Special Screenings

A Texas 'Homecoming' Premieres in San Marcos

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Homecoming 2The high school homecoming queen competition was stiff for Claire and her friends in the 2010 horror movie Homecoming. There could only be one winner. Those who survived the first movie return to face the same masked murderer in Homecoming II, which premiered Saturday at the Embassy Suites Conference Center in San Marcos.

Last year, Dorell Anthony and fellow Texas State University - San Marcos alumni Terissa Kelton and Caleb Straus began collaborating cross-country on the independent, low-budget movie Homecoming II.

The trio had recently graduated from Texas State when Anthony became inspired to write the sequel to Homecoming.

Anthony wrote his first feature-length screenplay, Homecoming, in 2004, during his sophomore year at Oakwood High School in Oakwood, Texas. He said he wrote the script as a form of therapy after his aunt died.

"It's weird to think that I wrote a horror script where many people die after my aunt died," he said.

Anthony said he collaborated with Texas State writers and playwrights to revise and update the original Homecoming script. The entire Homecoming cast and crew consisted of Texas State alumni.

Homecoming II executive producer Terissa Kelton met Anthony as a Texas State Alphi Psi Omega theatre fraternity member. She said she and Anthony became "quick" friends, and he asked her to critique the Homecoming script.

Kelton said she thought the Homecoming script was "great" and became a fan. Her own short film debut, Myra, screened at the Homecoming II premiere. Kelton is also an actress, who starred in the Austin-based independent production company Twitchy Dolphin Flix's films Turkey Day, Wedding Night, Abram's Hand, Look At Me Again and the 2011 Metropolitan Film Festival's honorable mention, Snatch 'N' Grab.

Old Murder House Theatre Re-Creates 'Aliens' ... On Ice

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Old Murder House TheatreA very lucky few people in Austin have seen very unique renditions of movies like Home Alone, Die Hard and Robocop. Those few who've witnessed The Old Murder House Theatre and their hilarious brand of comedy can attest to seeing something they won't soon forget. Well, their next act is no different.

If you're reading this, it must mean you love movies, and chances are you at the very least tolerate the classic sci-fi film Aliens. As great as it would be for them to perform their usual prop driven comedy on a stage as they usually do, they're stepping up their game and taking this act not to a stage, but to a rink. That's right, Aliens On Ice. I'll say it again because it's just that damn good: Aliens On Ice. You can catch this production next weekend at the north location of Chaparral Ice.

The Old Murder House Theatre is headed by local actor Sam Eidson, whom you might have seen in Austin films such as My Sucky Teen Romance and Natural Selection. You might recognize some of the other cast and crew involved too.

We've reprinted the press release about the show below ... followed by some videos from the troupe that you won't want to miss.

Support Local Filmmakers' 'Three Day Journey'

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Chris Todd

Local production company Rocket Crab Films (director Chris Todd pictured above) are throwing a special benefit screening of classic Austin movie Dazed and Confused on Wednesday, November 9 at 10 pm at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar. Rocket Crab is raising funds to shoot a short film that they hope will ultimately lead to a full-length feature based on the short.

Here's a synopsis of the short film Three Day Journey, a Western, from writer Patrick Palmer:

"Judah is dying. Stricken with tuberculosis, he has little time left on this earth. Judah has tasked Luther, his only real friend, with ending his life early sparing him the pain of his debilitating illness.

Photo Essay: Tarzan and Arab at Alamo Ritz

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Tim League Introduces Tarzan and Arab

Last Wednesday, October 26, the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz hosted a very special presentation of an incredible pair of Palestinian artists, along with two related films. Above, Drafthouse founder Tim League introduces the show and explains the enormous task of bringing them to Austin.

Twin brothers and filmmakers Tarzan and Arab (Ahmed and Mohammed Abu Nasser) hail from Gaza, where the last movie theater was destroyed in a bombing two years before they were born. The sons of an art teacher, they conceived an art project where they would create movie posters for imaginary films with titles based on codenames for Israeli military operations.

Zombies Invade Highland Mall During Mondo 'Dawn of the Dead' Event

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Justin Ishmael at Dawn of the Dead

On Saturday night, as you slept, the dead walked the earth here in Austin. Highland Mall experienced a zombie outbreak. Was there a full moon? Was there a chemical release from a freight train? Did a voodoo ceremony go awry? Nope, nope and nope. What there was, was an yet another epic event created by the evil geniuses at the Alamo Drafthouse and Mondo Tees. Last night was MMMIX: Mondo Mystery Movie #9, which turned out to be the 1978 Dawn of the Dead.

Mondo Mystery Movie is an event where people buy tickets to see an un-named mystery film, and receive a poster related to that movie. The first two events in Austin (six others took place in Los Angeles) were Akira and Jurassic Park. Each of these events sold out almost immediately. MMMIX, as it's being called, topped all of them.

MMMIX was executed as an epic bait-and-switch that would make William Castle proud. The instructions for the event were pretty simple. The location was Austin's Riverbend Church on Loop 360. The directions stated, "Please be there no later than 8:30 pm. We are closing and LOCKING the doors at 9:30 pm. If you're not there by then, you will miss the show." Wow, that's pretty cool, I thought -- they are going to be locking the doors. Interesting. Wonder what film we are going to see in a church? Rampant speculation was that it would be The Exorcist. Wow, did they actually talk a church into showing The Exorcist?

Photo Essay: 'Young Adult' Surprises Alamo Audiences

Patton Oswalt & Jason Reitman

The Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar played host this week to a "secret screening with special guests." The guests turned out to be filmmaker Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air) and actor/comedian Patton Oswalt.

'Dance with the One' Premieres at Texas State

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Dance with the OneA small-time Texas marijuana dealer gets in over his head when the million dollars' worth of hashish his boss has given him suddenly goes missing in the family drama Dance with the One.

The October 12 Texas State University - San Marcos screening of Dance with the One was held in room 206 of the school's Department of Theatre and Dance. The Texas Independent Film Network, an Austin-based statewide coalition of film societies, universities and independent theaters, sponsored the event. The network tours a different Texas independent movie each month around the state.

"If you're at UT this sort of thing [independent film] is around you all over the place, but it's places like Waco, College Station and San Marcos [where] you're going to have to drive somewhere to go see it," said Tom Copeland, a lecturer in the Texas State Department of Theatre and Dance.

Mike Dolan, Dance with the One director, was in attendance at the Texas State premiere. Dolan, a graduate of the Michener Center for Writers program at The University of Texas at Austin, was chosen to direct the film through his previous work with the University of Texas Film Institute, a nonprofit educational film institute at UT.

Dance with the One is the first film produced by UTFI. The film premiered at SXSW 2010 -- read Debbie's review for more details about the movie itself.

Quick Snaps: Help Bastrop and Get a Peek at 'Bernie'

SCHOOL OF ROCK Premiere

If you're not planning to spend the weekend ACL Fest-ing (or hiding from ACL Fest in another city), local filmmaker Richard Linklater is offering you the chance to see his latest movie as a benefit for groups helping with the Bastrop wildfire disaster.

Linklater's movie Bernie was partially shot in Bastrop, and in fact Linklater owns some property there himself. As the Austin Chronicle reports, he decided to turn what was originally a private cast-and-crew screening of Bernie into a fundraiser to help fire relief efforts in Bastrop. He enlisted Austin Film Society and j.k. livin (Matthew McConaughey's production company) to co-host this event, which will take place on Sunday at the Paramount.

Linklater and one of the film's stars, Jack Black, will be at the Bernie screening on Sunday. I hope to be on the red carpet to get a few photos of them. Linklater and Black were last at the Paramount together about 8 years ago -- the Austin premiere of The School of Rock was in September 2003. The above photo is from that event. I've posted a few more fun pictures from that premiere after the jump, including one with Roky Erickson. Austin Film Society has a Flickr set you can view.

See 'The Perfect House' Free This Weekend

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The Perfect HouseYou may have heard or read about an on-demand platform for streaming movies called FlickLaunch, an alternative to traditional distribution that uses Facebook as its interface. FlickLaunch is promoting the platform through advance theatrical screenings of the horror/thriller The Perfect House, including a free screening here in Austin that includes filmmaker Kris Hulbert and actors Andrea Vahl and William Robertson in attendance. We have some reserved seats to give away -- keep reading to find out more.

Not surprisingly, Austin is the first city of the 30-city The Perfect House tour complete with a bus and a "reality-style tour." Why start with Austin? Co-director and writer Kris Hulbert said, "When we came up with the idea to hit the open road and host screenings around the country, the Alamo Drafthouse was immediately at the top of our list. The Drafthouse goes hand-in-hand with high quality independent entertainment and provides the perfect location to start our tour!"

The Perfect House is a horror anthology consisting of three separate stories ("The Storm," "Chic-ken" and "Dinner Guest"), which reveal that a young couple's dream house has a very dark past. It's every homeowner's fear that their ideal home will turn into a money pit, but in the case of The Perfect House, Hulbert's story turns it into a real nightmare.

FlickLaunch will allow filmmakers to capitalize on social media strategies, from promoting films through fan pages to allowing filmmakers to give away free views -- paid views will cost between $1-5.  A FlickLaunch app has been developed for the iPad and plans are to develop apps for Android and iPhone.

Quick Snaps: 'Slacker' at Austin Studios

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Slacker at Austin Studios

I meant to do an extended photo essay from the Slacker screening at Austin Studios last month, using some of Austin Film Society's excellent photos and some video I shot of Richard Linklater introducing the movie, but you know how time flies and those other cliched phrases we chronic procrastinators use. So I'll just share a few photos instead, and perhaps I can get to the video at a later time.

It was a fun evening (cooler than expected due to that crazy "rain" thing that happened the night before) with a good-sized audience that included many of the filmmakers shooting segments for the Slacker 2011 project. The gentlemen in the above photo are Alamo Drafthouse programmer Daniel Metz, who shot one of the Slacker 2011 shorts (Elizabeth's interview) and filmmaker/Austin Film Society staffer Bryan Poyser, who has been producing Slacker 2011. They introduced the Slacker 2011 trailer, which screened before the original movie. More photos after the jump.

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