News from Slackerwood: Bananas, Chickens, and Demons

Along with special screenings and events, Austin has a number of independent and foreign films starting week-long runs in theaters this week. Jay and Mark Duplass' film The Puffy Chair, which played at SXSW 2005, opens today at Alamo Downtown and Arbor Great Hills, and Jay Duplass will attend Alamo screenings on Friday and Saturday night. The French thriller District B13 opens at Alamo South Lamar, Arbor, and The Dobie. Ride Around the World, a made-for-IMAX documentary about the international origins and culture of the cowboy, opens Saturday at the Texas State History Museum.

• The AFS@Dobie collaboration continues this week with three movies: Sophie Scholl: The Final Days and Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy are being held over for an extended run, and Clean starts this week. Clean stars Maggie Cheung and Nick Nolte in a drama about a musician who must fight her drug addiction in order to regain custody of her young son.
• BookPeople is donating 5 percent of sales Saturday to The Paramount Theatre. Plus, if you buy something at BookPeople, they'll give you two passes to a Summer Movie Classics film. One catch: You must bring an ad for this special to BookPeople -- tear one out of the Austin Chronicle or bring the Paramount's summer film calendar.

• Speaking of Summer Movie Classics, the Paramount has a good lineup this week: North by Northwest and Strangers on a Train on Saturday and Monday, Cobra Woman and The Gang's All Here on Tuesday and Wednesday, and two 3-D movies, The Creature from the Black Lagoon and It Came from Outer Space, next Thursday and Friday. I'd particularly recommend The Gang's All Here on a big screen: It's the Busby Berkeley movie from 1943 with the amazingly phallic Carmen Miranda musical number "The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat" (above photo).
  
• The BSide Roadshow kicks off an eight-city tour on Sunday night at Republic Square Park with a free showing of Before the Music Dies. The documentary about the music industry was made by local filmmakers Andrew Shapter and Joel Rasmussen, and premiered at SXSW earlier this year.
• Alamo South Lamar's pick for their Summer Kids' Camp this week is a movie I'd like to sneak away and see myself: Chicken Run. The 2000 stop-animation comedy is playing Monday through Friday at 1 pm, and admission is free for all ages.
• The Regal Cinema theaters around town are also showing free kids' movies: Tuesday through Thursday at 10 am, Lakeline is showing Madagascar and Westgate is showing Hoodwinked.
• Austin Film Society starts a new Tuesday night series this week at Alamo Downtown: "De/Re:Constructing the Narrative: Global Experiments in Film." The first film is Songs from the Second Floor, a Swedish dark comedy from 2000.
• To celebrate 6/6/06, Alamo Lake Creek is showing that classic film of demonic possession The Exorcist on Tuesday night. No, they are not adding pea soup to the menu for the screening.
• The Texas State History Museum begins their Texas Film Series on Wednesday nights this month. This week, you can catch a double-feature of Urban Cowboy and Michael.
• Alamo's American Screen Classics series at The Glenn continues on Thursday night with The Big Sleep. The free outdoor screenings start at sunset; bring a blanket to sit on or rent one at the venue.
• Get tickets now for the June 10 outdoor screening and cast reunion of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, the 1972 Russ Meyer film co-scripted by Roger Ebert. Sadly, Ebert won't be there next Saturday night, but Erica Gavin, Cynthia Myers, and John Lazar will be in attendance. As a bonus, Rolling Roadshow is also showing Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains afterwards.
• Contests: The Austin Chronicle is giving away tickets to sneak previews for Nacho Libre, The Lake House, and The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, as well as passes to Galaxy Highland 10 and DVDs of the 2005 film The Producers.