The Power of Posters: An Interview with Illustrator Akiko Stehrenberger
To the patrons of AFS Cinema, it’s no secret that we love a good movie poster. Richard Linklater’s collection of golden-age film ephemera adorns our walls with bold, creative design and illustration from heavyweights like Saul Bass, Bill Gold, and a host of others. But sometime around the advent of Photoshop things took an aesthetic […]
Streamers: AFS Programmer Lars Nilsen Presents a Genre Grab Bag for Home Viewing
For this week’s Streamers recommendations we turn to our own AFS Lead Programmer Lars Nilsen, who is known for having tastes that encompass the whole of Cinema, from the exalted heights of art films to some of the deepest crevices where not-art films reside. As one of the founders of the American Genre Film Archive […]
AFS Viewfinders Podcast: How To Cut a Great Trailer with Editor Trevor Lee
The film trailer is an art form in itself, and, for many of us, an invisible art. We don’t even know the names of the people who cut the trailers, or how it’s done. If you have ever sat in your seat and watched the seemingly dozens of trailers* unfold before a film starts, perhaps […]
Watch This: Teen Ennui In the ADHD Films of Makoto Nagahisa
Japanese director Makoto Nagahisa has said that he strives “to bring a speed, dialogue, and sound that doesn’t exist in current filmmaking.” Based on his Sundance award-winning anarchic short AND SO WE PUT GOLDFISH IN THE POOL and his new feature WE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES (coming to our Virtual Cinema this Friday, July 10th), we […]
Watch This: Ennio Morricone’s Radical Proto-Noise Music
It is a sad day for music and film lovers, as we have lost one of the greatest composers of the last century. Ennio Morricone made a household name for himself with his evocative Western soundtracks that permanently burrowed into the popular conscious. But his skill for cinematic expression extended far beyond those catchy whistles […]
1990 – The Year SLACKER Broke: Hear the Whole Story from Linklater & Friends
Richard Linklater’s film SLACKER, made in Austin on a minuscule budget with a huge cast of local performers, is bound to be on anyone’s short list of most important Texas films, and is certainly the most Austin of all Austin movies. It was a national breakout hit – as these things go – and quite […]
Joyful Noise: The Music Films of Robert Mugge
Filmmaker Robert Mugge claims he never meant to spend his career making music documentaries, but we sure are thankful he did. Beginning with his 1980 film SUN RA: A JOYFUL NOISE, Mugge has crafted intimate portraits of legendary Black musicians, capturing invaluable snapshots of the artists and their creative environments. With the recent streaming availability […]
Watch This: Carl Reiner & Mel Brooks’ Seminal Skit “The 2000 Year Old Man”
We were deeply saddened to learn of Carl Reiner’s passing this morning. His contributions to modern comedy are far too numerous to count. Perhaps one of the greatest testaments to his timeless humor comes in the form of one of his earliest and most beloved creations with his close friend, Mel Brooks. The two had […]
Streamers: Chale Nafus Presents Some Recent Watches
During this quarantine period, when so many people are spending much more time at home, we have been asking some of our friends in the film community for some streaming recommendations. Chances are, if you are an AFS member or a regular attendee of the AFS Cinema, you already know Chale Nafus, former Director of […]
Remembering Adrienne Shelly
Everyone who has ever appreciated the work of writer/director/actor Adrienne Shelly (born on this date in 1964) feels a complicated tangle of emotions about her. She was murdered in 2006, and her final film, WAITRESS, which she wrote and directed, was released the following year to acclaim that she was never able to enjoy. Her […]
Don’t Worry: It’s Only 1995 – Let’s Go to the Movies!
Nostalgia is always a safe way out in times of turmoil – or if you’re trying to come up with a subject to write a blog post about. To that end, we were poking around some of the archived issues of the Austin Chronicle and looking around to see what movies were playing around Austin […]
Watch This: Abbas Kiarostami’s First Short Film
The late Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami (born on June 22, 1940) was a giant of Cinema. His feature films, which played in festivals around the world and often had substantial arthouse runs in the the film capitals of the world, helped to give Iran a place at the table in terms of contemporary artistic expression. […]
