Special Screenings and Events

Salvage Vanguard Theater's Micro-Cinema

Salvage VanguardSalvage Vanguard Theater (2803 E. Manor Rd) is hosting screenings of local films over the next three nights, including work from Kat Candler and P.J. Raval.

Each night will have two screenings, with Jumping Off Bridges (which played SXSW 2006) at 7 pm, screening with Candler's short, Quarter to Noon. The 9 pm show will be "Fusion Shorts", including Polar Ops, and "a cinematic carousel of entertainment brought to you by the collaborative efforts of filmmaker P.J. Raval and artistic terrorist Paul Soileau."

Soileau will perform live with the films on Sunday night, with Candler doing live commentary on Monday. Tickets for one screening are only $5, and $8 for both bills.

Check the Salvage Vanguard Theater site for more information.

Diary of a BNAT Survivor, Part Two

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When we last left my BNAT Diary, I had returned to Metropolis with the loud crazy 1980s soundtrack, feeling hungry but not too tired.

12:05 am: For reasons I cannot understand now, I order a steak sandwich. At midnight. I forgot that I'm not the kind of person who can munch steak sandwiches and fries with impunity in the middle of the night. Fortunately I am the kind of person who keeps antacids in her purse. (Note to Alamo: It would be really super-cool to offer cold cereal and milk after, say, 10 pm.)

12:15 am: Metropolis ends and Harry compares False Evil Maria to Sarah Palin. "So far this BNAT seems fairly rebellious." (This turns out to be a hint.)

Diary of a Butt-Numb-a-Thon Survivor, Part One

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Once again, I survived the 24-hour-long movie marathon known as Butt-Numb-a-Thon, earlier this month. I wrote a lovely news-like article about BNAT for The Circuit, Variety's film-festival blog. If you want to find out which films were shown, that's the place to look. But there are some details that The Circuit readers probably would rather not know, or don't care about.

This year I decided to take notes on BNAT in diary form. Here are the scribbles from my notebook, with some enhancements. I'm also including photos -- you can't take photos at BNAT, so I used photos taken earlier that morning, or used stills from the movies shown.

11:00 am: Arrive at Alamo on South Lamar. The Alamo folks have set up a registration/pick up/standby area in one of the vacant stores on the other end of the strip mall. I get my badge and giant swag bags, then run back to the car to store everything. Back at the car, I grab a blanket roll and an extra sweater.

KUT Airing Highlights of John Pierson's UT Master Classes

You know, if I wait around long enough, eventually my laziness saves me time and energy. I attended John Pierson's Master Classes at UT earlier this year -- you remember me sharing photos from the Steve Buscemi class. I had an entry started here on Slackerwood about the last class of the year, with South Park co-creator Matt Stone. But I never had time to write up my notes on the actual session -- all I had were links to the photos. (Procrastinator. Yep. That's me.)

Now KUT is saving my butt and letting me share my favorite photo (above) from the class with Matt Stone. The local radio station will start airing the show "Master Class with John Pierson," in which each class is pared down to its best 30 minutes and aired for your enjoyment. The shows will air monthly on Sundays at 11 am as part of KUT's "Best of Public Radio" programming, starting on June 29.

Here's the schedule:

June 29: Steve Buscemi, David Simon
July 27: Lauren Zalaznick, Matt Stone
August 31: Charles Burnett, Chris Smith

The Austin Chronicle has an article with additional info about the show, and the Statesman has more details too. But I think I've got the best photo of John Pierson and Matt Stone. On the other hand, I wish I took notes like Austin Kleon, because his doodles and observations from the Matt Stone class are amazing.

One more photo after the jump, because I love taking pictures in the ACL studio and will be sad when it moves off-campus (I used to work as an intern for ACL, but that's a story for another day).

BLOOD CAR takes another whack at Austin

BloodCarOne of my favorite films from the 2007 Austin Film Festival, Blood Car, returns to Austin for an encore screening at the Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek courtesy of AFF. If your butt isn't planted in a seat at the Lake Creek tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. you're going to be sorry. Really, really sorry.

In the near future gas prices have reached astronomical highs nearing $40 a gallon. One man, Archie Andrews, an environmentalist elementary school teacher, is trying to discover an alternate fuel source. While experimenting with wheat grass, Archie accidentally stumbles upon a solution. That solution turns out to be blood. HUMAN BLOOD!

The screening is free for members and $4 to the general public. It may be the best $4 you ever spend at the movie theater. Would I lie about a film named Blood Car?

Find out more at the AFF web site.

John C. Reilly Rocks Stubbs BBQ as Dewey Cox from 'Walk Hard'

Walk HardWoe be unto you, comedy lovers, if you were not Austin Film Festival members this last week and you therefore missed the Festival's sneak preview of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and the subsequent concert by the title character himself.

Director Jake Kasdan (who co-wrote the film with Judd Apatow) showed up at the Highland Galaxy 10 Theaters to introduce the film, which is even more hilarious than one could have hoped. I enjoyed Knocked Up and Superbad, but this is a high point for the Apatow collective, due in no small part to a script that never lets up and of course to the performance of John C. Reilly. Reilly has been a powerful supporting character (Talladega Nights, Tenacious D) until this point but given center stage he is stunningly, achingly funny.

The story is a satiric biopic of a moronic rock star with a tragic past, a way with lyrics, and the inability to say no to drugs or sex. Trying desperately to make up for the accidental death of his talented brother, Dewey strikes out into the world to make something of his musical career. Cox's first wife, Edith (Kristen Wiig), believes in him but thinks he's destined to fail (as she puts it). Dewey finds solace in drugs and in the arms of Darlene (a vamped-up Jenna Fischer, no trace of "Pam" here), a new backup singer. We follow Dewey through the decades of his life and his eventual realization of his life's true purpose. (More about the film and some concert video after the jump.)

See 'What Would Jesus Buy' Tonight for Only $5

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The documentary What Would Jesus Buy? had its world premiere earlier this year at SXSW. I am still regretting that I didn't get a chance to see the mo­vie in March. The film's subject, Reverend Billy, was at SXSW with his Church of Stop Shopping Choir, and apparently they were quite the hit. YouTube has a clip of Rev. Billy holding an impromptu protest at/around the Austin Convention Center during the festival. Morgan Spurlock's distribution company picked up the rights to the anti-consumer-greed film, and it's currently getting a limited theatrical release.

What Would Jesus Buy? returns to Austin this weekend for a run at the Arbor Great Hills, just in time to fight the frenzied shopping characteristic of the Christmas season. The Arbor has teamed up with Responsible Growth for Northcross (RG4N) to offer some special screenings and discounts as part of RG4N's fundraising efforts. Tonight (Friday), you can see the 7:30 pm screening of the doc for only $5 admission, with proceeds going to R­G4N. You also can visit the RG4N website for a coupon that gets you a discounted admission to the movie at any screening this weekend. RG4N has all the details here.

[Full disclosure: My husband is on the board of RG4N and we live in walking distance of the proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter development at Northcross.]­

Film Actions VI

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Film Actions VI poster­I'm not sure I understand what this is, but it's free, outdoors, involves music and sounds mega freaky—­so it's got to be worth a look.

Experimental film artist Luke Savisky will present "Film Actions VI". Includes music by Graham Reynolds. It will be outdoors at Woolridge Square Park on Friday, Oct 26 at 8pm.

­Here is a writeup I found on the Austin Parks Foundation calendar:

On Friday, Octob­er 26, 2007, experimental film artist Luke Savisky will bring Wooldridge Square alive with projected film images and lighting accompanied by live music from composer Graham Reynolds and recorded music by Stars of the Lid. Using more than twelve projectors, Savisky will float a montage of images on to existing trees and translucent scrims placed around the park’s gazebo. Savisky will construct a non-traditional screen made of fog with intermittent sprays of water and projected imagery from Barton Springs and other natural areas of Austin. Transposed recorded music by Stars of Lid will interchange with live music and original compostions by award-winning composer Graham Reynolds and the Tosca String Quartet. This project is a large scale film projection installation/performance and is the latest in Savisky's series of "Film Actions" that have been performed at The Sundance Film Festival and The Dallas Museum of Art. The event will involve 35mm film, 16mm film and digital video installations in and around the grounds of Wooldridge Square involving the natural features of the park. The event is FREE to the community. Bring blankets and chairs for seating. A second performance by Luke Savisky is scheduled for Monday, December 31 as part of H-E-B Presents First Night Austin 2008.

Austin Wind Symphony Presents "Creature Features"

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picIf you're looking for something truly unusual to do this Friday night, get yourself down to the Bethany Lutheran Church in South Austin at 8 p.m. for the Austin Wind Symphony's presentation of "Creature Features - A Concert Dedicated to Hollywood's Greatest Creatures." The concert plays it fast and loose with the definition of a "creature feature" (Batman? Star Wars? Psycho?) but you really can't complain about film scores performed live. Actual critter movies featured in the program include:

King Kong vs Godzilla (!)

Jurassic Park

Gremlins

Jaws

Visit the Austin Wind Symphony's web site for more info.

[Via Sci-Fi Japan.]

Star Trek: "The Menagerie" in HD at Select Local Theaters on 11/13

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I think this one pretty much speaks for itself -- either you're Trekkie enough to be into this or you're not, so I'll just quote the press release. Local theaters participating include the Metropolitan 14 on the South side, the Gateway 16 on the North, and the Cinemark way up in Round Rock.

Boldly go where no man has gone before to see two of the most famous "Star Trek: The Original Series" episodes – your local movie theatre! "Star Trek: The Original Series" will be beamed onto the big screen for only one night in select movie theatres nationwide on Tuesday, Nov. 13th at 7:30PM (local). This event features the original Season 1 episodes "The Menagerie" Part 1 and 2, digitally re-mastered in High-Definition and Cinema Surround Sound. Also included is greeting from creator Gene Roddenberry’s son, Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry and an exclusive 30-minute behind-the-scenes look at how the episodes were digitally re-mastered.

Read the full details after the jump.

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