aGLIFF

Fantastic Fest ended on Thursday night. aGLIFF (Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival) started on Friday night. I'm simply thankful they didn't overlap, as I have covered/am covering both for Cinematical. None of my aGLIFF reviews have gone live yet -- expect to see one or two on Tuesday, and a few more throughout the week. Hopefully I'll have time to post a few notes and observations here as well.

I promised you Fantastic Fest photos, and then the Cinematical editors asked if I would publish the photos there. They pay me, so check out my Fantastic Fest photoblog entry for the best pictures I took. There are still a few left that I'll probably post to Flickr soon -- I'll be sure to let you know.

All my Fantastic Fest reviews for Cinematical are published, so here's the list:

• Gamerz
• Frostbite
• Tideland
• The Hamster Cage
• Bug
• Starfish Hotel
• Blood Tea and Red String
• The Woods
  

I'm reviewing The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, Fantastic Fest's opening-night film, but that review won't go live until the movie releases in theaters this Friday.

I also saw Pan's Labyrinth, Shiva, The Host, Piano Tuner of Earthquakes, and Severance, all of which I'd like to review either here or at Celluloid Eyes. And who knows? Perhaps someday I will.

Ameliorating somewhat my lingering feelings of selfish bitterness at having to forgo Funky Forest in favor of Apocalypto, tonight's super-secret screening at Fantastic Fest at least had the advantage of being an actual genre movie: Pan's Labyrinth. Everyone in the audience seemed to know that we'd be seeing P.L. before they walked into the theater, and emcee Harry Knowles acknowledged that fact by calling it the worst-kept secret of the Fest. Knowles also delivered an amusing in-character version of an e-mail message from director Guillermo Del Toro who was unable to attend.

I'm posting the link to this week's News from Slackerwood entry on Cinematical pretty late, I know. I spent the weekend in New Orleans and just plain forgot about Slackerwood. Looking at the Lower Ninth Ward in person will do that to you. Many of the screenings and events in the entry haven't occurred yet, so there's still time to check them out.

Of all the film events scheduled this week, the one I would particularly recommend is aGLIFF's Filmmaker Series on Wednesday night at the Arbor, which is spotlighting local filmmaker Alpha. I know Alpha personally so I am a little biased. The feature film being shown is Chronicles of Halcyon (shown above), which I reviewed for Celluloid Eyes last year. I haven't seen either of the two shorts, and I wish I could go on Wednesday night so I could have a look. (A friend of mine plays Jesus in one of the shorts, I think Drive.)