AFS Viewfinders

AFS Viewfinders is a film culture website with information, resources and opinions designed to deepen and broaden appreciation of film.

Watch This: Smithereens Q&A with Director Susan Seidelman

During this period while the AFS Cinema is temporarily closed, we’ll be pulling select Q&As from our archives and sharing them here on AFS Viewfinders. Today, we’re releasing the full Q&A from the February 2020 screening of SMITHEREENS with director Susan Seidelman. If you haven’t seen Seidelman’s debut feature, you can watch it today via […]

Streamers: Writer/Director Yen Tan Shares Some Favorites You Can Watch from Home

Since a lot of people have been logging extra couch time over the past few weeks, we have asked some of our friends to recommend streaming movies and tv series for folks to watch at home. We are of course very lucky to have some especially smart and tuned-in friends. The filmmaker and designer Yen […]

Vulcan Video: The Exit Interviews Continue – The Vulcan Diet, Customer Love & Super Kristen

Photo by Richard Whittaker for the Austin Chronicle Our ongoing series of video posts chronicling some of the history of legendary video rental store and Austin film culture hub Vulcan Video continues below. Vulcan, which closed last month after a 35 year run, embodied so much of what makes Austin’s film culture special, and there […]

Listen Here: A WICKER MAN-Inspired May Day Mix

For those still keeping track of the days and months, you know that May Day is almost upon us. And while our plans to celebrate with a screening of the folk horror classic THE WICKER MAN at the AFS Cinema have sadly been cancelled (but you can still watch it at home via Netflix), as […]

Watch This: THE RUSH – A Year with No SXSW

From AFS Head of Film & Creative Media Holly Herrick: Independent film is vital to our culture, but the infrastructure to support a career in filmmaking is elusive in the United States. The system that we have in place for independent film includes brilliant people and institutions who are leveraging their best thinking and sweat […]

Flashback to Austin’s Wide Open Cinema Exhibition Landscape in the ’60s and ’70s

All of us who are incorrigible movie fiends have our go-to spots. Obviously the AFS Cinema is A-1 on all of our lists, but we also hit up the Arbor, Violet Crown and the Drafthouse locations, as well as the Paramount Summer Series. And we have our guilty pleasure spots where we indulge in the […]

Streamers: Alamo Drafthouse Preshow Wizard Laird Jimenez Presents Taiwanese Fantasy Kung Fu

When we asked Laird Jimenez for some streaming recommendations, we knew not to expect the ordinary. In his capacity as head video honcho at Alamo Drafthouse, Laird supervises the creation of those often bizarre preshows that many of us are missing so much right now. And, as head programmer of the Weird Wednesday series in […]

Vulcan Video: The Exit Interviews Part 2: Encounters With the Nice & Famous

Our series of recollections by former Vulcan Video employees about the much loved and now departed video store continues with some anecdotes about the many famous people who made their way through the aisles. You’ll hear about the ones who paid their late fees, the ones who paid strangers’ late fees, and the ones who […]

X’s “Los Angeles” Turns 40: An Essay and Q&A with X: THE UNHEARD MUSIC collaborators

This Sunday, April 26, marks the 40th anniversary of X’s landmark debut, Los Angeles. To celebrate, we asked our friend Tim Stegall of the Austin Chronicle to say a few things about the band and their seminal album. Plus, we’re now releasing our Q&A for X: THE UNHEARD MUSIC with X founder John Doe, director […]

Listen Here: Awesome Cult Movie Audio & Music Mixes by Kier-La Janisse

Film writer, programmer, producer, Miskatonic Institute Of Horror Studies founder and all-around creative force Kier-la Janisse has long been a guiding light for other cinematic and cultural explorers – she can usually be found about 1000 miles and 5 years ahead of the rest of us. Among her many projects is this completely astonishing batch […]

Happy Birthday Elaine May: Watch this Classic Nichols & May Sketch

If you’ve been haunting the AFS Cinema in recent years, you may have gotten the distinct (and correct) impression that we are fans of Elaine May’s work as a writer and director. We’ve shown A NEW LEAF and ISHTAR to audiences who have greeted these films with even more laughter than they received on first […]

Streamers: AFS Family Style Programmer Stacy Brick on Films for Kids

We asked guest programmer Stacy Brick—whose Family Style series at the AFS Cinema is a showcase for films that the whole family can enjoy—for some picks that will help you and your kids break out of the same rut of four or five movies. Here are her suggestions. Let’s face it – things are bleak […]

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