­I'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.

It's a big night at the Paramount, of course, with Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead and Grace is Gone lighting up the big screen at the Bullock, but it's also your last chance to see a couple of the really great films that may not be coming to your local cineplex soon. Heck, you could spend the whole night at the Dobie and be supremely entertained:

America Unchained - in this amusing doc, a British gent decides to try driving a 1970 Torino station wagon from L.A. to New York without eating, sleeping, or tanking up at a chain restaurant/hotel/gas station. It's this last that becomes really difficult. A great audience flick. 6:00 p.m., Dobie.

First Saturday in May - There's a lot of buzz around this documentary about the Kentucky Derby, and rightfully so: it speaks from an insider's perspective and keeps things interesting by never letting the story rest for long. Even if horses aren't your thing, any sort of sports enthusiast should check this out. 7:45 p.m., Dobie.

Blood Car - In the very near future, gas is up to $30 and an enterprising young vegan inadvertently invents an engine that runs on blood. If you're thinking Roger Corman blood and guts and unpleasantness, you're half right -- it's all played for laughs, and rather successfully. If you're any kind of comedy or horror enthusiast, this is a can't-miss. 9:30 p.m., Dobie.

Tickets are $8 at the door. Visit austinfilmfestival.com for more information.

If 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.]

The official word from Tim League has been posted to the Alamo Drafthouse blog: the new Alamo at the Ritz theater will have its grand opening on Thursday, November 1. The evening's lineup is similar in structure to the Alamo Downtown closing night earlier this year: a triple-feature possibility with a big movie feast as the first event and a bizarre midnight movie in store.

The food-and-film event is an all-mushroom feast served around the movie Matango (aka Attack of the Mushroom People). I love mushrooms, but they scare my husband a little, so I'm not sure I'll be there for that one. (To be fair, he tells people that mayonnaise scares me. It's one of those weird relationship things.) The second film is a sneak of the Coen brothers' upcoming film No Country for Old Men, which I've been looking forward to seeing. And the midnight movie will be the first Terror Thursday film at the Alamo Ritz, but the movie itself is still a surprise. The Alamo blog entry says that "it will jump start this signature series with an 80,000 volt electric shock," so you might be able to venture some guesses from that hint.

Tickets will be on sale starting at 5 pm on Sunday, Oct. 21 at the Ritz, and any remaining tickets will be available at 6 pm online at the Alamo site. No word yet on prices, which are supposed to be announced by Friday.

I awoke this morning to an e-mail from Kelly Williams, the film program director at the Austin Film Festival, with news of two films playing tonight that comedy fans won't want to miss.

First the good news - we're screening two really amazing comedies at the festival on Tuesday night. You know I'm a big comedy snob, so, I would not just recommend anything.

The bad news is that that you have to pick.

I'll be at the Arbor for our TBA #3 - which is MR. WARMTH, THE DON RICKLES PROJECT - I just locked this film last week and I'm really excited about it. It is directed by John Landis (Animal House, The Blues Brothers) and features interviews with everyone from Clint Eastwood to Robert DeNiro to Sarah Silverman - all about the great Don Rickles. It features a lot of footage of Rickles and will be awesome.

The producer of the film, Bob Engelman, is here with the film and he'll be at the screening for a Q&A after the film. He has a ton of great stories. Please come out for a great movie and Q&A!

Mr. Warmth - Tuesday, Oct. 16th at 9:30 - Regal Arbor

The other film is THE LIVING WAKE, a really original film, unlike anything I've seen come into the festival in years, plus it just won a Special Jury Award for Comic Vision at the festival this weekend. It is really funny and the writers of the film - Peter Kline and Mike O'Connell (also the lead actor - see him now before he's a huge star) will be in attendance.

The Living Wake - Tuesday, Oct. 16th at 8:00 - Dobie Theater

Thanks and I hope to see you at the festival,

Kelly

Individual tickets to these screenings are $8 at the door. Film passes for the Austin Film Festival (which runs through Thursday) are $35, which is still a bargain since you could easily see five movies in the remaining nights of the festival. Badge holders are admitted first, then film pass holders, followed by individual ticket holders. For more information please visit austinfilmfestival.com.

I was at a party Friday night where somehow I ended up trying to explain what "mumblecore" is (and failing, I suspect) and someone said, "I remember liking this film I saw at Village a few years ago, what was it, Pillow?"

"Dear Pillow," I guessed.

"Yes, what happened to that, is it on DVD?"

"I don't think so," I said. "Too bad, I liked it a lot."

Less than 24 hours after that conversation, Dear Pillow producer Jacob Vaughn posted to his blog, e-Jake, that Dear Pillow will be out on DVD on November 13. How's that for coincidence?

Dear Pillow, which was made in Austin by writer-director Bryan Poyser and producer Vaughan, premiered at Slamdance in 2004, then pla­yed SXSW and a number of other festivals. The filmmakers were nominated for an Independent Spirit Award in the "Someone to Watch" category.

The film sadly never found theatrical distribution (the sexual subject matter might have been a difficult sell), but in the fall of 2004, Alamo Village showed it nightly for about a month, where it built on word-of-mouth.  I remember that my husband and I went to see the film at the end of its run, having to push ourselves because we are not usually 10 pm moviegoers, even though we live around the block from Alamo Village. We were seeing it on the urging of friends (and John Pierson's persuasive article about the film for the Austin Chronicle) and weren't sure what to expect, but the film totally blew me away. I reviewed it later for Celluloid Eyes. [More after the jump.]

Slackerwood received an email this week from reader Roger K, asking if any of us knew what happened to Cinemark Barton Creek, the theater on Walsh Tarleton near (but not in) the mall. He noted, "No showtimes in the Chronicle or on Fandango. They had a nice semi-arty mix, literally between Arbor and AMC."

Fortunately, Austin Movie Blog has the answer to this one. Chris Garcia reported that the theater closed in mid-to-late September. Cinemark is opening a new giant multiplex instead, out at Bee Cave/71 as part of the Hill Country Galleria complex. (Since this is a film-related blog, I will omit comments about the sprawling new development, except to point out that unlike the old Cinemark, this one is probably not accessible by bus.)

Garcia points out that the old Cinemark theater wasn't in good shape and had lousy projection quality -- the article is titled "We'll just say it: Good riddance!" in case you didn't get the hint. I haven't been to the theater much in the past couple of years, since we live further north, but I definitely noticed a decline.

Garcia received so many comments defending the old Cinemark theater that he wrote a follow-up entry that links to his excellent 2004 article about movie-theater projection bulbs and projection quality in Austin theaters. Be sure to click the links at the bottom and read the entire story. I'd love to see him update his info on projection in local theaters for 2007 -- I'd be especially interested to hear his opinions on quality at the Dobie and Arbor.

Personally, I don't understand why theaters would offer sub-quality visuals and sound, since it will only drive more people to see movies at home on higher quality home theater systems. (I wrote an article for Cinematical about this problem earlier this year.) Hopefully the new Cinemark will at least offer a better viewing experience. No word yet on whether the theater will have a "semi-arty mix," but considering it's in a remote suburban strip mall full of big-chain stores, I don't feel optimistic.

"Best bet" articles about film festivals always seem like such a raw deal -- sure, you're hearing about the big splashy films, but what about the undiscovered gems that will fill only half the theater? They deserve better. So here in chronological order are some of my picks for films that deserve your attention more than the big studio previews playing at the Paramount. (You'll be able to see those movies in a few months at the multiplex anyway, right?)

If human interest stories are your thing, turn your attention to Owl and the Sparrow tonight at 7, part of the Viet Film Wave series. If historical biopix are more your thing, check out Neal Cassady, which traces the life of Cassady "as he goes from his trip with Jack Kerouac on the road to literary stardom, a friendship with Ken Kesey and membership in the Merry Pranksters, toward a downward spiral into drugs and self loathing."

Need something with a little more oomph? Check out Bloody Aria at the Dobie (kind of a Korean Wrong Turn but with a decent screenplay) or the more uplifting The Go-Getter at the Bob Bullock. Ah, Zooey Deschanel ....

If you're in a documentary kind of mood, check out local filmmaker Anne Lewis' film Morristown, which examines the plight of migrant workers in a global economy.

Night owls should check out the Troma-esque Street Team Massacre at the Hideout.

All shows are $8 at the door or buy your film pass ($35 for unlimited films!) or badge at the Driskill Hotel.

The screenwriter's conference kicks off at the Driskill Hotel this afternoon and the Festival itself starts tonight with Chicago 10 at the Paramount. Personally I'm looking forward to The Go-Getter with Zooey Deschanel at the Bob Bullock, which is the first of the four TBA films.

All of the TBAs have been announced as of this morning. They are:

- The Go-Getter (#1)
- Day Zero (#2)
- Mr. Warmth - The Don Rickles Project (#3, new flick from John Landis)
- Grace is Gone (#4, the John Cusack "Oscar bait" picture)

More previews and reports to come.

Austin Film Festival's "Film and Food" event is, quite frankly, one of the best parties of the year. It starts in just a few hours but you can pick up tickets at the door (it's in the Driskill Hotel) and besides having awesome food from a variety of Austin restaurants and an open bar, the proceeds benefit a great film-related cause.

Read more about Film and Food here.