Slackery News Tidbits, August 2

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Here's the latest Austin film news.

  • Drafthouse Films, the distribution company associated with Alamo Drafthouse, has announced its latest acquisition: The FP, which premiered at SXSW 2011 in the Midnighters section. It's about gang wars that take place using a dance-fight video game. Film critic Scott Weinberg reviewed the movie for Twitch and essentially says it's a one-joke movie, but a good joke it manages to sustain throughout its 78-minute running time. Drafthouse Films plans a limited theatrical release in the first quarter of 2012. In addition, Drafthouse Films now has a new company director, Evan Husney.
  • More distribution news, Richard Garriott: Man on a Mission has landed a distribution deal with First Run Features. According to the film's director, Mike Woolf, the locally made documentary has an expected theatrical release date in January 2012. Read Debbie's SXSW 2010 review for more info about the film.
  • The winner of an Austin Film Festival audience award for comedies in 2009, Herpes Boy, is finally available for us to see again. You can stream it on Netflix Watch Instantly, Amazon or iTunes, or check your cable VOD listings. Debbie reviewed it at AFF and found it funny and poignant; I believe my comment was that it was like Napoleon Dynamite, except actually funny and not annoying. Definitely a must if you're a fan of Beth Grant.
  • Traverse City Film Festival really does love Austin filmmakers -- local films seem to win awards there every year and Austin may need its own category in 2012. This time, the winner was Heather Courtney's documentary Where Soldiers Come From, which took home the Founders Prize for Best U.S. Documentary Film. Read my review from SXSW. Drafthouse Films' previous acquisition, Four Lions, won Best Screenplay in a Foreign Narrative Film.
  • Austin filmmaker Steve Mims (Incendiary: The Willingham Case) has dropped us a line to let us know that registration is open for the Fall 2011 session of his 14-week intro film class, Production One, at Austin FilmWorks. More information is available on the Austin FilmWorks site and you can attend an orientation session on August 30.
  • The Harry Ranson Center has acquired yet more film-related materials -- this time, the archives from filmmaker Nicholas Ray. The archives include plenty of materials from Rebel Without a Cause and We Can't Go Home Again, among other things, and the storyboards from Rebel will be on display at the HRC through the end of the month. No word on whether anything is included from my favorite Ray film, In a Lonely Place, but I hope so.
  • Finally, this week's Austin filmmaker looking to raise funds for a project is Dustin Shroff, who is working on a short film, Deflated. The project is sponsored by aGLIFF, which means donations are tax-deductible ... and that pledging funds to Deflated enters you into a drawing for an aGLIFF film pass. Check out the Kickstarter project for Deflated to learn more.