April 2009

This year, Cine Las Americas is starting a guest country retrospective and selected Chile as the inaugural guest country. Focusing on Chilean cinema from 1994-2004, the selection is as diverse as the rest of the festival's programming.

After the 17-year reign of General Augusto Pinochet, democracy was restored to Chile in 1990. The Pinochet era consisted of notorious oppression, censorship and torture. It's not surprising that post-Pinochet Chilean cinema reflects the context of the consequences of their recent history, as seen in Amnesia, directed by Gonzalo Justiniano in 1994.

Written by Justiniano and Gustavo Frias, Amnesia starts as a serious drama, but smoothly transitions into an existential exercise of torturer versus tortured, and to what lengths someone would, or should, go to avenge themselves, and forgive those who trespass against them.

Normally when the word "family" is used to describe a film, it's used to describe a target audience that includes small audiences. At Cine Las Americas, it means the story focuses on a family, often with mature themes.

Two of the strongest films in the narrative feature lineup include Postales de Leningrado (Postcards from Leningrad) (dir. Mariana Rondon, Venezuela) and Cinco dias sin Nora (Nora's Will) (dir. Mariana Chenillo, Mexico), both of which are family themed, but which deal with family matters quite differently.

Postales de Leningrado is a whimsical interpretation of the darker consequences of living in interesting times, particularly 1960s Latin America and the era of rebels versus regimes. Instead of focusing on lovers, friends, or enemies, writer/director Rondon's story is told by a young girl and focuses on her cousin and her parents. The film could easily be a chaotic melange of first person, third person, animation and still images both past and present. However, the narration helps makes it an endearing tale that manages not to break your heart while telling heartbreaking stories.

It's day three of Cine Las Americas, and the start of the weekend. If you're considering seeing films this weekend, why not check out the festival? This weekend alone brings us 74 films representing 14 out of 18 countries, and a lot of different genres, so there's something for everyone.

If you want to get your horror on, there's Sangre eterna (Eternal Blood), one of the Chile retrospective films. The film (pictured at right) includes an abandoned house, vampires and a character named Dahmer. Sangre eterna is playing Saturday at Regal Metropolitan at 11:59 pm.

Are veterans' affairs important to you? Check out Animas perdidas (Lost Souls) tonight at 7 pm at the MACC. The film is free and the filmmaker will be there.

I'm still working on an article about today's signing of the film-incentives bill, which took place at Troublemaker Studios. But while I'm slaving away, here's a photo of Robert Rodriguez taken at the event. I really like this one. I've got more good photos that I'll post with the article.

Cine Las Americas opened with All Inclusive and an appreciative audience. While many filmmakers are in town for the fest, All Inclusive, picked up by Lionsgate last year, is opening in Mexico and the press junket is underway there.

Director Rodrigo Ortuzar's drama focuses on a family on vacation at an all-inclusive resort during hurricane season. The approaching hurricane parallels the emotional tempests each family member keeps hidden from the others, reaching the predictable climax at the height of the storm. That's not to say it's not an enjoyable film; it balances serious and silly quite well. It also uses closeups on faces extremely well, with some very memorable images. The cast will probably seem familiar to mainstream film audiences; lead Jesus Ochoa has been a featured actor in Quantum of Solace and Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Martha Higareda, who played the sulky Camila, was in Street Kings and will appear in the upcoming sequel to Smoking Aces.

As previously mentioned, the Texas legislature recently passed HB873, a bill about moving-image incentives. This bill improves the previous state law about incentives for filming in Texas.

On Thursday, April 23, Governor Rick Perry will sign the bill into law at 10:30 am at Troublemaker Studios (Studio B, 4900 Old Manor Road). We received this news from an email that TXMPA sent to their mailing list; check with them for more information about the signing ceremony, which appears to be open to the public.

I don't know how I missed this earlier, but the Cine Las Americas lineup this year includes a popular film from Fantastic Fest, Santos. The Chilean movie is about a comic-book artist who suddenly discovers that the fantasy superhero world he's been writing about may actually be real. It's very silly and full of dorky jokes, and I got a kick out of it. I wasn't the only one -- Santos won a Special Jury Award for originality and vision at Fantastic Fest.

The above photo is from the Q&A after the film, in which writer-director Nicolas Lopez chatted with Alamo Drafthouse co-founder Karrie League. I don't have any notes from that Q&A, but check out Kevin Kelly's interview with Lopez from SpoutBlog.

Elizabeth Avellan was one of the film's producers -- I believe Troublemaker Studios helped out with some of the special effects. You might remember that Avellan was at the Fantastic Fest awards ceremony and even chugged a beer.

Santos will play Cine Las Americas on Tuesday, April 28 at 7 pm at Alamo Ritz. You can buy tickets or a fest pass from the Cine Las Americas website.

Unless you're completely disconnected from the Internet, in which case you're not reading this, you're probably aware of the contest to bring the X-Men Origins: Wolverine premiere to your city.

Austin has been doing very well in the votes, and the Twittersphere has exploded with tweets encouraging voting, along with Facebook and blogs. As of last night, Austin was ranked #4, but the top city information seems to have disappeared from the site.

There is a petition drive at The University of Texas today from noon until 5 pm, being run by the Texas Student TV group. They're going to give away screening passes and coupons as well.

And to make things really interesting, there is going to be some sort of "message" from Hugh Jackman delivered today around noon, around downtown. If you're in the area and see it, we'd love to hear from you.

If you're interested in seeing Austin host yet another world premiere, click on the petition link to vote, or the Texas Student TV group link on where to vote in person.

EDIT: Apparently the message was a plane with the banner to go vote at the site. Not all that exciting, and apparently not low enough for some people to make out the message. But the thought counts.

In 2006, local actor/author/interesting person Turk Pipkin released his first feature-length film, the documentary Nobelity. You can read my Cinematical review here. In the film, Pipkin interviewed Nobel Prize winners about how we can make the world a better place. Turk and Christy Pipkin then established The Nobelity Project, a non-profit organization, to promote ideas from the film about working to solve global problems. They worked with schools and community groups to host do-it-yourself Nobelity screenings around the country, with proceeds funding The Nobelity Project.

Three years later, Turk Pipkin is premiering a follow-up film to Nobelity, One Peace at a Time. As in the previous documentary, Pipkin travels around the world ... this time, he talks with various people who are helping to ensure basic human rights for children, and promotes their efforts. The film also includes Willie Nelson, which should automatically be a draw for many Austinites. As with the first film, this is part of The Nobelity Project and will probably be distributed in the same way.

One Peace at a Time will premiere in Austin on Tuesday, April 14 at the Paramount. You can buy tickets to just the film, or get special tickets that also include a reception beforehand for some of the activists in the film.

You can watch the first 10 minutes of One Peace at a Time on The Nobelity Blog.

The Cine Las Americas International Film Festival has just announced most of its 2009 festival lineup, including the opening and closing-night films.

The fest opens on Wednesday, April 22 at the Paramount with the film All Inclusive (Todo Incluido), which is about a Chilean-Mexican family taking a summer vacation together.

Tear This Heart Out (Arrancame La Vida) closes Cine Las Americas on April 30 at Alamo South. The film is about a young woman fighting for her freedom in post-revolutionary Mexico.

The Least of These, the documentary that played SXSW about immigrant families at the Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, is the only Austin-related film I know that's playing at Cine Las Americas. I'm sure there are more in the lineup that I don't realize have Austin connections ... if you know of any, please share that info in the comments.

Cine Las Americas takes place from April 22-30 at several Austin venues, including the Paramount, Alamo South, Alamo Village, Regal Metropolitan, and the Mexican American Cultural Center. A full schedule is expected soon. You can buy tickets for individual films, or a film pass for all events and parties for $70.

Catching up after SXSW. Tax prep. Allergies. Excuses, excuses. At last, I am going to post some of my favorite photos from the Texas Film Hall of Fame awards. I've already published a photo gallery from the event over at Cinematical, but I didn't include photos of people who are well known locally. Plus, I have to say I prefer an essay format over a gallery, because then I can share stories as well as photos.

The event started with a red carpet. At the Texas Film Hall of Fame awards, everyone walks through the red carpet to enter the event. This is a lot of fun for me because I can take photos of various friends and colleagues (if they'll stand still long enough), as well as any interesting people who are not necessarily honorees that evening. The red carpet was very long this year and structured beautifully so we weren't all fighting one another for space. Plus, I was right next to Stephanie Beasley from Austinist and a friendly photographer from Austin Monthly and between the three of us, we figured out who exactly we were taking pictures of. (They helped me with the Friday Night Lights cast; I helped identify "that guy who looks kind of like Steven Spielberg" as Tobe Hooper.)

One of the more memorable films of SXSW 2008 was The Toe Tactic, which filmmaker (and animator) Emily Hubley is bringing back to Austin for a series of special screenings cosponsored by Austin Film Society.

It's a little film that takes a low concept and does it very, very well, mixing live action and animation, personal myth and emotion. The story is simple; Mona is mourning her father, and trying to find her lost wallet. Anyone who's ever felt there are forces meddling in their lives will sympathize, as Mona has a bunch of poker playing cartoon dogs meddling in her life.

It's a very poetic story; one friend disliked it for that reason, but that's what made me really enjoy this film last year. I highly recommend checking it out, as director Emily Hubley will be in attendance at the 4/5 and 4/6 screenings; it will also screen on 4/13. More information at the Austin Film Society website.