Stranger Than Fiction: Marlon Brando’s Bizarre 2002 Master Class
Marlon Brando did not look like this in 2002 Hollywood Reporter today released a truly bizarre report about an 10-day acting class taught by the legendary Marlon Brando in 2002. The story is so odd and improbable that I was checking throughout for an April 1 dateline or an indication that it was a satirical […]
AFS Salutes Pioneering Golden Age Hollywood Director Dorothy Arzner with 3 Screenings
This month AFS Presents a series of three films directed by Dorothy Arzner, who made films in Hollywood during the studio system era as the only contracted female director since the silent era. Films screened will be DANCE, GIRL, DANCE (1940) on June 12 & 14; MERRILY WE GO TO HELL (1932) on June 19 […]
Weirdly Cool: A Guy Compressed 50 Different Westerns Into Single Frames
The photo above may look like a Mark Rothko painting, but it is actually a composite of every 10th second of John Ford’s classic western THE SEARCHERS (1956). All the Monument Valley sandstone formations, all the golden sunlight, richer than ever in Technicolor, and all the wide blue sky is there, as well as John […]
Richard Linklater on Eric Rohmer’s SUMMER (LE RAYON VERT)
In the next-to-last installment of the AFS Jewels In The Wasteland II program last week, AFS Artistic Director Richard Linklater joined Associate Artistic Director Holly Herrick to present and discuss Eric Rohmer’s 1986 film SUMMER (LE RAYON VERT). Linklater is a great admirer of Rohmer’s work and makes a number of excellent points in both […]
Watch This: Martin Scorsese’s 1963 Student Film
Talent is usually discernible from a long distance or with a small sample size. Even when a major director’s work is a little undercooked and not quite successful, we can see the makings of a real filmmaker. Here’s a short called WHAT’S A NICE GIRL LIKE YOU DOING IN A PLACE LIKE THIS? made by […]
Avant-Garde Resource Alert: A Free Repository of Decades of Underground Art Film & Video
For nearly 20 years the site UbuWeb has existed to promote and promulgate avant-garde poetry, music and video content. Founder Kenneth Goldsmith calls UbuWeb the “Robin Hood of the Avant-Garde.” Offerings are vast and eye-opening, a constant source of refreshment for those who like to be exposed to different ideas and systems of thought. The […]
A Brief History of the AFS Grant
On the eve of the 2015 AFS Grant deadline (Hurry up, if you haven’t submitted yet!), here is a very brief history of the AFS Grant from AFS Associate Artistic Director Holly Herrick. Filmmakers have always been at the center of the Austin Film Society. Founded and run by filmmakers from the very beginning, screenings […]
Richard Linklater on RIVER’S EDGE
Wow, our Jewels In The Wasteland II screening of RIVER’S EDGE (1986) was pretty terrific. It’s a movie that I had not seen since the ’80s and my memories were that it was relentlessly grim. It’s not. There’s so much humor in it. So many notes of truth. It’s a great film. Here’s AFS Artistic […]
Richard Linklater on ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA
Burt Young, who eats and talks at the same time better than any other performer. Of all the films that have played at this years Jewels In The Wasteland II series, I would have to say that ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA, the only real epic in the series, was the screening that knocked […]
Bizarre Movie Resource Alert: Every Film Richard Nixon Watched In The White House
In 2004 Mark Feeney published a very well-reviewed, scholarly book about President Richard M. Nixon’s relationship to the movies called NIXON AT THE MOVIES. Nixon’s multiple screenings of PATTON during crisis points of the Vietnam War have been documented, and Peter Bogdanovich has written of the President’s response to THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, but this […]
Richard Linklater on SID & NANCY
Somehow, our Jewels In The Wasteland II series is almost over. It seems like it just started. It’s been a really special year, and AFS Artistic Director Richard Linklater has pledged to do it again next year as well – next year the focus will be on the years 1987-1989. One of the ones we […]
5 Questions With New AFS Artist-Services Manager Iliana Sosa
The Austin Film Society has a new Artist Services Manager, Iliana Sosa. Artist Services is a particularly important part of what we do here at AFS every day, encompassing the AFS Grant, Works-In-Progress, Fiscal Sponsorships, Artist Development and much more. We’re happy to welcome Iliana, and we know that many of you will be working […]
