Introducing The Lone Star Slate: Stream Texas Films & Support Filmmakers
The Austin Film Society was established to support a community of filmmakers based in Texas. The scene blossomed from a few DIY filmmakers scattered across the state to a booming independent film community, featuring artists of all backgrounds, with diverse influences and practices. AFS has directly funded over 500 independent film projects by Texas filmmakers, […]
Cheer Up With Hours of Classic Hollywood Bloopers
When we watch classic Hollywood movies we see a galaxy of stars, exuding glamour and cool and impossible charm. Because these people are long gone, and because even when they were alive we only saw them under highly controlled circumstances, they sometimes represent a sort of perfection to us. And that’s one reason why these […]
Watch This: Behind The Scenes of Classic Italian Westerns
Here’s a featurette from 1968, produced for American TV, that is as fascinating as it is occasionally infuriating. It is fascinating because it does a pretty solid job of explaining the genesis and appeal of Italian Westerns – let’s not call them Spaghetti Westerns anymore, please. We hear from three of the very best directors: […]
Streamers: Home Viewing Recommendations from Tilda Swinton & Paul Thomas Anderson
Since the quarantine has begun, many of us have been watching more films on television at home. Naturally, all of us are eager to get back into Cinemas but we can’t just yet. So, we have been posting some streaming recommendations on Mondays from some of our pals in the film community. In the meantime, […]
Vulcan Video Exit Interviews: Expertise, What We’ve Lost & Greatest Employee Picks Ever
We are wrapping up our series Vulcan Video: The Exit Interviews with the last few chapters of the featurettes as well as a complete upload of all the submitted videos from the entire project. You can watch the raw files here. You can watch not only the full comments of the people we’ve featured in […]
Watch This: Behind the Scenes Footage from Two Scorsese Classics
Anyone reading this knows that movies don’t just happen. We are all aware that there is a lot of effort that goes on behind the scenes of even a modest film. At its best though, we see none of the sweat that has gone into the final product. We are swept away into the vision […]
Watch This: Brothers Ben & Bo Powell Discuss their Film NOTHIN’ NO BETTER
Filmmakers Ben & Bo Powell joined AFS Head of Film & Creative Media Holly Herrick for a virtual Q&A, discussing what drew them to filming their home region of Mississippi, and how their approach to filmmaking allowed them to capture subjects and stories that are often overlooked. You can see from the interview that the […]
Celebrate Katharine Hepburn’s Birthday with this Revealing Interview
Katharine Hepburn, born on this date in 1907, provides an object lesson in the nature of movie stardom. Other stars may have been more symmetrically pretty, had wider ranges of emotive expression, or modeled glamorous Hollywood gowns with more grace, but she brought a special quality to the screen. A quality as different and transgressive […]
Streamers: AFS Staffers Recommend Some Streaming Faves
We’ve been using this space on Mondays to ask some of our friends in the film community for some streaming recommendations to share with our audience – many of whom have much more time to spend watching movies at home of late. This time we are doing something a little different. We are turning the […]
Vulcan Video The Exit Interviews: Getting Hired, Partying on the Clock & Legendary Lance
We are winding down our series of oral histories of the now-defunct but forever-beloved Vulcan Video next week. Here is the penultimate collection of videos from the former employees. You can go back and check out the earlier parts here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. Next week we will post the last few edits […]
From TAMI: Watch Chuck Norris Blow Up A Neighborhood
There’s an amazing organization that is nestled in a not-so-quiet corner of Downtown Austin where day after day the moving image heritage of our state is recorded and preserved. It’s called the Texas Archive Of The Moving Image. You may have seen their work on screen at the AFS Cinema, the Alamo Drafthouse and elsewhere. […]
Pod People: AFS Lead Programmer Lars Nilsen Suggests Some Favorite Podcasts
AFS Lead Programmer Lars Nilsen here: Back before the fall of civilization I used to commute to work at the AFS Cinema six days a week and during that time I, like many of you, became a devout podcast listener. My go-to package of podcasts includes – not surprisingly – a fair number of movie […]
