Austin Film News

SxSW pick Crawford, about the "one-stoplight" Texas town where George W. Bush made his home shortly before his election to the highest office in the land (and what happened after), will screen at the Crawford football stadium Sunday night. It's the first time the film will be seen in the town where it was shot, though likely not the last. Befitting a hometown premiere, the film will be projected under the open Texas sky on the Alamo Drafthouse's 50-foot Rolling Roadshow screen.

Director David Modigliani rightly focuses more on the people of the town and their personal struggles than on Bush's troubled presidency, though of course the one affects the other in unpredictable and fascinating ways. Even if you'd rather forget the political events of the last eight years, however, the chance to see a film like Crawford unspooling for the first time in front of its subjects is an event few film buffs will want to pass up. Crawford is about 100 miles away, and even with gas prices being what they are I think it's worth the trip.

Crawford screens Sunday, June 8th at 8:30 p.m. in Crawford, TX.

To learn more about Crawford (the town and the movie), see the videos after the jump. In addition to SxSW 2008, the film has played the Independent Film Festival of Boston, Marfa Film Fest, AFI Dallas, and most recently the Brooklyn Film Festival.

indieWIRE reports this morning:

Janet Pierson has been named the new producer of the SXSW Film Festival and Conference, the organization has just announced. Matt Dentler, who has served as producer of the fest since 2004, has accepted a position in New York City to head the marketing and programming operations of Cinetic Media's new digital rights management unit, the festival said in an announcement.

Read the full indieWIRE report here.

I was so happy to hear The Paramount would be showing Blade Runner: The Final Cut here in Austin, and looked forward to seeing the movie there. I haven't seen any version of Blade Runner in a movie theater since the late 1980s at LSU's little movie theater, and that was the original theatrical version with the voiceover. (I kind of liked the voiceover myself, which is weird because I usually don't like them, but that's another story.)

Then I checked the Paramount calendar and learned they are only screening the movie during the week of Thankgiving: November 18-23. We'll be out of town that whole time, and I know we're not the only ones. Perhaps this was the only time the theater could rent the print, but it's unfortunate that they are showing a college cult favorite only during a week when many students and other Austin moviegoers will be elsewhere.

Request to the Paramount: If you could bring the film back for a weekend at a later time, a lot of us would be truly grateful.

I know the Paramount is dedicated primarily to live performances, and it looks like that week was the only time in November/December not taken up with the latest Greater Tuna antics or various concerts (and then the inevitable annual Nutcracker). However, the film isn't playing anywhere else in Austin as far as I can tell. I don't know if ­the Paramount secured exclusive screening rights for Austin, or if other theaters were uninterested -- if it's the latter, I suppose I must also be disappointed with Alamo, Galaxy Highland, Dobie/Landmark, and the larger chains. (It's showing at a Landmark theater in Dallas -- the Inwood -- the week after Thanksgiving, if any Austinites want to make the drive.)

This is one case where I will be picking a home viewing over a theatrical viewing -- giving my money to a DVD rental or purchase instead of a movie theater -- thus advancing, in a small way, a trend I hate to support. But Austin's theaters have left me no choice, at this time. Too bad.

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.

If you thought Slackerwood might have vanished into the night, never to return, fear no more. We're back up and ready to share Austin film news. It was an odd combination of circumstances -- I went on a belated honeymoon to Vancouver at the end of August, and I was way too busy enjoying the lovely weather and the sights to care much about Austin film. However, email service has been restored and so have the glories of Slackerwood (and my other websites). I still can't send email from my usual addresses, but that should be fixed this weekend. Many thanks to Chip for putting in a lot of work on the new server.

This website backup is about two weeks old so if you posted a comment in that time, you might want to post it again. (Mostly I think I lost a lot of spam comments, which was a nice silver lining.) The only other thing I lost was an entry in progress (as in, I'd written a single paragraph before realizing I seriously needed to pack suitcases instead) called "Movies This Week: DIY Movies This Week" where I intended to list a bunch of resources you can use to figure out what's playing in Austin in a given week, if you were looking for Movies This Week while I was in Canada. Maybe I'll try that again before the next big trip.

I know Chris has at least one article he's ready to post, so let's get started again. Welcome back!

Film festivals are at once immensely gratifying and endlessly irritating. They provide the means to see new and obscure films months before they hit mainstream theaters or home video, but they do so at the cost of one's sanity, personal life, and financial resources. This past March during South by SouthWest I forced myself to maintain a somewhat normal schedule at the cost of movies I really would have liked to see. (Damn those midnight showings!)

Black Sheep was one of the films I most regret not seeing, so it's nice to see the film coming back to Austin during its theatrical run. The Alamo Drafthouse web site says it will begin running on August 31st, and it may hit some other local theaters. If you need a plot synopsis, Bloody Disgusting describes it this way: "An experiment in genetic engineering turns harmless sheep into blood-thirsty killers that terrorize a rural town in New Zealand." It sounds a lot like the animal version of Undead, which had a great sense of humor but ultimately got bogged down in homage to other zombie flicks and its own plot intricacies.

I wish I had a magical special effect that, when I said "Elsewhere on the web..." would generate a wonderful transition image and noise, perhaps something groovy out of the old Batman TV series. You will have to imagine your own as I share this list of links to visit.

• If you want to see more photos than I could provide of the Alamo Downtown sign moving to Alamo on South Lamar, Blake at Cinema is Dope has a whole slideshow available. Alamo Drafthouse Blog also has a photo of the sign that includes Lars (as part of an entry about the migration of Weird Wednesday and Master Pancake to non-downtown Alamos).
• The Femme Film Texas Festival takes place on Saturday night at The Hideout, and Austinist has the details.
• Thanks to Sarah Lindner at Austin Movie Blog for the following tip: You can now buy t-shirts online for the Paramount Summer Classic Movies series. As someone who buys t-shirts online from the Brattle Theater in Boston just because they're cool (both the theater and the shirts, that is), I always wondered why The Paramount didn't do the same thing. You also can buy Flix-Tix and a few posters online; I'm hoping the whole merchandise line expands over time. Hint to Paramount: You can't go wrong with a Princess Bride quote on your shirt. (More news/links after the jump.)