austin, texas Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Austin was celebrating film this week before the SXSW crowds even arrived. On Thursday night, Austin Film Society held its ninth annual Texas Film Hall of Fame awards gala at Austin Studios, honoring Texans and "honorary Texans" in the film industry. It's a fundraising event for filmmaker grants and educational programs, and attire ranges from the glitziest cocktail dresses to blue jeans and cowboy boots. Thomas Haden Church emceed the ceremony, revealing surprising depths of bizarre-yet-enjoyable humor. Really, I think someone should consider him to host the Oscars next year, although I don't know what his singing and dancing talents might be.

Thirteen and Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke, shown above, received the Ann Richards award for someone in film who "who breaks barriers and forges new creative paths." Her award was presented by Brendan Fraser. The Star of Texas award for an exceptional film made in Texas went to Rushmore, which was filmed in Houst -- Luke Wilson accepted the award. Linda Gray, who nearly goosed Thomas Haden Church onstage, inducted her Dallas co-star Larry Hagman into the Hall of Fame. Keith Carradine inducted Powers Boothe. Austin filmmaker Richard Linklater shared a tribute to Texas playwright and screenwriter Horton Foote, a Hall of Famer who died earlier this year. And Dennis Quaid presented the Tom Mix Honorary Texan award to his The Alamo co-star Billy Bob Thornton, who explained to us how he was more of a real Texan than an honorary one, anyway.

We've got photos of the event's honorees in the gallery below (as well as a few other familiar-looking attendees); check 'em out.

Central Texas bloggers are, for once, all talking about the same thing: Idiocracy. Austin, Dallas and Houston were three of the seven cities in which the Mike Judge movie opened last Friday, and local film bloggers grabbed the rare opportunity to write about a movie before the New Yorkers could. In addition to the film itself, alot of bloggers are also writing about how disgusted they are with Twentieth Century Fox's limited release and non-publicity accompanying the release. Here are a few reactions from Austin and Dallas film bloggers:

• Austin Movie Blog: Sarah Lindner calls Idiocracy "not half-bad." She notes, "The main thing that bothered me, though, is that you can tell the movie is unloved. While I liked Idiocracy's inventive vision of the future, the film looks cheap and rushed, especially some special effects."
• Dumb Distraction: Micah quotes his wife: "Funnier than Beerfest." He speculates on the reasons for the limited release: "When did a little thing like bad taste prevent a studio from releasing a film?" He also experiences some very Idiocracy-like moments on the drive home.
• Matt Dentler's Blog: Matt thinks Idiocracy is definitely flawed, and that the jokes get old after a while. However, he observes that the opening sequence is "so clever it could exist as its own short film (or could be virally sent around the Web or YouTube as a guerilla marketing campaign)."

More news on a different filmmaker currently in Austin: Blake at Cinema Strikes Back alerts us to a local news clip about Death Proof, Quentin Tarantino's segment of Grind House. You can see Tarantino and Kurt Russell quite clearly over at the Texas Chili Parlor, but not that kickass car.

Letters from the Other Side brings up one of the perennial questions about documentary filmmaking: how much should you involve yourself in your subjects' lives, and to what extent? Should you run the risk of potentially affecting the outcome of your film, or is it more important to help people you encounter while shooting? Some filmmakers make a serious attempt not to have much effect on the stories unfolding around them, and don't employ voice-overs or let themselves be heard in their film. Others, meanwhile, are themselves a big part of their stories, the best-known example being Michael Moore. Heather Courtney, director of Letters from the Other Side, obviously decided to help—in fact, the stories in the documentary hinge on Courtney's ability to deliver video "letters" back and forth between women in small Mexican towns and their male relatives working in the United States.

Letters from the Other Side eloquently manages to present stories that show the relationship between Mexico and the U.S. and the unexpected side effects of recent American trade laws and border-tightening regulations. Courtney's documentary examines three family situations: Eugenia, whose husband left for the U.S. years ago when she was pregnant with their youngest daughter, and whose three sons have followed their dad to find work; Maria, a farmer whose two older sons crossed the border, and who is worried that as she and her husband grow old, no one will be left to work their own land; and Carmela and Laura, whose husbands died on their journey to the U.S. in a smuggling truck.

Karina already discussed a good half-dozen films she plans to see during SXSW this year, including the big-name opening-night film A Prairie Home Companion. My favorite films at SXSW have always been the smaller ones, the movies you figure you had better catch now because who knows, you may not have an opportunity to see them again. I am particularly fond of low-budget documentary features, and I love the animated shorts. On the other hand, it's also exciting to see a preview of a wider-release film before all your friends do, and start spreading the buzz.

I've spent entirely too much time this week tinkering with my SXSW schedule to balance the small films with the big premieres. This is silly because after the first day or two, various forces of nature and filmmaking will probably cause me to change the schedule all over again. A huge "must-see" buzz will focus around some film I hadn't planned to screen, or I'll find that I may be too weak and wimpy to see three films a day for more than a couple of days in a row.

• In the unsubstantiated rumor mill, I went to a party recently only to bump into an animator working in Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly. Cinematical recently mused on the whereabouts of Bob Sabiston, who was integral in putting together the complex animations of Waking Life. Well, drunk as my animator snitch was, he said not only did Sabiston jump ship, but he took a whole crowd with him, and now Linklater's left with half a staff. Hey, that rhymed.
• Local rag The Austin Chronicle has all the updates on upcoming film The Cassidy Kids. In producer mode, Bryan Poyser takes a shot at a sequel to Dear Pillow, about a 1980 murder solved by a rag-tag group of kids. Also making news: the Independent Feature Project (IFP) gets a chapter in Austin; vampires start filming the low-budget Insatiable in June; and if you love Star Wars but fear the light-saber, you can drive to Taylor, Texas to see the show for a mere 4 bucks. Robert Rodriguez's The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl premieres 5 days early for Austinites, on June 5th. The rest of the nation has to wait until the 10th. Ha.
• Matt Dentler wants to know: with all this film-musical-film craziness going on (he just saw The Producers in Austin, the musical based on Mel Brooks' film, which is about to be turned into yet another film) will Hollywood ever get around to making original musicals again? Note: Moulin Rouge does not count.
• The Austin Film Society starts up it's Essential Cinema Series this June with Shattering the Narrative: European Cinema 1960-1972. Showing at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown, it'll kick off on June 7th with Breathless, and close appropriately with Satryicon on July 27th.