Local Indies

Austin Film Festival takes the "Austin" part of its name seriously, with an entire category of local films. It may seem obvious that Austin-connected movies will be in the Austin Screens category, but those aren't the only local features you'll find at the fest. We've got all the features with Austin connections listed below. Debbie will be highlighting some of the Austin short films in a preview coming up soon.

Boxing Gym (directed by Frederick Wiseman. Regional Premiere) -- Just announced on Monday, this documentary is about as local as you can get, as it's about a gym up on North Lamar. Former boxer and gym owner Richard Lord and his boxing gym regulars are featured in Wiseman's testament to community institutions.

Burned: Life in and Out of Texas Youth Prisons (directed by Emily Pyle. Austin Screens) -- Two young convicts are the focus of this documentary that questions the wisdom of the current juvenile judicial system in Texas, where 50-75 percent of its "graduates" go on to serve prison time as adults.

I don't envy the judges of this year's second annual Lights. Camera. Help. Film Festival, which ran from last Thursday through Saturday. After viewing so many great non-profit and cause-driven films and PSAs representing worthy causes, I would have had a difficult time picking the best. Three winners for feature-length, short-form, and PSA films were selected from the pool of 33 finalists. The winners will receive the proceeds from this year's festival, which includes any donations made on the website during the festival season.

The feature winner, Including Samuel, portrays a family’s hopes and struggles as they engage their child Samuel (seen above with his brother Isaiah), who suffers from cerebral palsy. Although Samuel is the main subject, his father, filmmaker Dan Habib, delivers a well-balanced film by also documenting the experiences of four other individuals with disabilities. Alana Malfy, a high-school student, is part of Beyond Access, a University of New Hampshire pilot project working with public schools to fully include students who experience the most significant disabilities. Malfy benefits from the program but she also faces social challenges that daily test the patience and understanding of classmates and teachers.

In the middle of Harmony and Me is a very telling line of dialogue. Harmony (Justin Rice) is struggling through a piano lesson, and his teacher (Jeremy Pollet) aptly sums up Harmony's playing style and personality: "You're entangled in your dedication to precision."

Indeed he is. A quintessential Austin indie, Harmony and Me -- available today on DVD and streaming through the movie's website -- is the story of the title character, a less-than-lovable loser who can't let go of his ex-girlfriend, Jessica (Kristen Tucker). His obsession with her has gone from merely pathetic to thoroughly annoying, as he subjects his family, friends, co-workers and anyone else who will listen to his hopeless pining and incessant analyses of the relationship. Despite everyone's gentle suggestions to get over it already, Harmony isn't about to move on.

Then again, Harmony's fixation on the lovely Jessica is may be understandable (albeit completely irritating), given that the rest of his life is a mostly pointless bore. He has a drab job in a drab office, a bullying boss, a grumpy, slightly dysfunctional family and equally bored friends. His only outlet is music, but even this is more of a frustration than an escape. (His lack of any real musical talent doesn't help.) Of course, Harmony might not appreciate happiness even if he found it; he's much too analytical, self-absorbed, and prone to deconstructing everything to relax and enjoy life.

In character-driven, micro-budget indie fashion, not much happens in Harmony and Me. Its ambling, laconic pace will be familiar to fans of two decades' worth of similar films that have come before it, from Slacker to Beeswax. What sets Harmony and Me apart from the others is its astute use of music as both a story element and transitional device between shots and scenes. Harmony and Me uses the music in hilarious ways, from Harmony's halfhearted piano lessons to a very funny wedding sequence featuring Austin musician Bob Schneider as a wedding singer who sings a totally inappropriate song to the very pregnant bride. (The song's most prominent lyric is "I can't change your mind.") The film's musical aspects are often deeply ironic, and none are more so than Harmony's name, for his personal relationships are anything but harmonious.

One of the films currently shooting here in Austin is a self-proclaimed "irreverent stoner comedy" called Austin High. I hadn't heard about this film until the man who knows everything about Austin movie news, Joe O'Connell, posted on his blog that Dog the Bounty Hunter had been cast in the movie. Turns out the film's director, Alan Deutsch, worked on the TV show Dog the Bounty Hunter, so that makes sense.

Further investigation led me to an Austin American-Statesman article about the production as well as the film's website, which has some entertaining stills from the shoot so far. The movie appears to be about a high school (not the actual Austin High here in town) with a stoner principal who is pressured to reform the school and mend his lazy ways.

This weekend, the Austin High production moves to Waterloo Park, and they are in desperate need of extras. I've reprinted their request after the jump. They promise "yummy snacks and sexy people," and what more do you need for weekend fun?

If you missed the Reel Women short films that played during SXSW this year, you can catch special encore screenings of these locally produced films on Friday night, April 30, at Picture Box Studios. The shorts are divided into two sections, one of which screens at 6:30 pm, one at 8:30. Many of the filmmakers are in the above photo.

Local nonprofit organization Reel Women provides support for women at all levels of experience in the film and video industries, and their member filmmakers along with cast and crew from the shorts will be at the event to answer questions. Admission is $5 for one screening, or enjoy a double feature for $8. Reel Women members are admitted for a discounted price of $3 for one screening or $5 for both screenings.

I didn't attend the screenings at SXSW, and am looking forward to seeing these films on Friday. I find the synopsis of Hung Up to be quite intriguing, done in a film noir style and told from the point of view of a dress worn by the femme fatale. The filmmaker is Erin Randall, who has also worked as a costumer on several Robert Rodriguez films. It was voted an "Audience Favorite" by attendees at the SXSW screenings.

Austin-shot indie Artois the Goat, which premiered at SXSW 2009 (with a live goat at the Ritz and everything) has finally made it to DVD after a long and successful film-fest tour. It's a sweet romantic comedy/foodie film from Cliff Bogart and Kyle Bogart (we sure do love our brother filmmaking teams in this town) that deserves more attention than it's received so far.

Virgil (Mark Scheibmeir) is a lanky slacker who spends his days working in a lab that creates artificial flavorings, and his spare time with the woman he loves, Angie (Sydney Andrews), often enjoying foreign goat cheeses procured (perhaps not entirely legally) by Virgil's mysterious and paranoiac friend Yens (Stephen Taylor Fry). Angie is unfortunately transferred to Detroit, however, and it could be a year before Virgil's company can place him in the department where he wants to work. Angie can't understand why Virgil won't take a job in a different department, creating horrible-tasting cough drops, and instead stays in Austin and increasingly becomes obsessed in making the perfect goat cheese.

Part of Virgil's inspiration comes from a book Yens has loaned him, written by Eva Verrane (Sarah Holland), a French woman in the 1940s who became a leading expert on goat cheeses. Her voiceover narration often alternates with Virgil's story in a way that now reminds me of Julie & Julia ... although that movie had not yet been released when I first saw Artois the Goat.

I've been a fan of mumblecore films since the genre arose in the early 2000s. While they are works of fiction, these low-budget, talky, relationship-centric films are often uncannily realistic. The charm of mumblecore is that the characters are everyday people who encounter everyday situations; they could be our friends and family members, and their stories could be our stories.

The 2009 film Beeswax, the third feature from filmmaker Andrew Bujalski, is an exceptional example of the genre. Now available on DVD, Beeswax is the antitheses of mainstream filmmaking. A slow-paced, narrowly focused, mostly plotless examination of human relationships, it has nary a Hollywood-glamorous character, formulaic romance or action sequence. Beeswax focuses on the ordinary -- but it does so with such skillful attention to detail that the film is in many ways extraordinary.

Bear with me while I describe what passes for the plot of Beeswax. The film follows two twentysomething twin sisters, Jeannie and Lauren, played by real-life twins Tilly and Maggie Hatcher. Jeannie, a paraplegic since childhood who uses a wheelchair, is co-owner of an Austin vintage clothing store, while Lauren is between jobs and considering teaching English overseas. Tensions mount between Jeannie and her business partner, Amanda (Anne Dodge), as their management styles conflict and communication problems cause repeated clashes between the two. When Amanda hints that the conflict may give rise to a lawsuit, a panicked Jeannie enlists help from her ex-boyfriend, Merrill (Alex Karpovsky), a recent law-school graduate who is studying for the bar exam. In true mumblecore fashion, the two reluctantly meet to discuss the lawsuit but end up in bed together, as if to avoid dealing with the problem for at least one night.

On Monday night, I headed to Alamo Drafthouse Ritz for an evening titled "Zellneroids! The Zellner Brothers Short Film Cavalcade," not sure what to expect. I did not expect live tap-dancing and singing, that's for sure.

Nathan and David Zellner are Austin filmmakers who have been making films in Austin, primarily shorts, for more than 10 years. Their short films have played festivals around the world, including Sundance. Sundance was also where their feature film Goliath premiered in 2008. I reviewed Goliath earlier this year when it was released on DVD.

From the UT Film Institute (The Cassidy Kids, Elvis and Annabelle) comes the powerful drama Dance with the One, which premiered at SXSW Film Festival last month and screened this week at the Dallas International Film Festival. Actor Michael Dolan (Hamburger Hill, Biloxi Blues) makes his directorial debut with a story co-written by Smith Henderson and Jon Marc Smith. As thrilling and suspenseful as a crime caper, it's really the family drama and determination of the main character that engage viewers.

In Dance with the One, small-time pot dealer Nate (Gabriel Luna) is in the business to support his family. Scarred by the tragic death of their mother, Nate wants to get his little brother Sitter (Mike Davis) away from his alcoholic dad Owen (Gary McCleery), as well as himself and his childhood sweetheart Nikki (Xochitl Romero) out of Texas to Oregon. Nate takes the opportunity to help his boss Bobby (Paul Saucido) -- who's also Nikki's dad -- to take care of a situation with a harder substance, hoping the money he earns will be the final push to freedom. However, things go wrong when the drugs go missing, and Nate must find a way to protect his family from the silent partner out for his investment and blood.

Have you ever been stuck in an elevator? You can probably see the comedy in that, right? And the drama? Imagine five stuck-elevator scenarios, and you can imagine Austinite Jen White's award-winning feature Between Floors.

Five very different stories play out in five separate elevators. Often funny and sometimes poignant, the tales include a lone business man, a man with a video camera, a family on their way to a party, a bloodied man and someone in a bad gorilla-in-drag suit ... and one very over-capacity elevator. The stress of being trapped and blind to any efforts to rescue them, the veneer of composure breaks down in sometimes unexpected ways.

White cuts between the elevators as each of the stories in Between Floors unfolds. With the tagline of "Sometimes getting stuck is the only way to break free," each elevator contains a different dynamic forcing the occupants to let go of some harbored anger. Ironically, the most diffuse story concerns the overcapacity crowd, but with so many potential stories, it has to be. Instead of wasting time developing those stories, White focuses on group dynamics of strangers, with amusing and insightful results. The two solo occupants do not get a chance to explain their stories, but they are still interesting to watch, one with hilarious results and the other heartwrenching.