From Criterion: Farran Nehme on the Ultimate Newsroom Comedy
There’s a really terrific post today on Criterion’s website from Farran Smith Nehme, one of our favorite writers, about Howard Hawks’ absolutely wonderful 1940 screwball comedy HIS GIRL FRIDAY. This is some of the best stuff I have ever read about this film, a longtime favorite. A sample: But the most striking instance of hush […]
KATE PLAYS CHRISTINE Director Robert Greene: What Docs Can Learn From Wrestling
Director Robert Greene (not pictured above) will join us for an International Documentary Association (IDA) co-presented Master Class on January 14 at 10am. The next day we will screen his newest film KATE PLAYS CHRISTINE at the Texas Spirit Theater at the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum.Robert Greene’s new film has been blazing its way […]
The Bob Dylan/John Lennon Improv Comedy Experience: 1966
In 1967, D.A. Pennebaker released his epochal documentary DON’T LOOK BACK (which the Austin Film Society will screen at the Paramount Theater on Thursday January 19 with special guest host Austin Chronicle Music Editor Raoul Hernandez). The film follows Bob Dylan and his entourage on their first UK tour. It is a great musical doc, […]
Watch This: Texas Archive Of The Moving Image Presents Austin in the ’70s
From DOLLS, by Dwight Adair and Gary Ganter The Texas Archive Of The Moving Image (TAMI), now in its 15th year, continues to provide a valuable service to all of us, and to posterity, by preserving film artifacts and making them available and accessible to all. Their ongoing mission is well worth tracking, and, as […]
The Year In Movie Longreads Part 3: The Final Chapter
Here is a third and final round-up of some of 2016’s best long-form writing on the subject of film. In Hazlitt.net, Soraya Roberts writes about Winona Ryder as a performer, and a phenomenon, in “Winona, Forever.” Paul Schrader takes a fresh and opinionated look at the films of Yasujiro Ozu in this Film Comment piece. […]
Longreads II: Eclectic Overview
For your holiday season delectation, here are a few more of the best movie related long-form pieces from 2016. My title is meant to be a play on BREAKIN’ II: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO. If that was not immediately obvious, I hope you will now re-read it, understand the joke, and laugh appreciatively. Here are the articles: […]
The Year in Movie Longreads, Episode I: The Phantom Thinkpiece
Every year there are a number of long, substantive articles; thinkpieces, profiles, interviews, scholarly overviews; that are published, noted, bookmarked, and, in some cases, never gotten around to. The holidays provide many opportunities for catching up. Over the next couple of posts, I will attempt to collect some of those longreads that you may have […]
Watch This: Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin’s 1971 TV Masterpiece MELODY
Today is the 70th birthday of actress, singer, songwriter and style icon Jane Birkin. She has appeared in films by Antonioni, Rivette, Varda, Godard, Resnais, Tavernier, Hong Sang Soo and many others. To many, she may be best known for her collaborations with musician Serge Gainsbourg: singles, albums, scandals, and a daughter, Charlotte Gainsbourg, whose […]
Listen Here: Julie Dash Tells the Story of DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST
The Austin Film Society presents a screening of the new restoration of DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST with special guest Lisa B. Thompson, Ph.D., Associate Professor of African & African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas, on Tuesday, December 13 at the Spirit of Texas Theater. Tickets and more information here. 25 years ago, Julie […]
Happy 100th Birthday to Kirk Douglas: Enjoy this Hour-long 1971 Interview
There is no living actor with a career as as long and as full of great movies as Kirk Douglas. From his his first film (made when he was already 30!), THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS (1946) through most of the next six decades, he stayed busy. Douglas starred in, and occasionally also produced […]
Listen Here: The New Doug Loves Movies Podcast Features Austin’s Own SLASH – Opens This Week!
Doug Benson, Clay Liford, Missi Pyle and Michael Ian Black at Doug Loves Movies taping The AFS Grant supported film SLASH has really been getting around recently. It seems like everyone is talking about the film, whose writer/director Clay Liford is one of Austin’s busiest and talented filmmakers. The film is about a pair of […]
Just Announced: AFS January and February Programming
DON’T LOOK BACK As everyone who reads this must surely know by now, the AFS Cinema is closed for expansion and renovations through the end of 2016 and into the first few months of 2017. During this time there will be a number of off-site events, open to both AFS members and non-members. You can […]
