Herschell Gordon Lewis, A Great Showman, Has Died
Filmmaker Herschell Gordon Lewis (born 1929), who went from being a Professor of English literature at Mississippi State University to the notorious “Godfather Of Gore” a few years later, has died, according to his friend, Something Weird Video head Lisa Petrucci. Lewis was a very smart, funny and well read man who was making industrial […]
Watch This: Pioneering Animator Winsor McCay’s 1912 Short: HOW A MOSQUITO OPERATES
Winsor McCay (born on this date in 1871) was one of the most popular newspaper cartoonists of his day, and his highly idiosyncratic strips like “Little Nemo In Slumberland” and “Dream Of The Rarebit Fiend” have gained followers ever since with their highly surreal premises and gorgeous art. McCay was also quick to realize the […]
Happy Birthday Anna Karina!
Last week the AFS Programming team was in Toronto all week where we saw many outstanding films, many of which you will see on our screens throughout the year. This week we are furiously catching up on our work. So, is a birthday photo gallery of the marvelous Danish-French actress Anna Karina, born on this […]
A Primer on Experimental Film Legend Ken Jacobs, Appearing in Austin This Week
Ken Jacobs, a pioneer of experimental and avant-garde cinema will be joining us at the AFS Cinema on Wednesday September 21 for a program of his short films cosponsored by Experimental Response Cinema. The following night Jacobs lectures at the University Of Texas. On September 24, Jacobs will provide live projections for a musical performance […]
Art House Theater Day is Saturday, Celebrate with Two Special AFS Screenings
A special message from Gabriel Chicoine, AFS Marketing Associate and founder of the national Art House Theater Day: Record stores, comic book shops and bookstores all get their own special day when their patrons come together to celebrate their obsession of choice. So why not independent movie theaters? That was the thought behind Art House […]
A Pair of Interviews with French Cinema Legend Babette Mangolte
If she had only shot Chantal Akerman’s JEANNE DIELMAN, 23, QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES (1975) and NEWS FROM HOME (1977) Babette Mangolte’s place in cinema history would be assured. But there’s so much more, as she also lensed Akerman’s LA CHAMBRE and HOTEL MONTEREY (both 1972), as well as Yvonne Rainer’s LIVES OF PERFORMERS (1972) […]
From 1982: Godard, Herzog, Fassbinder, Spielberg Talk to Wim Wenders’ Camera About the State of the Art
In 1982, during the Cannes Film Festival, Wim Wenders rented room 666 at the Hotel Martinez and asked a number of directors to speak on camera about the future of the cinema, using a sheet of questions written by Wenders. Each was given one 16mm reel of film in which to complete his or her […]
Watch This: Chantal Akerman Discusses her Methods and Works
This Friday we begin our retrospective of the early films of the late Belgian director Chantal Akerman at the AFS Cinema. The farther we get from her early films, the more clearly we can see how influential they have been on the language of cinema, perhaps now more than ever before. Here’s a nice essay-style […]
“Trying To Keep The Lid On”: A Treasure Trove of Gene Wilder Interviews
The great, now sadly departed and much missed, comic actor Gene Wilder referred to one of his comedy techniques as “trying to keep the lid on.” You can see him now, in your mind’s eye, absorbing all the world’s mania, and trying, in a mighty fit of exertion, to hold it all in. Very few […]
Kieslowski’s Déja Vu: Close-up on the Three Colors
On Thursday, September 1, AFS begins its Essential Cinema Series ‘Kieslowski: Two Cycles’ with a 35mm screening of BLUE. The series, which presents the THREE COLORS cycle and the DECALOGUE, continues weekly through October at the AFS Cinema. Here’s AFS Head of Film & Creative Media Holly Herrick on the THREE COLORS. “Krzysztof Kieslowski’s THREE […]
“Intended & Unintended Possibilities”: Sight & Sound on Female Film Editors
Barbara McLean, editor of ALL ABOUT EVE, VIVA ZAPATA! & dozens of other films There’s a nice, though too-short, piece by Mark Cousins in the BFI’s Sight & Sound magazine this month about the important, but sometimes under-appreciated role that female editors have played in film history. The list of credits is dizzying, from THE […]
BBC Surveyed 177 Critics For Their List of the 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century
Here are the 100 greatest films of the 21st century according to 177 respondents to the BBC’s poll of movie critics, reviewers, etc. The methodology, etc. is here. We’re thrilled here at AFS that our Artistic Director Richard Linklater is represented twice on the list, and that we have shown so many of the films […]
