Slackery News Tidbits

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Slackery News Tidbits: February 12, 2013

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Here's the latest in Austin film news.

  • New York-based film distributor Kino Lorber has acquired the US rights to Austinite Andrew Bujalski's comedy Computer ChessIndieWire reports. Bujalski's feature revolves around chess players and computer programmers at a computer chess tournament in the 1980s. The Austin-shot film, which screened at Sundance 2013 and will screen at SXSW in March, is scheduled to be released by Kino Lorber late this year.
  • If you like short films and Mondo posters, head to City Hall. That's not a typo. The City of Austin will hold a free opening reception for the 2013 People's Gallery exhibition on Friday, February 22 from 6-9 pm at City Hall (301 W. Second). The reception will also screen short films from the city's Faces of Austin program.  The exhibition, which will run through mid-January 2014, features more than 100 pieces of artwork from Austin-area artists, galleries, museums and art organizations that will be displayed throughout the first three floors of City Hall. Special exhibits by Mondo Gallery and the Serie Project will also be included.
  • This year's SXSWedu Conference and Festival has announced a lineup of documentary films, including the Texas-shot The Revisionaries (Don's review), about the Texas State Board of Education and some of its members' attempts to drive science out of public school textbooks; and the partially Texas-shot Bully (Don's review), a controversial look into peer-to-peer bullying in American schools, according to The Austin Chronicle. All screenings will be held at Alamo Ritz March 4-7. Conference attendees will also have the chance to see the 10th Annual Texas High School Film Competition, as well as a secret screening. 

Slackery News Tidbits: February 4, 2013

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Here's the latest in Austin and Texas film news.

  • Will James Moore's and Jonathan Case's independent film Satellite of Love (Jette's review) will screen 7:30 pm on Wednesday in the AFS Screening Room. Austin filmmaker Moore will be in attendance for a Q&A moderated by our Slackerwood editor Jette Kernion. The Central Texas-shot film, about a love triangle between friends that unfolds over the course of a week, stars Zachary Knight (Happy Endings) and Janina Gavankar (True Blood). The movie previously screened locally at Austin Film Festival in 2012.
  • The American Library Association included Austin-based filmmaker Heather Courtney's Where Soldiers Come From (Jette's review) on its annual list of notable videos for adults. Courtney's documentary, about the lives of small-town childhood friends who enlist in the U.S. National Guard after graduating high school, is one of 15 outstanding titles released on video within the last two years that the committee felt was suitable for all libraries serving adults.
  • Calling all screenwriters: Austin Film Festival's 20th annual screenplay and teleplay competition is now open for submissions. The fest is introducing a new horror award this year.
  • AFF is also pleased to introduce its new film department director, Ryan Darbonne. The University of North Texas alumnus previously served as the co-founder/executive director of Cinema41, a community organization that screens independent films.

Slackery News Tidbits: January 28, 2013

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Here's the latest in Austin and Texas film news.

  • IndieWire reports that HBO has ordered a pilot from former Austinites Jay and Mark Duplass. The brothers will write, executive produce and direct the pilot for the half-hour comedy Togetherness, about two couples living in the same house. Although neither brother is set to appear on screen, Togetherness, if ordered as a series, will be their television project as writers and creators.
  • The Tom Hanks-produced film Parkland (Ryan's dispatch), about the going-ons at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, has started shooting in Austin, IndieWire reports. The film, adapted from author and former prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi's book Reclaiming History: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy, stars Paul Giamatti, Billy Bob Thornton and University of Texas alum Marcia Gay Harden, among others. Parkland is scheduled for a late 2013 release, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's death.
  • Despite ensuing controversy, MovieMaker Magazine has named Austin the best city for indie filmmakers, according to Joe M. O'Connell's blog. New York, Seattle, LA and Portland follow in the annual top 10 list, whose criteria includes "film community," "access to new film," "access to equipment," "cost of living" and "tax incentives." Last year Austin was ranked number two behind New Orleans, which dropped out of the top five this year.

Slackery News Tidbits: January 21, 2013

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Here's the latest Austin movie news.

  • Films such as Slacker and Grindhouse may have put the "third coast" on the map, but the Texas House and Senate have proposed to eliminate the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program budget, which provides financial incentives for movies, video games and advertising, according to Austin Movie Blog. The state legislative bodies budget proposals include $4.2 million for the Texas Film Commission and Texas Music Office, which would not include incentives, instead of the $39.2 million the Governor's office requested. If approved, the budget cuts could cause many productions to move out of Texas.
  • The "third coast" isn't down yet. Austin Film Festival is kicking off the return of its Audience Series with a screening of the Austin-made horror-comedy Saturday Morning Massacre (Jette's review) on Monday, February 4 at Alamo Drafthouse Village. The film, which screened at AFF 2012, is about a group of down-on-their-luck paranormal investigators and their beloved pooch, who embark on an adventure to debunk the ghost stories surrounding an abandoned mansion. 
  • Andrew Bujalski's latest film will put you in check. The critically acclaimed Austin-based filmmaker's movie Computer Chess, which is premiering at Sundance this week, will screen internationally at the Berlin International Film Festival (aka the Berlinale) next month. The Austin-shot Computer Chess revolves around chess players and computer programmers at a computer chess tournament in the 1980s. Bujalski, a 2011 Texas Filmmakers Production Fund recipient, raised more than $50,000 in crowdfunded donations through United States Artists for the film. (The filmmaker also has a small role in the above-mentioned Saturday Morning Massacre.)
  • The PBS show Independent Lens will broadcast two shows with Texas connections in the next few weeks. Tonight at 9 pm on KLRU, you can watch SXSW 2012 selection Beauty Is Embarrassing (Jette's review), the documentary about artist Wayne White. (If you are Texan, you will love White's LBJ mask.) And on Monday, January 28 at 9 pm, catch The Revisionaries (Don's review), which examines the Texas State Board of Education. Visit the Independent Lens web page for a full broadcast schedule.

Slackery News Tidbits: January 14, 2013

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Here's the latest in Austin film news.

  • Austin-based producer Cori Shephard Stern has received an Academy Award nomination for the documentary short Open Heart, according to The Austin Chronicle. Set in Rwanda, Open Heart follows eight children afflicted with rheumatic heart disease, and their journey to Sudan and the Salaam Centre for Cardiac Surgery. Stern's next project, the feature film Warm Bodies, about a zombie who falls in love with the girlfriend of one of his victims, opens in the U.S. on February 1.
  • Despite Texan Matthew McConaughey's Oscar snub, he received a Best Supporting Actor award from The National Society of Film Critics last week for his work in Richard Linklater's dark comedy Bernie (Don's review), and Steven Soderbergh's dramedy Magic Mike (Don's review).
  • Austin Film Festival has announced its first round of 2013 panelists. The only Texas-connected panelist so far is Alvaro Rodriguez (Machete). Other speakers include Jim Uhls (Fight Club), Dan Sterling (producer of Girls), John August (Frankenweenie) and Rick Dugdale of Enderby Entertainment, among others, are scheduled to speak at the 20th annual festival, running from October 24-31.
  • The historic New Mission Theater in San Francisco, which has been closed since 1993, has been approved for a renovation and remodel into a five-screen Alamo Drafthouse, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The San Francisco City Planning Committee gave final approval last week to the $10 million deal for the 1916 theater. Work is scheduled to begin this summer.

Slackery News Tidbits: January 7, 2013

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Here's the latest Austin film news. 

  • Kicking off the new year, AGLIFF-Polari is teaming up with Queer Cinema for a Superhero Spectacular on Saturday, January 26 at 8 pm. Austin celebrity host Rebecca Havemeyer and a lineup of queer superhero talent will present the Indonesian film Madame X, about a transgender hairdresser who moonlights as a superhero, with pre-show entertainment and party following the screening.
  • For a look back at Austin film in 2012, check out Austin American-Statesman reporter Matthew Odam's retrospective for the Austin American-Statesman.
  • The Austin-shot film Holy Hell (our review), which premiered at the 2009 Austin Film Festival, will be the first movie to premiere on the iPad. The comedy, about a strapped-for-cash church whose parishioners decide to make a horror movie to raise the necessary funds, will be free to download on Friday and Saturday at the iTunes store.

Slackery News Tidbits, December 26

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Here's the latest Austin and Texas film news.

Slackery News Tidbits, December 17

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Here's the latest Austin film news.

  • Take a trip back in time with the screening of Amos Poe's film Unmade Beds at 7 pm on Wednesday in the Austin Film Society Screening Room. It's 1976, New York City, and "Rico," a photographer, is searching for reality down the barrel of his camera lens to fulfill his innermost fantasies in this No Wave classic, starring Debbie "Blondie" Harry
  • The Austin documentary Trash Dance, which premiered at SXSW 2012 (Mike's review), is up for a Cinema Eye audience award ... and you can vote for it online right now. The film is about choreographer Allison Orr's project to create a "dance" performance based around Austin Department of Solid Waste staff and vehicles. The results will be announced at Cinema Eye's awards ceremony on January 9.
  • The 2013 Sundance Film Festival has added a few more features to its lineup ... including El Mariachi, Robert Rodriguez's first feature from 1992. The movie joins a long list of features and shorts with Texas connections screening at the Park City festival next month.
  • Congratulations to Austin Film Festival 2010 Screenplay Finalist Chris Cantwell, whose script Halt & Catch Fire has been ordered by AMC as one of four projects to get the pilot greenlight. The AFF newsletter reports that filming is scheduled to begin next year. The drama unfolds during the personal computer boom of the early 1980s in Texas.

Slackery News Tidbits, December 10

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Here's the latest in Austin and Texas film news.

  • Former Austinite Elizabeth Mims' film Only the Young made the National Board of Review's Top 5 Documentaries, IndieWire reports. Austinite Richard Linklater's Bernie and Texas native Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom were on  the group's Top 10 Independent Films.
  • In distribution news, Tribeca Films has acquired the North American rights to sometimes-Austinite actor/filmmaker Alex Karpovsky's films Rubberneck and Red Flag, with plans to release both in select theatrical and VOD platforms this February.
  • Following the success of Boneboys, Texas filmmakers Duane Graves and Justin Meeks are back in the saddle again with a dark Western, Red on Yella, Kill a Fella, according to The Austin Chronicle. Joe O'Connell visited and took photos on the film's set. The six-week shoot took place at various locations in Texas, including the Northeast Austin living history site Pioneer Farms. Inspired by true events, the film follows an outlaw gang in 1900 who travel from western Texas to the Gulf of Mexico in search of lost treasure. But the adventure is cut short when something mysterious starts killing the men one by one.
  • Congrats to former Austinite and DFW-area resident, David Lowery, who has been named one of Variety's 10 Directors to Watch, the entertainment-trade magazine reports. Lowery's latest feature film, Ain't Them Bodies Saints, will screen in the dramatic competition at next month's Sundance Film Festival. You can watch his previous feature, St. Nick, for free online until December 13.

Slackery News Tidbits, December 3

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Here's the latest in Austin and Texas film news. 

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