Watch This: Richard Linklater on STRANGER THAN PARADISE
Here’s the video of the introduction and discussions from the Richard Linklater programmed STRANGER THAN PARADISE screening on March 25. The Jewels In The Wasteland II series continues this week with two shows of BLUE VELVET – the Wednesday show will have a video introduction from Linklater (he will be absent due to an unavoidable […]
Filmmaking Advice From a Guy You Should Listen To: Frank Capra
Frank Capra is one of the most beloved old-Hollywood figures. His films have become part of the fabric of our lives as Americans. IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE is a cultural myth we revisit again and again and MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON is invoked during election cycles as a barometer of how far we as […]
Happy 78th Birthday Warren Beatty
As an actor, producer, director and all-around creative force in Hollywood, Warren Beatty is justly celebrated, but probably not enough. BONNIE & CLYDE, for instance, which more than any other movie, kicked off the New Hollywood era, would probably have been a dreadful, forgettable formula picture without his work as producer and star. What other […]
Watch This: Video From the Moving and Funny L.M. Kit Carson Tribute Panel at AFS
On March 11 we were honored to host a special screening of DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY in memorial tribute to L.M. Kit Carson who died on October 20 of last year. Carson, who acted (brilliantly) in Jim McBride’s seminal underground classic as the titular character, also wrote, produced and directed many films of his own and […]
Working To Code: The Educational and Industrial Cinema of Tom Sachs
This SXSW it happened that I was remarking over lunch on the bizarre character of “space nuts”, people who are obsessed with NASA and who, in Texas anyway, tend to be very military, conservative types. Most space documentaries are equally buttoned down, which struck me as a trifle incongruous. Then a friend recommended that I […]
Ruben Östlund in Conversation at the Walker Arts Center
We’ve discussed filmmaker Ruben Östlund in these pages before. His film FORCE MAJEURE was one of the big surprises of the past year and the touring retrospective of his earlier work, which AFS presented here in Austin showed the evolution of a major filmmaking vision. The Östlund retrospective is now over but this conversation between […]
Austin’s Own Vulcan Video Has a New Series of Commercials Starring Matthew McConaughey and Jimmy Kimmel!?
The popular late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live is in town for SXSW. Last night they did a “giving back” bit, in which they helped a local business make a TV commercial. The local business they chose was the great Vulcan Video which, along with I Luv Video, helps to make Austin the film […]
‘Made In Texas’ is Back: Jonathan Demme and Louis Black’s Shot Heard Round the Film World
For most of the 20th century, Texas had a mostly-pretty-well deserved reputation nationally as a cultural wasteland. There were bright spots of course but the image of the Texan that prevailed for most Americans was of a cowboy in overstuffed western clothes talking in a loud voice about the many wonders and natural advantages of […]
Bizarro Treasures from the Texas Archive Of The Moving Image Online Video Collection
The TAMI (Texas Archive Of The Moving Image) site is a great place to tumble through the historical looking glass into Texas History both official (LBJ footage, news coverage from Texas cities, etc.) and also insane home movies, industrial films, commercials and other oddball time capsules. I have collected a few of my favorite hits from TAMI […]
Albert Maysles and the Greatest Generation of Documentarians
Albert Maysles died Thursday at age 88. He was a hugely important member of what we might characterize as the greatest generation of American documentarians – the group who took handheld and shoulder-mounted 16mm cameras, previously used almost exclusively for TV news reportage, and used them to create a new style of documentary. Maysles’ first […]
Stressful Day? Here Are 8 Pictures of Audrey Hepburn With Her Pet Deer
The Austin Film Society offices are abuzz with activity in preparation for the Texas Film Awards and the Texas Party next week. It’s a huge endeavor with major guests, many attendees, an enormous stage set-up and international press coverage. It’s a lot of fun and a lot of work. There are schedules to be made, lights […]
Photographer George Hurrell & The Art Of Hollywood Glamour
Bette Davis The work of photographer George Hurrell today epitomizes what we think of as Hollywood glamour. Even more than the films themselves, Hurrell’s portraits, which were sent out en masse to theaters, fan magazines and fans, helped to create a mythos of gods and goddesses, more real than real and more perfect than perfection. […]
