Special Screenings

When the second annual Cinemapocalypse -- entitled Expendables Cinemapocalypse -- was announced a few weeks ago, the anticipation was extreme. People set alarms to make sure they didn't miss out on getting tickets, and the event sold out in mere minutes, even with a technical problem. The rush wasn't just for a sneak preview of The Expendables, but for the whole event, especially after the success of the 2009 Cinemapocalypse events in Austin and other cities.

The original Cinemapocalypse event was a West Coast variation of the Rolling Roadshow in early 2009, with an eight-night, four-city series of exploitation films from the Alamo vault, along with special guests. Last July, Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz rocked the socks off a theater full of film geeks with an all-night grindhouse event, also called Cinemapocalypse. The event was bookended with the local premiere of Inglourious Basterds complete with Quentin Tarantino himself, and ending with the historical drama Ip Man, based on the life story of Bruce Lee's Kung Fu master.

The highly anticipated event exceeded expectations with over 12 hours of films, trailers and special guests that left everyone as satisfied as they were exhausted. It was such a big deal that people were begging for our two-part report before the event because they couldn't get in. Unfurling Nazi banners during Inglourious Basterds and a surprise appearance from Robert Forster raised the bar again for Alamo Drafthouse events. Unfortunately, the bar was now impossible to reach.

Every summer night, hundreds of people gather to see the world's largest urban bat colony emerge from under the Congress Avenue Bridge in downtown Austin. Approximately 1.5 million Mexican freetail bats reside in this mostly female colony, until early June when each one gives birth to a single pup. On their nightly flight out from under the bridge, the Austin bats eat from 10,000 to 20,000 pounds of insects, including agricultural pests. Recognizing the benefits of these gentle animals, the City of Austin has adopted the bat as its official animal, and is hosting its first ever city-sponsored family event "Night of the Bat" to celebrate these furry and fanged flyers.

Night of the Bat kicks off on Sunday, June 6 at 2 pm with a matinee screening of the original classic film Batman (1966), featuring the Batmobile and special guest and original Batman Adam West, who will introduce the film and host a Q&A. Batman made its world premiere at the Paramount Theatre forty years ago -- and a few months after the TV series debut. As a child of the '60s I watched re-runs of Batman religiously, although I thought that Batman was overly bossy towards quasi-hearthrob Robin. Hard to believe that Adam West is 81 years old, and still making appearances -- so don't miss this chance!

Local action film fans enjoyed an extra special double-fisted dose of bone-jarring action at a free screening of Mandrill and Undisputed III: Redemption at Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar on Friday night. The audience was also treated to a Q&A with Mandrill producer and star Marko Zaror and Isaac Florentine, director of the second and third films in the Undisputed series -- seen above with Fantastic Fest and Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League.

I enjoyed Mandrill at Fantastic Fest, and it was interesting to see it again with an audience full of action fans. I was disappointed to hear that plans for an American version of Zaror's 2007 action film Mirageman have been scrapped. Zaror alluded to the release of Kick-Ass having an impact on the loss of interest in Hollywood for a film about a hero from the streets that fights only with his fists. Check out a nice photo of Zaror (wearing a Mirageman shirt!) after the jump.

Arizona's new immigration law has provoked accusations of racial profiling, since it gives police the power to stop and detain suspects if they have "reasonable suspicion" they are in the country illegally. The law has triggered a national debate about immigration and the role that local and state authorities play in enforcing federal laws. A new documentary shines a spotlight on the social and economic impacts of immigration policies, including racial profiling.

The documentary 9500 Liberty, directed and produced by SXSW Award Winner Eric Byler (Americanese) and Coffee Party Movement founder Annabel Park, depicts the battleground in Prince William County, Virginia and on the Internet in the battle over immigration policy. Anti-immigration networks used online media to frighten local lawmakers and citizens in Prince William County. In order to counteract the racial divisions that occurred in their community, residents formed a resistance using YouTube videos and virtual townhalls. The inflammatory showdown between the groups had profound and devastating social and economic impacts in their community. 9500 Liberty shows how real people and local businesses were affected by the "Immigration Resolution."

We have two winners from last week's Simmons on Vinyl contest. Each winner will be able to pick up two pairs of tickets before the Austin Film Festival-sponsored screening at Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek on Thursday night. Winners, I will be emailing you today with the details.

Congratulations to Cecy Correa and Zack Teibloom. Zack's favorite album on vinyl is Led Zeppelin I, and Cecy's is Saturday Night Fever.

For everyone else, you can still buy tickets for Thursday night's screening and they are quite affordable ($4), so check it out. Here's my review again if you need a refresher on what the movie is about.

Did you know that 2010 marks both the 200th anniversary of Mexico's independence and the 100th anniversary of its Revolution? I didn't until this year's Cine Las Americas International Film Festival. 

To celebrate the dual anniversary, Cine Las Americas is programming related free movies and Mexican films in general for the rest of the year, starting with a four-film series co-presented by the Harry Ransom Center.

"The Mexican Revolution Films of the 70s" includes four rare features by influential directors that explorethe Mexican Revolution and other national realities from a period of unprecedented latitude. Here are the four films and the descriptions from the Cine Las Americas website:

• El prinicipio (The Beginning), directed by Gonzalo Martínez Ortega. "Mexico is in the midst of Revolution when the protagonist returns after studying in Paris to find his native town in Chihuahua occupied by Francisco Villa’s revolutionary forces. He visits his deserted home and remembers people and events from his adolescence that provide glimpses of pre-Revolutionary society under dictatorship." (May 6)
• Cananea, directed by Marcela Fernández Violante. "Colonel William Greene, in an expedition across the Sonoran desert, stumbles upon large copper reserves. Almost immediately he decides to set up mines and he quickly becomes one of the wealthiest men in the region. His ambition, however, leads him to mistreat and exploit the men working in the mines." (May 13)

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.

On Sunday, cast and crew of Simon Rumley's latest film, Red White and Blue, slipped away from SXSW to another theater for a private screening before the official world premiere of the film. The events reunited the entire cast and crew for a special celebration and viewing of the final cut of the film. The theater was eerily quiet as everyone focused on the dark and gruesome sequence of events unfolding on the screen. Actors Noah Taylor, Marc Senter and Nick Ashy Holden (pictured above) were all sitting together. As a filming location for last summer's shoot, I enjoyed recognizing my house in several scenes. Just look for the Fantastic Fest poster in the film and you will understand why I have trouble leaving the curtains open at night.

Red White and Blue is reminiscent of Rumley's The Living and the Dead in that once again he is not afraid to expose raw nerves -- like a bad car crash, you can't help but look -- but stylistically it's the cinematography and direction takes on a different approach. Stay tuned for Jenn Brown's review of Red White and Blue.

Red White and Blue plays SXSW one more time: Friday, March 19 at 9 pm at Alamo South Lamar.

[Photo credit: Noah Taylor, Marc Senter, and Nick Ashy Holden, by Debbie Cerda for Slackerwood, on Flickr. More photos are available on our Flickr page.]

Like most people, I've been vaguely familiar with the national non-profit organization United Way all my life. Several years ago I was fortunate to meet and get to know Mando Rayo (in the center of the above photo), Director of United Way Capital Area volunteer match program Hands On Central Texas. In response to a Facebook message from Mando, I volunteered for the 2-1-1 Texas phone bank during Hurricane Ike -- one of the most humbling and memorable experiences in my life. That's just one of the many innovative ways that the United Way Capital Area is using social media and other forums to bring folks together to address critical social issues in our community.

This spring, United Way Capital Area will introduce their Live United film series in Austin. This series, co-hosted by Austin PBS affiliate KLRU-TV, provides Central Texans an opportunity to explore critical community issues such as education and financial stability through film and dialogue. Each film will include a panel discussion with community leaders and issue experts in the field. In addition to enjoying film and meaningful conversation, audience members will receive a list of resources and opportunities about the issues being addressed and ways to promote change in our community.

There is so much I love about being a member of Austin Film Society, but high on my list is the Essential Cinema film series, which often features films that haven't been made widely available in the United States. The latest series, "Children of Abraham/Ibrahim 4: Films of the Middle East and Beyond" provides insights into Middle Eastern history and culture. From Chale Nafus, AFS Director of Programming:

"Our fourth annual series will continue looking at films from the Middle East and beyond -- an area rich in tumultuous history, wonderful art and literature, but often mired in war and misunderstanding among the three religions which all trace their roots back to Abraham/Ibrahim. This is our local attempt to bring human faces and individual stories to the statistics and overwhelming images seen on TV and computer screens daily throughout the world.

"Our four contemporary films and two classics will take us to Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Turkey, and Pakistan. We will see unrequited love in a train station, struggles over ownership of land, the troubles a father has just getting home to a birthday party, a son struggling with his father over education, the ethnic and religious divisions within an Israeli neighborhood, and the lengths to which a politician will go to avoid responsibility for his actions."

The series starts tonight and runs through February 16, and screenings for this month include: