Special Screenings

Austin Film Festival and the Blanton Museum of Art have teamed up to bring us more good movies over the next couple of months. The New Directions Summer Film Series will focus on "the exceptional work of emerging independent filmmakers," and several of the films in the series were shot locally.

The series kicks off on Thursday, June 18 with one of my favorite Austin-shot films that hasn't had a theatrical release: Gretchen, directed by Steve Collins and photographed by P.J. Raval. Watchmaker Films may be releasing it on DVD soon, but in the meantime, this is a chance to see this oddly sweet movie in a theater. I reviewed the film when it played SXSW in 2006.

Another Austin-connected feature ends the series: Shotgun Stories, written and directed by Austin filmmaker Jeff Nichols. The drama, which stars Michael Shannon, won a Best Narrative Feature award from AFF in 2007 and was also nominated for an Independent Spirit award.

You can catch the series at the Blanton's new auditorium on the University of Texas campus, on the Sundays and Thursdays listed below. Admission is $5 -- or $3 if you're an AFF member, a Blanton Museum member, or UT Austin faculty/staff/student.

Full schedule after the jump: