Local Cast and Crew

It's a strong week for free films in Austin. The Sunset Supper Cinema at the Whole Foods flagship on Lamar is showing The Hunger (with a special Halloween treat). Most of the programming for this series has been decidedly family oriented; The Hunger is not. The Austin Pets Alive Fall Petsival on Sunday includes a special (and free) Rolling Roadshow screening of Cats & Dogs. Puppies and kittens of all shapes and sizes will be on hand for adoption.

The APL/KLRU Community Cinema series at the APL Windsor Park Branch is still going strong. This series pairs socially relevant docs and community groups for post-screening discussions. On Tuesday they're showing We Still Live Here (Âs Nutayuneân), directed by Anne Makepeace.  It's one of the free APL screening programs.  

Lastly, Cine Las Americas is showing Pedro Páramo at the MACC on Wednesday as part of its Literature in Mexican Cinema series.  

Movies We've Seen:

Margin Call -- Another start to awards season, another take on the financial crisis. This time it focuses on the key people in a 24-hour period at the start of the crisis. Rod saw it and says, "Greed, vanity, pride, gluttony and vanity. To some these are known as deadly sins. To Wall Street of 2008, these were business as usual. Margin Call demonstrates what happens when payment for these sins comes due." Read his review for more.  (Violet Crown)

Take Shelter (pictured above) -- Austinite Jeff Nichols's tale of a man haunted by visions of apolocalyptic storms is destined to top many "best" lists, but don't see it for the hype. See it for the incredible performances, direction, cinematography, sound design, editing ... Need I go on? See it now, before you know more about it. Seriously. Read my review for more. Austin Film Society members take note: If you see the movie at Violet Crown, $2 of your ticket cost goes to the Texas Filmmakers Production Fund. (Alamo Lamar, Arbor, Violet Crown)

There was a lot going on at Austin Film Festival on Sunday, and unless you could clone yourself, you may have missed it. Thomas Jane dropping trou for The Nice Guys script reading for one.  (More photos after the jump.)

If you're a fan of music-heavy movies, you will likely love Sironia. If you usually shy away from them, especially when the lead is a musician himself, you'll be pleasantly surprised with Brandon Dickerson's feature film debut. 

"Life is what happens when you're making other plans." In the case of Thomas (Wes Cunningham), when plans for stardom start requiring compromise, he and his expectant wife escape to Sironia, Texas for a simpler life. As it usually happens, the act of running from instead of running to is never fast enough. 

Early in Sironia, the movie seems like it might follow the trope of artistic integrity versus money, and be merely a vehicle for showcasing Cunningham's songs. However, Sironia isn't a vanity film, and the longer it progresses the more impressive it gets. While Cunningham's music is integral to the story and in fact written prior to the script, the songs are seamlessly worked in and never overwhelm the core story. It's not quite a cinematically realized concept album like Once, although in both cases the music is integral to the film. Sironia isn't just about a moment in time, but about lives trapped by holding on to a particular moment.

We're deep in the heart of the 18th Austin Film Festival we've been spotlighting the Austin films, but Uncertain, TX has so many Texas filmmakers working on it, we just had to do a quick interview with director Eric Steele and producer Adam Donaghey, both based up in the DFW area. Austin's Clay Liford (Wuss, Earthling) did the cinematography. Uncertain, TX may be Steele's first feature film, but he's been active in the local film community. Steele, Donaghey, Barak Epstein and Jason Reimer are all part of Aviation Cinemas, which revived the historic Texas Theatre in 2010.

Describe your film for us, in a quick and dirty paragraph.

Eric Steele: Uncertain, TX is, in essence, the worst bed and breakfast experience imaginable. Two drifters happen upon an old bed and breakfast in a bayou town near the Louisiana/Texas border and encounter a very odd family who psychologically torments them during their stay. It’s a tragicomedy at its core and is purposefully theatrical - inspired by film versions of Shakespeare.

Tell us one thing about this film that is going to make it impossible for people to resist seeing it at the AFF?

Eric Steele: Blind B&B owners. Vast, sprawling Caddo Lake as the backdrop. Nutria. Gar. What else could you want?

Adam Donaghey: Boogie-woogie!

There's something inherently refreshing about sitting on the East balcony at the Driskill right before the first scheduled event of AFF. Despite the occasional smoker, and the incessant clanking of metal on metal in a nearby alley that's closed for construction, the cool breeze makes it a perfect Austin day. 

Checking out the other balcony to see if it had fewer smokers (it did), I happened upon the front-runner for best film marketing at a fest this year. The Upright Citizens Brigade had "protestors" out at Sixth and Brazos warning about the dangers of Freak Dancing. Freak Dance screens Friday night at ACC.

For the first time I actually made it to the Opening Remarks kickoff of Austin Film Festival. I was surprised to hear that the Polly Platt tribute and special screening of Bottle Rocket on Saturday was cancelled. Apparently it's been replaced by James Franco's Sal. And the last TBA slot has been announced; it's Post, written and directed by Texas native and True Blood regular Jim Parrack. However, Post is not yet showing on Festival Genius. 

The 18th Austin Film Festival is almost here. To help celebrate all the locally connected movies at this year's fest, we've reached out to a number of filmmakers to find out about their Austin and Texas-tied films screening at AFF, and to hear about what they're looking forward to doing during the festival.

Former Austinite Steve Collins has written and directed You Hurt My Feelings, which had its world premiere at Los Angeles Film Festival this summer. You may have seen his last feature, Gretchen, which also starred Courtney Davis and John Merriman. Collins may be living in Connecticut these days but you can tell he sure misses Austin. And he has some ideas about the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue.

Slackerwood:  Describe your film for us, in a quick and dirty paragraph.

Steve Collins:  It's about a damaged guy who uses his job as a nanny to prove to an ex-girlfriend that he's grown up and ready to have a relationship. I never can describe it without it sounding like Mrs. Doubtfire. I wish I could say fans of Mrs. Doubtfire would like it -- maybe they would --but its really a love story about people who are so locked inside themselves they can't communicate. The film uses the beauty of children and the natural world as a beacon of light that draws the characters out of their shell towards love. And Robin Williams plays a man who is slowly turning into a tiny bearded robot.

Last year the Slackerwood gang declared it the Year of (Chris) Doubek, seeing the local actor everywhere in numerous films. This year it seems to be the Year of Merriman, even if several of the movies in which he appears won't hit screens until next year. 

If you played the six-degree game, you'd have plenty of degrees left over to connect to John Merriman in the Austin and indie film scene. He's acted in at least six feature films in the last year, including  You Hurt My Feelings and An Ordinary Family, which are playing Austin Film Festival this week. He's also in the cast of the upcoming Pictures of Superheroes, Cinema Six, The Man from Orlando and Loves Her Gun, all shot locally this year. Merriman has been in countless shorts including his own Sleep Study (co-written and co-directed by Kerri Lendo), which played AFF last year, and Scott Rice's (student) Oscar-nominated short Perils in Nude Modeling. I'm losing breath simply writing all that and it's just the highlights. 

The 18th Austin Film Festival is almost here. To help celebrate all the locally connected movies at this year's fest, we've reached out to a number of filmmakers to find out about their Austin and Texas-tied films screening at AFF, and to hear about what they're looking forward to doing during the festival.

Deep In The Heart, starring Jon Gries (Natural Selection, Real Genius) and Val Kilmer (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), is premiering at AFF. Writer and producer Brian Hoffman (Corked) talks about the real-life story behind the script and his favorite spots in Austin. Hoffman is pictured above with director Christopher Cain on the set in Georgetown.

Slackerwood:  Describe your film for us, in a quick and dirty paragraph.   

Brian Hoffman:  It is the true story of a Texas man, Richard "Dick" Wallrath, whose personal demons caused him to hit rock bottom. After losing everything -- jobs, his family, hope -- Dick found faith, picked himself up and trudged on to eventually earn back the love of his children, build a successful window company and become the highest all-time individual donor to Texas 4-H and Future Farmers of America. Wallrath’s story proves hope is found Deep in the Heart.

The 18th Austin Film Festival is almost here. To help celebrate all the locally connected movies at this year's fest, we've reached out to a number of filmmakers to find out about their Austin and Texas-tied films screening at AFF, and to hear about what they're looking forward to doing during the festival.

Writer-director Kelvin Phillips and producer/partner Carla Jackson made A Swingin' Trio here in Austin. A Swingin' Trio is their first feature film.

Slackerwood: Describe your film for us, in a quick and dirty paragraph.

Kelvin Phillips: It's a film about a married couple who find themselves at an impasse. The wife, Trude Garçon-Moore, is at the start of an exploding career as a film producer. She's "busy, busy" as her husband, Homer Garçon likes to remind her. Homer is a "househusband" of sorts; he's a smart and talented writer, but it hasn't happened for him yet, and now he's frustrated and suspicious about his wife's activities. The movie is about what could happen in a marriage when one partner's success eclipses the other. Or when someone feels trapped in a situation (marriage, job, whatever) and how they can subconsciously sabotage things to free themselves.

Austin's Harry Knowles is the creator and editor of the website Ain't It Cool News and a co-founder of Fantastic Fest. In addition, he's produced a documentary, Comic-Con Episode Four: A Fan's Hope, which was this year's Fantastic Fest closing-night selection. The movie is a look inside San Diego Comic-Con and is directed by Morgan Spurlock; the film's other producers include Joss Whedon and Stan Lee. You can read Jette's review for details.

I sat down with Knowles before the fest began to ask him a few questions about Comic-Con Episode Four.

Slackerwood: You've worked at producing other films, such as John Carter of Mars and Ghost Town. How did you get involved in this one, and why do you think this is the first one to be made after others fell through?

Harry Knowles: With John Carter, it was a situation where the studio kept changing hands. Every single time we had a new studio head we had to get a new director, which was counter-productive. Every time we had a script that we all agreed we were going on, suddenly the head of the studio would change and we'd have to basically start from scratch again, which was a demoralizing sort of thing. And with Ghost Town, Revolution Studios went under before we were able to make the film. Since then I've been pretty quiet about everything I've been producing, because the thing you learn when you're working in the film business is, it's not real until it is in the can and on Blu-ray.