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Shameless self-promotion, you gotta love it. But if you want to get a better impression of SXSW than what you're reading here ... okay, it's still shameless self-promotion. Here's a list of the movie reviews and other features I wrote for Cinematical during SXSW this year:

If you're a filmmaker who is bringing a movie to South by Southwest (or any festival) this year, you really ought to read Film Festival Secrets, the website run by frequent Slackerwood contributor Chris Holland. Over the past week, Chris has posted a three-part series of helpful hints that are especially geared toward SXSW.

• Part One focuses on last-minute preparation, and although I'm not a filmmaker I wish I'd read it earlier, because I completely forgot that I wanted a new set of business cards. (And I saw a really snazzy Moo card for Tulia, Texas this week that made me envious.)
• Part Two offers good advice on improving your film's website, which I personally cannot agree with enough. It drives me crazy when I want to write about your film and I can't find any info or stills online. So then I pick another movie's stills to use instead. Get the hint?
• Part Three tells you what to do before you leave for Austin, so go read it right now, before you get on the plane or in the car. Go! Now! He also links to some good guides to local restaurants, which I found helpful myself because I don't eat in that part of downtown very often.

Chris is also planning a Part Four, so keep an eye on his site this week.

In case you're not getting enough Austin film blogging here at Slackerwood, I thought I'd share some of my favorite recent photos and blog entries from other websites, all related to local movie stuff in one way or another.

• Slackerwood contributor Chris Holland took some excellent photos during opening night at the Alamo Ritz. I'm having severe camera envy right now -- my delightfully small camera is incapable of taking good photos in movie theaters. The photo with the confetti is amazing.
• Sarah (aka "sarah pants," "Sarah who's dating Henri," and "Sarah who's on a poster in my office for reasons too complicated to explain here") has blogged about Alamo's Blazing Saddles BBQ Tour. She also has a Flickr set from the event, as well as ­photos from Alamo's opening night -- I get the impression from these sets that she is fond of mac and cheese.
• One more Flickr set from the Alamo Ritz opening? Please? This one's from Wiley Wiggins and features­ action photos of the fighting gorillas. (A brief aside: I feel like I'm always linking to photos of one Alamo event or another. I would love to feature photos from other local theaters, but apart from the occasional Paramount premiere, I can't find any online. If I'm missing something, please comment with a link.)

A few bits and pieces of news from around the web:

• The Paramount remembers the late Lady Bird Johnson, and Metroblogging Austin captures a photo. Wish I'd seen that in person.
• Austin Movie Blog reminds us that the SXSW Film Conference is looking for panel ideas for 2008.
• Austin School of Film is holding a free Open Screen Night on Sunday -- details are available on Austinist.
• Austin's Fantastic Fest has joined a new alliance of American film fests devoted to sf/fantasy/horror/animation. I love Fantastic Fest and can't wait until late September.
• Free online movie: The documentary Summercamp! from Austin filmmaker Bradley Beesley and Sarah Price, which I reviewed when it premiered at SXSW in 2006. If you like what you see online and want a higher-quality copy, you can buy the DVD. (via Cinematical)

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Last updated at 8:00 am CST, July 2, with still more links about the Last Night at Alamo events (after the jump).

Jette Kernion of Slackerwood and Blake Ethridge of Cinema is Dope are hosting the Alamo Downtown Blog-a-Thon.­

Alamo Drafthouse Downtown on Colorado St. will be closing closed its doors after a final triple-feature on June 27. The movie theater will be moving to Sixth Street in the newly renovated Ritz Theater. While we're looking forward to the new digs, we want to remember and celebrate the old Alamo Drafthouse that we've been visiting for the past 10 years.

We're posting your favorite stories, memories, or links to ph­otos from Alamo Downtown. If you have a blog, post an entry about Alamo Downtown to your website today. Send the link to jette [at] celluloideyes [dot] com, or post the link in the comments­ section of this blog entry. (Please make sure the entry isn't password-protected or friends-only, so everyone who visits can read it.) The list of links to participating websites is at the end of this entry, and will be updated periodically today.

If you don't have a blog or website, post your favorite Alamo memory or story in the comments section of this entry. Comments are moderated but I will be reading and approving them all day long. If you have a Flickr account and pictures of Alamo you want to share, you can tag them "alamoblogathon".

News 8 Austin's report on the last night at Alamo included Tim League's reaction to our blog-a-thon.

Note: If you have any photos or video from Alamo Drafthouse or Rolling Roadshow that you'd like to share, drop a line to lastnight [at] originalalamo [dot] com. ­Alamo is putting together a time capsule/documentary and is looking for more material to include.

Here are the Alamo stories we've received so far:

• ­Blake's Alamo Downtown Blog-a-Thon Entry and Alamo Downtown Part Deux from Blake Ethridge of Cinema is Dope
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• The little church on Colorado from Jette of Slackerwood­
• An Alamo story 40 years in the making from Nick Robinson
• My Last Night at the Downtown Alamo from Ben Combee at The Life Unwired
• Goodbye, Alamo Drafthouse Downtown from Headquarters 10
• Micah's Memories of the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown from Micah at Reel Distraction
• Niblog is Goblin Spelled Backwards from Michael A. Domangue of Musings from Austin, TX
• El Alamo from Monica of The Monica Show
• Alamo Drafthouse Downtown from Kramer Wetzel of Astrofish.net
• Fabulous Flickr set of Alamo Downtown, including photos of a bunch of recent movie events, from fuzuoko­
• All Flickr photos tagged with "alamoblogathon" (currently at 16 pages)
• What a long, strange trip it was from Wetwired
• Alamo Downtown, where I grew up in Austin from The Reviewer
• The last sing-along at the original Alamo from poshdeluxe­
• Brian's Alamo Downtown Memories from Brian at Reel Distraction
• A few favorite memories from Chale Nafus, Director of Programm­ing, Austin Film Society
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• Fassbinder, the Village­ & ­QT Fest from Rebecca Campbell, Executive Director of Austin Film Society
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• True Love at the Alamo from Chip at It's Just This Chromium Switch Here
• Coffee and Cigarettes at the Alamo from Debbie Snax at A Geek of Small Consequence­­
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• Remembering the Alamo from smallerdemon­
• Top Five Memories of the Original Downtown Alamo Drafthouse from Karin Kathode at Hanging Fire­
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• Last Night at the Alamo from Owen Egerton­
• The Alamo is (about to be) dead ... Long Live the Alamo Drafthouse from Jenn at Musings of an Info-Geek
• Alamo Memories from Ant Timpson
• Favorite Alamo Moments from Rodney at Aphanisis
• Amazing panoramic photos of a "virtual visit" to Alamo Downtown from David Hill [beware, you may end up playing with this for hours] 
• The battle's done, and we kind of won from Michael A. at No, no, no, said Chicken-licken
• 11/25/06, or how the Alamo Drafthouse changed my life from Tsarina at The past is just the future with the lights on.
• A Decade of Delight: Alamo Downtown Closes at Austinist
• The Daily Texan interviews Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, who shares his fondest Alamo Downtown memories.

Last week, I posted a news item at Cinematical about the Snakes on a Day event in Austin. Shannon McCormick announced his intention to watch the movie continually for 24 hours, and invited others to join him in this crazy film marathon.

I didn't realize until this morning that Shannon is liveblogging the event, as much as possible, on the Snakes on a Day site. Not only that, but Brian of Brian's Movie Blog (aka "that guy I see at damn near every Alamo event I go to") is joining Shannon and also liveblogging the event. According to Brian, there are about a dozen people taking the Snakes on a Day challenge, and they had the theater to themselves overnight between the public screenings.

Go read the liveblogging, it's a hoot. My guess is that Brian will make it through all 24 hours -- I've seen him pull all-nighters at Alamo and QT Fest movie marathons, and he's done the Butt-Numb-a-Thon a few times, so he's in good shape for that kind of event. (Me, I'd try BNAT once, but I can't imagine watching the same film for 24 hours in a theater, even if food is available.)

One more SoaP note: this morning's edition of the Austin American-Statesman included a color cut-out of a paper airplane that you can assemble. I don't need to tell you that the paper airplane has snakes on it. You can find and print an electronic version here.

UPDATE: Micah at Dumb Distraction is posting a cleaned-up version of Brian's liveblogging attempt, which is slightly easier to read. (By "cleaned up" I mean that he's edited punctuation and marked which post is for which screening, not that he's eliminated any profanity.)

Lauren at Metroblogging Austin recently posted an upbeat story about her experience at last week's Nueva Onda Movie Night. I'm happy she had a good time ... because I'm on the programming committee for the monthly outdoor screenings.

Naturally, I want to encourage all of you to go to Nueva Onda's movie nights, which are on the second Wednesday of each month, starting around 8 pm (or a little later, whenever it gets dark enough). Admission is free. You can order giant plates of nachos or enchiladas, have some beer, and enjoy a variety of short narrative and documentary films (or the occasional feature). Get there a little early if you want a good table where you can eat and watch the movies, or else you can move your chair when the movies begin. You can flicks [at] nuevaaustin [dot] com to find out in advance about the film lineup for the next month's screening.

Also, if you are a filmmaker and you have some short films or features stashed away, why not submit them to Nueva Onda for consideration? jette [at] celluloideyes [dot] com for more information about where to send a copy of the film, etc. You don't have to live in Austin to submit a film -- last week's theme was "World Short Films."

I'm a little envious of Kier-La Janisse, one of the programmers at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown, even though I've never met her. Wouldn't it be wonderful to get to program a series for Alamo Drafthouse? Austinist posted an interview with Kier-La today, focusing on her work building up the Music Monday series at Alamo. I haven't been to Music Mondays yet -- we saw Head at Alamo around New Year's, but it wasn't a Monday. I'd like to go to a Music Monday screening soon and report back here on how I liked it, the same way I wrote about Weird Wednesday at Alamo recently for Celluloid Eyes. However, I doubt I'll have time for Music Monday before July, as things are pretty busy chez Jette right now.

Speaking of which, posting here will probably be light for the next week or so, because I'm getting married on Saturday. I wish I'd given Tim League my wedding date as soon as we set it, because of course I am such an important person that Alamo Drafthouse/Rolling Roadshow would never have booked my wedding weekend with a preview screening event for Nacho Libre and an outdoor showing of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls with cast members in attendance. Just because I can't be there doesn't mean you can't, though ... tickets are still available for the Russ Meyer-themed extravaganza on Saturday.

IGN has posted an interview with Tommy Pallotta, the Austin animator and filmmaker who produced A Scanner Darkly. Pallotta now has a blog on IGN; his first entry is about his experience premiering A Scanner Darkly at Cannes with director Richard Linklater and various stars from the movie. It's a long entry with lots of fun photos; hope he'll be able to keep it up and share more stories about his work on the film.

Most interesting quote from the interview: "We spent probably 500 man-hours per minute of animation."

I watched Pallotta and other animators demo the rotoscoping process at Fantastic Fest last year, and I can believe that estimate. Even with the latest software, it was very detailed work. The movie releases in theaters in July and even though I caught it at SXSW, I'd like to see it again.