Celebrity Sightings

I posted this photo last year, but it's especially timely this week, so I thought I'd give it a good airing. I took the photo right after author Harlan Ellison's panel at SXSW 2008. When I last posted it, I focused on Ellison (right) signing a book for critic Elvis Mitchell (left). I didn't say much about the guy in the middle.

However, a lot of people are talking this week about that guy in the Fassbinder shirt, screenwriter Josh Olson, and not because he wrote the script for A History of Violence. Olson wrote an article for the Village Voice called "I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script" that is drawing numerous champions and detractors. Response articles include an even stronger assertion from screenwriter David Gerrold ("The Trouble with Tribbles" episode of Star Trek); a thoughtful explanation about why writers won't serve as mentors, from author/blogger John Scalzi; and on the local front, a Film School Rejects column from Austin's own Cole Abaius explaining why he thinks Olson is being an asshole.

And now Ellison has stepped into the fray in a whimsically ascerbic fashion, and has recorded a Seussian rhymed version of Olson's essay for your listening pleasure. The rhyming version was adapted by Steve Jarrett, and Olson liked it so much he asked Ellison to perform a dramatic reading. Therefore, I have another excuse to post this photo. If the photo looks familiar, I also let Jen Yamato use it for her Cinematical article about the whole Olson kerfuffle, which you also might enjoy reading.

I'm no longer an aGLIFF newbie, especially after 9 features and 13 shorts in 6 days. It's hard to pick a favorite film, so I'll list a few that are still rolling around my mind.

For comedy, the feature The Baby Formula and the short Boycrazy, along with the gut-busting documentary The Long Haul, which just happens to be made by local filmmaker Liz Welch Tirrell. For more serious fare, the Queer Youth Media Project doc,  That's So Gay, which really needs to be expanded into a feature, and the animated short Dear Dad, Love Maria. After that, it's really hard to pick even one more that is more outstanding than the rest. It was a diverse, provocative and all-around entertaining program. And I wasn't the only one who thought so, apparenlty; most of the screenings I attended were near or at capacity. 

Socially, I'm really regretting missing the centerpiece party at Frank, and the Antique-themed dessert; people were raving about it the next day. I equally regret not spending all of Saturday at the Alamo South and aGLIFF just to watch Sharon Gless entertain the crowd during the blackout.  But I didn't miss the Hannah Free Q&A, and my video is embedded after the jump. Yes, Sharon Gless loved the Alamo Drafthouse popcorn. And she answers that pesky question about her orientation.

Ernesto Diaz-Espinoza, director/writer, and Marko Zaror, martial artist/actor, visited Austin in 2007 for Fantastic Fest where they premiered Mirageman, along with screenings of their earlier project, the first Chilean martial-arts film Kiltro.

Espinoza and Zaror will be returning for Fantastic Fest 2009 for the world premiere of their latest film Mandrill. With the tagline "Cooler than Shaft, Hotter than Bond, Faster than Lee" about a young hitman exacting revenge on his mother's killer, expect more fast-paced action from Zaror. Producer Derek Rundell and actress Celine Raymond will also be in attendance. 

[Photo credit: Ernesto Espinoza and Marko Zaror Q&A at 2007 Fantastic Fest, by Debbie Cerda on Flickr.]

I watched Alexie Gilmore in World's Greatest Dad, playing Robin Williams's sort-of girlfriend, and kept wondering where I'd seen her before. When I got home I figured it out: I'd snapped her photo during the Surfer, Dude red carpet event in Austin a year ago. As you can see from the above photo, despite the extreme heat outside the Paramount, Gilmore was quite cheerful and pleasant. And I loved her dress.

If you want to see more photos of Gilmore -- including the whole dress -- check out my Flickr photo set from the Surfer, Dude red carpet. And if you want to hear more about World's Greatest Dad, check out the group review that Jenn Brown and I wrote.

If you spend time on Twitter, or Facebook, or have friends who like to share a lot, you may have noticed  a lot of people in downtown Austin spotting location shooting for Machete, Robert Rodriguez's latest feature currently in production. Or maybe you're one of the lucky people spotting the cameras and celebrities yourself. Since the cast includes some big-name stars (at least for Austin), it seems like more people than usual are interested.

Even if people don't know the movie by name, I'm seeing tweets like "OMG I am less than 20 feet away from Robert De Niro!" "There's a film crew across the street from my office, anyone know why?" Filming has been spotted at the Stephen F. Austin, at Congress and 11th, near the downtown Whole Foods, and in other downtown locations. Some bystanders have been taking pictures -- you can see the occasional iPhone snapshot on Twitter, but I've been able to find something a little better.

Hunting the Snark, a local gossip/celeb blog, has been following the Machete shoot closely. They linked to some photos that I traced to their source: JessicaAlba.net. The Jessica Alba fan site generously gave me permission to post a few photos from their very large set of images snapped near the Aug. 17 location shoot for Machete. They also have an article of their own about the photos.

Last week, almost at the last minute, my husband and I decided to catch a special screening of Bobcat Goldthwait's latest film, World's Greatest Dad, at Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar. We had toyed with the idea of watching the movie at home through Amazon Video on Demand ... but Goldthwait would be attending the Alamo screening, so we couldn't resist. We both enjoyed his previous film, Sleeping Dogs Lie, and I was interested to hear him in person.

It was an evening of surprises. First, Goldthwait said he wanted to show his latest work in progress before the film. Before I could get excited about the possibility of a huge scoop, however, the footage appeared onscreen and I was laughing too hard to care. It was a short film from the 1930s that, as Goldthwait explained afterward, is called a "Barkie" because the cast is all dogs who are dressed as people, trained to walk on their hind legs and dubbed with human voices. Barkies are primarily old-fashioned melodramas or gangster films. Jules White, who directed many Three Stooges shorts, also directed a lot of Barkies. I love learning film history in the most unexpected places. (Felt sorry for the dogs, though -- there were no agencies for humane animal care monitoring moviemaking in the Thirties.)

The world premiere of Mike Judge's new film Extract took place on Tuesday night in Austin at the Paramount Theatre, with star Jason Bateman (pictured above with Judge) and others attending. The premiere was a benefit for the Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund. It's been a big week for Austin Film Society (AFS), with the recent announcement as reported by Jette of the TFPF grants awards announcement and now a major premiere benefiting the fund. I spoke with actors from Extract as well as AFS founder and filmmaker Richard Linklater, who was in attendance supporting fellow Austin filmmaker Mike Judge and the TFPF benefit. 

Jenn interviewed Mike Judge for Slackerwood earlier that day, so rather than inundate him with questions I did ask him the one question that was in the back of my mind:

Paper Heart blurs the lines between fantasy and reality as Charlyne Yi explores the concept of the validity of Love and expectations before relationships even begin, with co-director Nick Jasenovec (pictured above).

Earlier this summer, Jasenovec was in Austin for a special screening of Paper Heart as well as for interviews. Mixing genres is dangerous enough, but Yi and Jasenovec mix documentary and narrative with surprisingly good results. Yi is not just the co-director, but the star, who interviews real people about the subject of love, as well as playing an alternate version of herself in a budding relationship with an alternate version of Michael Cera (played by Cera). Jasenovec is also a character, but instead of playing himself, Jake Johnson plays Jasenovec. And then there are puppets.

Confused, yet? Turned off? Believe it or not, it works, and works well.

Red carpet events continue in Austin this week, and I cut my Cinemapocalypse experience a few hours short at 7:30 am so I could rest before another special event on Sunday afternoon.

Writer/director Robert Rodriguez, producer Elizabeth Avellán, and cast members Jimmy Bennett, Trevor Gagnon, Devon Gearhart, Jake Short, Jolie Vanier and Rebel Rodriguez walked the red carpet this past weekend at the Paramount Theatre for a special screening of their new movie Shorts. The event was a benefit for local organization Thoughtful House Center for Children, and included a free post-screening carnival including rides, sno-cones, cotton candy and more. Danny Trejo, whom I photographed at Cinemapocalypse, made an appearance as well as Richard Linklater. Rebel and Racer Rodriguez worked the red carpet like pros, answering questions and posing for photos.

When I'm working the red carpet I will rarely ask folks the same question, but due to Robert Rodriguez and Elizabeth Avellán's strong involvement in the Texas Motion Picture Alliance and film incentives I wanted to hear from both of them on the subject. Here's how they answered the following question:

The main event for Cinemapocalypse was Inglourious Basterds and guests, as I detailed in Part One. However, the all-night movie marathon offered so much more. The theme of the evening (and morning after) was war-centered "men on a mission" films, with each film preceded by relevant vintage trailers. Tarantino programmed the next two films, with the rest programmed by Tim League, and Alamo programmers Zack Carlson and Lars Nilsen.

Film:  Inglourious Basterds
Trailers:  Operation Eichmann, Ski Troop Attack, 36 Hours and Operation Amsterdam

Like I mentioned in Part One, Slackerwood will be doing a full group review later. I will say for now that I really enjoyed Basterds and I'm looking forward to seeing it again, and I suspect even people who aren't big fans of Tarantino will really enjoy it. It has all the spirit of post-WWII anti-hero and noir films. 

Film:  The Losers
Trailers:  The Naked Brigade, Merrill's Marauders, The Dirty Dozen, Casualties of War, The Rescue (I think it was the same film as Let's Get Harry, but I'm not entirely sure) and First Blood

This 1974 Vietnam war-era film, directed by Jack Starrett, was about a bunch of bikers led by Link (William Smith), who are sent to Vietnam to rescue a government advisor on the wrong side of the Vietnam border. This seriously surreal film included a love song/theme song abruptly fit into an unexpected romantic scene ("Life has so much to offer the losers ..."). Tarantino pointed out that this has has the distinction of being filmed during the Vietnam conflict, when it was politically very incorrect to do so. 

Film:  The Siege of Firebase Gloria
Trailers:  Up from the Beach, Play Dirty, Von Ryan's Express, Eye of the Eagle II: Inside the Enemy, Uncommon Valor and Gallipoli

Starring R. Lee Ermey and Wings Hauser, The Siege of Firebase Gloria is an uneasy mix of great filmmaking with some seriously cheesy dialogue (and a great chopper pilot).