7, & October 8
A horror classic and a witty, subversive comedy rolled into one. Director James Whale’s wry, Oscar Wildean sensibility is a perfect fit for the story of Dr. Frankenstein’s marriage anxiety which carries over into his work as he labors to create a mate for his iconic monster. Featuring unforgettable performances from Colin Clive, Boris Karloff, Ernest Thesiger, and the electrifying Elsa Lanchester.
Phantom of the Paradise
Brian De Palma, USA, 1974, DCP, 91 min.
October 23, October 27, & October 30
This Faustian horror/trash-rock/revenge musical from director Brian De Palma is one of the most technically impressive and energetically gonzo films of the sick ‘70s. The always-bizarre William Finley stars as the titular character, a songwriter ripped off and badly wronged by a Phil Spector-like music mogul named Swan (Paul Williams). When Swan sets his sights on the woman of the Phantom’s dreams (Suspiria’s Jessica Harper) things are going to get weird. This is De Palma’s testament to everything he loves in popular cinema, a stylistic exercise with few peers, and a great time at the movies.
Over the Edge: The Herzog Restorations, Part One
Join us to rediscover selected works of the singular master Bavarian filmmaker Werner Herzog, all recently restored and re-released. Herzog has spent a career exploring human limits. The will to survive is a cornerstone of his artistic inquiry, with madness often represented as intrinsic to survival under extreme duress. In the films of this series, Herzog explores the edges of sanity with stories set in the most inhospitable of circumstances, natural and man-made. In the making of his films, and especially in his collaborations with the sociopathic actor Klaus Kinski, Herzog time and time again tests his own limits to chase hard-won cinematic truth.
Fitzcarraldo
Werner Herzog, West Germany, 1982, DCP, 158 min., in German, English, Spanish, Quechua, and Italian with English subtitles
September 29, October 1, & October 3
One of the screen’s great portraits of obsession. Klaus Kinski plays Fitzcarraldo, whose dream of building an opera house to rival Europe’s best, in the middle of the Peruvian jungle, leads him to try and make one big score. One sequence in the film was so insanely difficult to achieve that the whole enterprise becomes charged with a madness akin to its protagonist.
Cobra Verde
Werner Herzog, West Germany, Ghana, 1987, DCP, 111 min., in German, Ewe, and Portuguese with English subtitles
October 6, October 9
A suitable 10-years-later follow up to Aguirre, The Wrath of God sees Klaus Kinski playing a ruthless bandit who is sent by a Brazilian nobleman to Africa to create a new slave port in Ghana. When he arrives, all is not what he expected and he resorts to a mad struggle for survival instead.
Woyzeck
Werner Herzog, West Germany, 1979, DCP, 80 min., in German with English subtitles
October 9, October 10
A tragi-comic tale adapted from an unfinished play by Georg Büchner features a steep descent into insanity. Woyzeck is a simple working man who, having fathered an illegitimate child, tries to do right by the situation, but the financial pressures lead him down more and more desperate paths.
Aguirre, The Wrath of God
Werner Herzog, West Germany, Mexico, Peru, 1977, DCP, 95 min., in English, Quechua, and German with English subtitles
October 13, October 16, & October 18
The first collaboration between Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski is a historical epic about the colonial looting of the Inca peoples of South America by European conquistadores. Kinski is appropriately cast as Don Lope de Aguirre, the unhinged leader of the ill-fated 16th-century expedition.
My Best Fiend
Werner Herzog, Germany, 1999, DCP, 95 min., In German, English, and Spanish with English subtitles
October 22, October 27
Years after Klaus Kinski’s death, Werner Herzog made this documentary portrait of his collaborator and sometimes tormentor. Full of footage from their projects together as well as behind the scenes footage and Herzog’s mellifluous narration, it is both an act of love and revenge on the part of the director.
Nosferatu the Vampyre
Werner Herzog, West Germany, 1979, DCP, 107 min., in German, English, and Romany with English subtitles
October 30, October 31
This remarkably faithful remake of Murnau’s pioneering silent horror film stars Klaus Kinski as the rat-faced Prince of Darkness who brings his pestilence to Britain from far-off Transylvania. With Bruno Ganz as Jonathan Harker and Isabelle Adjani as Lucy Harker. Herzog achieves a cold distance that makes the vampire’s evil almost palpable. A perfectly nightmarish Halloween treat.
Lates
Faust
Jan Svankmajer, Czech Republic, 1994, DCP, 97 min., in Czech with English subtitles
September 3, September 4
Devilishly original. Utterly fiendish. A sinful delight. Czech surrealist Jan Svankmajer takes on Dr. Faustus in a fantastically demented masterpiece of live-action and stop-motion animation. A pact with Satan? Perhaps.
Vortex
Beth B, Scott B, USA, 1982, Digital, 90 min.
September 10, September 11
Hardboiled P.I. Lydia Lunch is pulled into a case with more complexities than the sax-styling of John Lurie in this No-Wave noir from directors Beth and Scott B.
Tokyo Fist
Shinya Tsukamoto, Japan, 1995, DCP, 87 min., in Japanese with English subtitles
September 17, September 18
It’s a battle of the beta males when a salaryman drops his briefcase and steps into the ring in this knockout from Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo the Iron Man) that reminds us: nothing pummels the heart quite like love.
Ferat Vampire
Juraj Herz, Czechoslovakia, 1982, DCP, 93 min., in Czech with English subtitles
September 24, September 25
In the biggest automotive achievement since the electric car, maintenance becomes a bloody affair when Juraj Herz (The Cremator) gets behind the wheel of a very special sedan.
Foam Bath
György Kovásznai, Hungary, 1980, DCP, 79 min., in Hungarian with English subtitles
October 1, October 2
Cold feet slip into a pair of dancing shoes when a nervous groom finds a new pair of bosoms to nurse his anxieties. György Kovásznai’s musical set to the rhythm of the heart pushes not only the beat, but also its hand-drawn animation, to mind-boggling excess.
Arrebato
Iván Zulueta, Spain, 1979, DCP, 105 min., in Spanish with English subtitles
October 8, October 9, & October 10
Dubbed “Pure image [….] without the burden of fiction” by Pedro Almodovar, Spain’s answer to Eraserhead sees a hack horror director chase a high more potent than any drug — cinema. Newly restored.
Possession
Andrzej Żuławski, France and West Germany, 1981, DCP, 124 min., in English, French and German with English subtitles
October 15 through October 21
Marriage makes monsters of Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill in this newly restored cult art-horror classic from director Andrzej Zulawski (On the Silver Globe). An unforgettable experience, a film that will get under your skin and make itself at home there. New 4K restoration.
Under the Skin
Jonathan Glazer, UK, 2013, DCP, 108 min.
October 22, October 23, & October 25
A mysterious siren leads men to a fate far worse than death in this Lynchian dread-piece from Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast) and starring honest-to-goodness movie star Scarlett Johansson.
Modern Masters
Days
Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan, 2020, DCP, 127 min., in Mandarin with English subtitles
September 12, September 14
Writer-director Tsai Ming-liang returns with his first feature since 2013’s Stray Dogs with this meditative tale of a man (the director’s longtime avatar and muse Lee Kang-sheng) who seeks relief from his chronic back pain and makes a vital connection with another man, a Laotian immigrant with his own need for connection.
Newly Restored
Cane River
Horace Jenkins, USA, 1982, DCP, 104 min.
September 12, September 15
Every once in a while, a truly special discovery is made. This film, for instance, was nearly lost to film history. The director died soon after production, the film sat in a vault for decades. Had it not been discovered in 2014 and subsequently restored, we would be deprived of this singular vision. It is an independent film made in Louisiana—a love story of two young Black people that is imbued with more cross-cultural context than we are accustomed to seeing in films. It is also a joyous celebration of rural life and traditions. A magical film.
Distant Journey
Alfréd Radok, Czechoslovakia, 1949, DCP, 103 min., in Czech and German with English subtitles
September 18, September 19
Banned for more than forty years in Czechoslovakia, this drama is an invaluable primary source document of history and an artistic reckoning with the horrors of its age. Director Alfréd Radok, a concentration camp survivor, used his own real-life experiences to tell this story of a family— and a nation torn apart by the Nazi occupation.
Goodbye, Dragon Inn
Tsai Ming-Liang, Taiwan, 2003, DCP, 82 min., in Mandarin and Taiwanese with English subtitles
September 5, September 8
With enormous economy and restraint Tsai Ming-Liang depicts the final screening in a Taiwanese Cinema—the film on screen is King Hu’s Dragon Inn—and the experiences and impressions of the few people who attend it. A widely praised example of “slow cinema.” Noted director Apichatpong Weerasethakul has called Goodbye, Dragon Inn “the greatest film of the last 125 years.”
Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro
Hayao Miyazaki, Japan, 1979, DCP, 100 min., in Japanese with English subtitles
September 10, September 11, September 12, September 15, & September 16
The first feature film made by Hayao Miyazaki is this installment in the wildly popular Lupin III series. Arsene Lupin the Third has followed in the crime-pulp footsteps of his ancestors and become a master thief. When he finds himself stuck with a worthless haul of counterfeit bills, he decides to go after the trickster who fooled him—by assaulting the fellow rogues baroque castle of traps and professional assassins.
Working Girls
Lizzie Borden, USA, 1986, DCP, 96 min.
September 25, September 26, & September 29
While making her film Born in Flames, writer-director Lizzie Borden became interested in the lives of some of the sex workers she interacted with. This film was the result of her subsequent explorations. It cannily draws parallels between this most scorned of professions and women’s place in the exploitative “legitimate” labor market.
World Cinema Classics
The Apu Trilogy
Satyajit Ray’s newly restored masterpiece trilogy traces the life of Bengali boy Apu from childhood innocence to adolescent education into the tragedies of adulthood (unexpected marriage, love, loss, and maturity as a loving father). Each film may be watched individually as a self-contained narrative, though of course each gains depth in relation to the others.
Pather Panchali
Satyajit Ray, India, 1955, DCP, 125 min., in Bengali with English subtitles
October 12, October 24
The early life of a small boy living in the Bengali countryside in the 1910s. The first in Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy.
Aparajito
Satyajit Ray, India, 1956, DCP, 110 min., in Bengali with English subtitles
October 17, October 24
Second in Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy. The adolescence and informal/formal education of Apu in Benares and Calcutta.
The World of Apu
Satyajit Ray, India, 1959, DCP, 105 min., in Bengali with English subtitles
October 19, October 24
The third and final chapter in Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy. Apu’s world after graduation includes many trials of life and finally acceptance of the duty to become a responsible man.
Daisies
Vera Chytilová, Czechoslovakia, 1966, 35mm, 74 min., in Czech with English subtitles
September 17, September 18, & September 19
Not only is Daisies a key film in the Czech New Wave movement, and the explosion of personal expression in the Cinema in the late ‘60s, it is also a hell of a lot of fun, an absurdist comedy loaded with clever, colorful visuals depicting a pair of hip young women who embark on a number of fast-paced adventures in comic-book fashion. In 35mm.
Le Franc & The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun
Djibril Diop Mambéty, Senegal, 1994 and 1999, DCP, 91 min. total, in Wolof and French with English subtitles
September 6, September 8
Tragically, the Senegalese director Djibril Diop Mambéty, a towering figure of World Cinema, passed away with few completed films to his name. His major testaments were the feature films Touki Bouki and Hyenas, but after those two films he made these two excellent medium-length films, Le Franc is an absurdist farce made during a period of currency devaluation about a man trying to redeem his lottery winnings, and the posthumously released The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun is a dramatic ode to the courage of street children.
Doc Days
AFS presents Doc Days, our annual festival of non-fiction cinema, featuring outstanding new documentary work from around the world with filmmakers in attendance. Doc Days is an opportunity for Austin’s vibrant documentary community, including filmmakers and audiences, to come together and see new work. The full lineup will be announced in September and festival passes as well as individual tickets will be available at austinfilm.org.
Special Events
Special Premiere Screening:
Detective Diaries: Guilty Until Proven Innocent
Dan Johnstone, USA, 2021, DCP, 94 min.
September 28
Join us for a special sneak preview of one part of Detective Diaries, a multi-part premium crime anthology of feature length documentary specials from discovery+, with featured guests in attendance for a Q&A following the screening. Testing his faith and his character, civil litigator John Raley takes on the first criminal case of his career to free an innocent man from prison and catch the killer of two decades-old murders. John Raley and other special guests in attendance for Q&A moderated by Richard Linklater.
Sound Unseen at AFS
AFS Cinema will be one of the hosts of the 22nd edition of this annual film and music festival, in-person in Austin for the first time! Originally based in the Twin Cities, Sound Unseen features a terrific line-up of new music-related films with visiting filmmakers, and special retrospective events. A full lineup will be announced in September, and individual ticket sales for AFS Cinema events will be available at austinfilm.org.
Death in Texas
Scott Windhauser, USA, 2020, DCP, 101 min.
October 3
Join Texas-based cast and crew for a special screening of this El Paso-shot crime genre feature. Ronnie Gene Blevins plays an ex-con with a violent streak, who gets on the wrong side of a cartel leader (Bruce Dern) while trying to save his dying mother’s life by securing a black-market liver transplant. Filmmakers in attendance.
Women In Film & Television Member Showcase
October 5
Join us for a night of creative work, showcasing film, TV, and media work from the members of Women In Film & Television Austin. WIFT Austin Members will share their projects, connect with other WIFT-ATXers and the creative community about their work, and meet other creatives. This event is free and open to all.
Rooster Teeth Presents a Latin Heritage Month Screening:
High Noon
Fred Zinnemann, USA, 1952, DCP, 85 min.
October 10
One of the most popular Hollywood westerns of all time and a film that has been analyzed along historical and analytical lines for years. High Noon stars Gary Cooper, at the sunset of a long film career, as a retiring town Marshal, newly married to his Quaker wife, Grace Kelly, and facing a crisis of conscience about whether to stay and face down the outlaws or leave for his new life.
Hard Luck Love Song
Justin Corsbie, USA, 2020, DCP, 104 min.
October 12
Inspired by the song “Just Like Old Times” by acclaimed Americana singer/songwriter Todd Snider, HARD LUCK LOVE SONG is the debut independent feature from Austin filmmaker Justin Corsbie, which follows a down-on-his luck musician with a risky side hustle. This special screening will feature an in-person Q&A with Justin Corsbie.
Midnight Cowboy
John Schlesinger, USA, 1969, DCP, 113 min.
October 29
Author Glenn Frankel will join us for a special screening of the epochal 1969 film Midnight Cowboy. Frankel has written the definitive book on the subject of its making, Shooting Midnight Cowboy, and he will share details and insights about the work. This classic film follows an odd couple of characters in New York, street-wise Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) and Joe Buck, a handsome but naive young Texan who tries to make a living as a hustler (Jon Voight). Co-presented with the Texas Book Festival.
About Austin Film Society
Founded in 1985 by filmmaker Richard Linklater, AFS creates life-changing opportunities for filmmakers, catalyzes Austin and Texas as a creative hub, and brings the community together around great film. AFS is committed to racial equity and inclusion, with an objective to deliver programs that actively dismantle the structural racism, sexism and other bias in the screen industries. AFS supports filmmakers from all backgrounds towards career leaps, encouraging exceptional artistic projects with grants and support services. AFS operates Austin Studios, a 20-acre production facility, to attract and grow the creative media ecosystem. Austin Public, a space for our city’s diverse mediamakers to train and collaborate, provides many points of access to filmmaking and film careers. The AFS Cinema is an ambitiously programmed repertory and first run arthouse with broad community engagement. By hosting premieres, 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. AFS is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. More at austinfilm.org