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THE ALAMO
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PERMIT NO. 2026
THE SET OF THE ALAMO IN DRIPPING SPRINGS.
PHOTO BY CHRIS CASELLI.
PERSISTENCE OF VISION
|
THE JOURNAL OF THE AUSTIN FILM COMMUNITY
P.o.V.
VOL.9
|
NO.1
|
Notes from the Alamo
LAST MAN STANDING
SPRING 2004
The humanistic films of Islamic Iran
CONTENTS
02
03
07
09
11
13
15
Be your own hero.
A FA R E W E L L N O T E
VIEWFINDER
Elizabeth Avellàn.
THE ALAMO
Mounting the Stage.
“EXCEPT FOR DANNY”
Q&A with Jeffrey Travis.
Robert smiled — flattered but perhaps a little embarrassed — then fixed his gaze on me,
and with gentle, inspiring conviction said, “Be your own hero.” It’s probably the best advice
anyone’s ever given me. (Although years later Guillermo del Toro would periodically offer
other compelling advice so riddled with profanity and disturbing imagery I’m reluctant to
put it in print.)
DROP DEAD SEXY
Struts Its Stuff.
DOCUMENTARY DIGEST
Documenting Politcs, Documenting Life.
The following year I moved to Austin, and have aspired to stay here ever since. It is the city
I love. It is the city I call home.
INDIE AUSTIN
DEAR PILLOW Breaks out of Austin.
EXHIBITIONS
The Humanistic Films of Islamic Iran.
PUBLISHER’S
17
18
21
23
NOTE
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Leah Marino.
MEMBER NEWS
AUSTIN STUDIOS
Behind the Behind-the-scenes.
AFS
Fame and the AFS Mission.
I first met Robert Rodriguez and Elizabeth Avellàn eleven years ago at Sundance following
an exuberant screening of EL MARIACHI, which would go on to win the coveted Audience
Award. (I’m proud to say I voted for it.) At the time I was a journalism undergrad at Texas
A&M, a month away from founding the student-run Texas Film Festival (which happily
continues to this day). I was so impressed with them – not merely by their achievement, but
by their character — that I couldn’t help but tell Robert, “You’re my new hero.”
Thanks to Austin, I’ve had the great pleasure of working with people like Tim McCanlies,
Guillermo del Toro, and Harry Knowles. In the past few months alone, I’ve had the privilege
to chair the UNSEEN CINEMA series at the Alamo Drafthouse for UT’s Harry Ransom Center,
organize the Austin premieres of HELLBOY and SECONDHAND LIONS at the Paramount, direct
and produce my first short film (on HD no less, thanks to the good folks at Martini
Shot), and help overhaul PoV as editor-at-large.
We are grateful to
Paul AlvaradoDykstra for his year
of service to AFS as
Editor-at Large of
PoV. Over the last
year PoV has
become more
relevant, readable
and reflective of our
diverse and vibrant
community. We
wish Paul success
in all his ventures.
Next PoV we will
introduce a new
guest editor.
PUBLISHER
I share this not to toot my own horn, but to demonstrate that, yes, one person can make
a difference — and sometimes even should. If we simply settle for what we’re given,
we deserve what we get; I, for one, am reluctant to settle, and think we deserve more
(and better). This isn’t to take anything away from what we already have, and what’s
already being done — just that we would be remiss if we don’t build on it.
As great as Austin is right now, we need bold vision and decisive action to seize our
current momentum and fulfill our potential. We need to continue expanding our
production facilities and resources. We need to offer more training and experience to
expand and deepen our pool of crew and actors. We need to offer more focused,
tangible support to develop and nurture the next generation of Austin filmmakers.
REBECCA CAMPBELL
MANAGING EDITOR
GREGORY COLLINS
In the coming months, these are the goals upon which I will focus my attention, and I invite
you to join me.
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Onward,
Paul Alvarado-Dykstra
Editor-at-Large
MARC ENGLISH
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
MEGAN YOUNG
DESIGN STAFF
BART KIBBE. BETSABE RODRIGUEZ.
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
ELIZABETH AVELLÀN. REBECCA CAMPBELL.
GREGORY COLLINS. JAMES ELROD. LAURA
HOWARD. CHALE NAFUS. CHRISTIAN
RAYMOND. DOMINIC SMITH. MEGAN YOUNG.
EDITOR-AT-LARGE
PAUL ALVARADO-DYKSTRA
PUBLISHED BY
THE AUSTIN FILM SOCIETY
1901 EAST 51 STREET
AUSTIN, TEXAS 78723
P.S. I’d very much like to thank Rebecca Campbell and the Austin Film Society for allowing
me to play in their sandbox this past year, and particularly Marc English for his wonderful
design work. But I especially want to thank Gregory Collins, who a year ago was editorial
assistant, and has grown into full-fledged managing editor. PoV couldn’t be in better hands!
Paul Alvarado-Dykstra heads Montgolfier Heavy Industries (www.montgolfier.net), chairs the organizing
committee for IFP/Austin, and serves on the board of the Film Texas Fund, supporting the Texas Film
Commission. He is also a partner in the development of a new state-of-the-art studio complex, and in his spare
time publishes robogeek.com.
VIEWFINDER
A Beautiful Support System.
B Y E L I Z A B E T H AV E L L À N
Film is not always easy to advocate. Not only is film a very, very
risky venture from a financial standpoint, it is also an extremely
volatile and unpredictable industry. There are no absolutes and no
guarantees. This may be a less-than-optimistic introduction to a film advocacy column, but
stating those realities adds perspective and pride to the fact that Austin’s film industry is
The continued success
and growth of Austin’s film
industry is dependent on
the care and nurture of
the entire city.
vibrant, alive and stronger than ever. ¶ Austin has so much to offer any production. From
desert to forest and from small town to urban center, Austin offers a hard-to-find variety of
locations as well as an experienced and unjaded crew base. Austin has good casting
directors, good production facilities, sufficient equipment suppliers and perhaps most
importantly, a beautiful support system and film-friendly atmosphere. However, it is not a
competitor to either Los Angeles or New York. Austin’s film industry is not self-contained.
As an Austin-based producer, I maintain strong ties to both LA and NY first because of
Troublemaker Studios’ associations with Miramax/Dimension. And, as far as post
E L I Z A B E T H AV E L L À N i s a n A F S
board member and co-founder of
Troublemaker Studios. She is currently
producing SIN CITY and is in pre-production on
A PRINCESS OF MARS. Her credits include SPY
KIDS 3D and ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO.
production is concerned, while Austin has a steady flow of production, we do not have near
the volume of Los Angeles or New York –– where post production businesses, such as film
processing, can stay busy and remain competitive in their industry. ¶ The most important
way to keep production coming back is by properly servicing the movies that come into
town and by continuing to make the permit process better for the citizens of Austin and
easier for film companies. Thankfully, Austin film is in very good hands, including those of
Tom Copeland of the Texas Film Commission and Mayor Will Wynn and the City Council (at
that, we are fortunate that Governor Perry is also a strong advocate of film). These leaders
provide a great example for the people of Austin. What Austinites must keep in mind is
that, from industry professional to casual moviegoer, the continued success and growth of
Austin’s film industry is dependent on the care and nurture of the entire city. ¶
Every studio in LA is taking notice of what is happening in Austin and in Texas and the
result of that attention can only mean good things locally. Between 60 and 70% of a film’s
budget is spent where that film is shot. For example, on my films, that has meant tens of
millions of dollars brought into the local economy through expenditures at hotels,
apartments, florists, dry cleaners, supermarkets, crew salaries, equipment suppliers,
actors’ and out-of-town crew members’ per diems (spent at restaurants, grocery stores,
clubs, shows, salons, etc), the endless amount of construction and propmaking materials,
wardrobe and fabric purchases, and the like. The care and nurture of Austin’s film industry
truly is a city-wide responsibility as all of the vendors listed above are not only necessary
and legitimate parts of our film industry, their presence and participation combined with
Austin’s friendly and respectful embrace of film productions are what keep actors, directors
and producers coming back to Austin again and again.
TROUBLEMAKER STUDIOS
At Troublemaker Studios, we are working on
some very exciting projects and we hope to
make them all in Austin. We just started
shooting a dark but cool project based on
the graphic novels of Frank Miller called
FRANK MILLER'S SIN CITY. In all of our projects,
we take universal themes, add elements of
ourselves and produce films that show how
similar we are as human beings in spite of
our differences. With Robert Rodriguez, you
know it will be fresh and creative and that
he will take the concept of filmmaking
further every time.
Mounting the stage.
Notes from THE ALAMO set
BY DOMINIC SMITH
We drive
onto THE ALAMO set one day in early February, nine
months after the close of principal photography at Reimers’ Ranch
in the Hill Country near Dripping Springs.
Steve White, my tour guide and one of the assistant location managers on the movie, brings his
aging Ford pickup to a stop on a limestone ridge to allow us an uninterrupted view. Below us
stretches the 51-acre set footprint that combines an open battlefield, the reconstructed
settlement of San Antonio de Bexar, circa 1836, and the compound and mission of the Alamo.
From the middle of the town square rises an enormous worn-pink church — domed and towered
— which is flanked on all sides by squat, lime-washed houses and a few adobe storefronts with
canvas awnings flapping in the breeze. Two hundred feet behind the town, closer to the
limestone bluffs of the Pedernales River, is the Alamo itself. We can see its pumice-colored
façade, a series of hewn-log battlements, and a cannon angled up from behind a wall. White
gestures out the window of his pickup and says wanly, “For ten months of my life this was
my office.”
In fact, the set served as office for up to 1,000 people on each of the 111 days of shooting.
The $107 million Disney production, directed by John Lee Hancock, was the biggest ever to
come to Texas and was reputed to be the largest standalone set in North America. The scale of production
planning and execution was akin to building a small town.
On Reimers Ranch alone — one of the film’s five Austinarea locations — the transport department trucked in 15
million pounds of gravel to make roads (which could later
be removed), erected stop signs, and ran a shuttle service
for the cast and crew. The greens department planted the
battlefield with sunflowers and corn and the mission
rooftops with grasses of the era. The catering department
stocked two 40-foot refrigerated food trailers, and served
up to 2,000 meals a day in two enormous dining halls. The
locations crew dug wells, pumped up water from the
Pedernales River, brought in additional electricity, and
moved telephone wires that threatened to make a modern
cameo in the period film. An army of construction workers,
carpenters, plasterers, and painters built the town
according to designer Michael Corenblith’s exacting,
historical vision. They turned plywood and plaster into
aged adobe, mortar, and stone.
At the front of the ranch, an encampment of re-enactors
was set up, complete with showers, tents, and cooking
facilities. As battle scenes loomed on the production
schedule, it became a military field school where reenactors on both the Texan and Mexican sides were taught
the marches of the time and how to handle period
weapons. Chris Hadlock, an extra who ended up in the
Battle of San Jacinto (actually shot in Bastrop), recalls the
rigors of the training: “They taught us how to march and
screamed at us as if we were in boot camp. They showed
us how to load and fire real black powder muskets. What I
mostly remember, though, is running through a field in the
105-degree May heat in several layers of wool clothes,
screaming like a maniac.”
The casting and management of extras was a major
strategic challenge for the film. Billy Dowd and his casting
team, including Austin locals Carmen Valera and Victoria
Acosta, had to recruit and keep track of 3,000 costumed
extras playing townspeople and soldiers. Embedded within
that number was a large Hispanic contingent needed for
the Mexican army. Carmen Valera recalls how they reached
a large portion of the Austin-area Hispanic population:
“Most of the people we recruited had never worked on a
film before and many of them spoke very little English. We
placed ads with Spanish-speaking radio and newspapers
and hung signs in cantina windows. We managed to reach
a lot of our target audience that way.” A few such extras
— people who had never walked onto a movie set before
— were upgraded in the course of filming to speaking
roles and stunt work, becoming members of the Screen
Actors Guild in the process.
A large-budget film has a wide ripple effect on the local
community and economy — far beyond the immediate
realm of production companies, casting
agencies, and construction crews. If
ever trickle-down economics held true,
it’s with a movie like THE ALAMO, which
enhanced the bottom line of a
bewildering array of local businesses.
Davis Tire and Automotive, a local
repair outfit on Highway 290, patched
and replaced some $6,000 worth of
flat tires as the jagged Hill Country
terrain took its toll on production vehicles. Sharp Propane
at Lake Travis delivered some 16,000 gallons of propane
to the set for heating, cooking, and period sconce lighting.
Joe Fiske, who ran the craft service (which provides all the
food and beverages on a film set outside the catered
Everybody
found a way to
connect with
this film. I think
there was a lot
of Texas pride.
meals) recalls the film’s sheer demand: “Over the course
of shooting we served about 30,000 gallons of coffee and
probably 60,000 donuts and pastries. We consumed
5,000 cubic tons of ice. The scale was staggering.”
But THE ALAMO is important to the Austin filmmaking
community for reasons that go far beyond economics. As
Steve White and I enter the ghost town of the
reconstructed San Antonio de Bexar, he tells me about the
support that came from all quarters for this quintessential
Texas story: “Everybody found a way to connect with this
film. I think there was a lot of Texas pride. The
neighboring ranchers went out of their way to help.
Sometimes they came to watch and ate pizza with us.
Then they went home and allowed us to fill the place with
cannon fire and floodlights.” That sense of support, based
in part on an allegiance to the story of the Alamo, was also
encountered at the film’s other locations — the Driskill
Hotel, the Paramount Theatre, Pedernales State Park, and
the Lost Pines Nature Ranch near Bastrop — where
Texans went out of their way to ensure smooth shooting.
In the end, it’s the Alamo’s story of courage under fire and
heroism against all odds that seems to inspire the film’s
supporters, and keeps them counting down the days until
its April 9 release. For many Texans, it’s not just another
movie. I get a sense of this as my set tour comes to an
end. We walk into the Alamo compound and stop in front
of the ruined mission. Inset on the façade is a statue of a
saint holding a cross in one hand and a human skull in the
other. Steve White leads me to the north wall
of the compound, where the film’s Mexican
army made their final siege and countless
men on both sides were killed. He tells me
how the siege sequence was filmed on the
same day — some 170 years later — as the
historic battle. Steve recalls how John Lee
Hancock and 1st assistant director, K.C.
Hodenfield, asked for a minute of silence on
the set before filming the final, bloody siege.
“It was an incredible moment,” White says,
his voice trailing off. I wait for him to say
more. Then he takes off his baseball cap,
pulls up his shirtsleeve and shows me the
goose bumps on his arm.
Suddenly, standing beside a defense wall
made of plywood and stucco, looking out
onto a movie-set battlefield, the weight of
THE ALAMO’s story seems clear.
Dominic Smith is a freelance writer who recently
graduated from the Michener Center for Writers. In 2003,
he received the Dobie Paisano Writing Fellowship from the
Texas Institute for Letters.
PoV
How did Fox find out about you? Where did they see your short film?
JT
I made a two-minute short last year called "What's Wrong With This Picture?" It's
about a kid who draws a picture that comes to life, with unintended consequences. I had no
big plans for it, as it was mainly something personal I wanted to do so I could experiment with
animation and live action combined. To my surprise, it did really well at a bunch of film festivals
last year, including SXSW and Tribeca, and was showcased online at AtomFilms.com, iFilm.com
and TriggerStreet.com.
Q&A WITH
EXCEPT FOR DANNY CREATOR
JEFFREY TRAVIS
BY GREGORY COLLINS
FOX saw it online and sent me this e-mail saying they wanted
to give me a little money to do a TV show based on the
concept. They asked me to write the show and then film two
scenes as a concept, which is what we are doing here in
Austin. If they like it, on to the next step.
As clichèd as it sounds, the Internet really did open up some
doors. It wasn't like I was pitching Fox a TV show. They saw it on the web, e-mailed me, and
offered this small deal. No agents, no inside studio connections, no Hollywood lunches.
The local filmmaker
talks about
transforming his
acclaimed short film
into a presentation
pilot for Fox TV.
PoV
How have your experiences in film prepared you for this opportunity?
JT
If I had only made one short, I'd probably feel pretty intimidated about writing and
directing a pilot for a major studio. But in the last three years, I made a bunch of short films.
This included founding Project Seven (www.projectseven.info), a film co-op challenged to
create seven shorts in one year. Writing, directing and producing over 15 shorts, talking to
people in the industry, asking everyone how they do their job, whether it's a script supervisor or
DP… it's all given me a handle on what it takes to make a good production happen — creatively,
technically, and business-wise.
The other thing that helped has nothing to do with filmmaking. It's the personal experiences —
which everybody has and gives them a unique perspective. I grew up as a missionary kid in
Argentina, and didn't move to the U.S. until I was 18. That's given me, for better or worse, a
certain way of looking at the world, at our culture, that I feel can't help but infuse what I work on.
The films I've made, some have won awards, some will forever remain in obscurity. I've learned
that as an artist you must always continue to hone your craft, and keep creating every day,
whether you are being cheered on, or are in the pits of loneliness. Having my own small
business also taught me that you have to be smart about the financial side of things. The
business side of film (and TV) really does matter.
PoV
What will a TV series mean for your filmmaking aspirations?
JT
I've always principally been interested in telling original narrative stories on film. I was
developing a feature (and still am) when Fox called. So a series was a really new idea for me,
as I had never even considered pursuing that type of structure. I don't really watch much TV,
but started looking at some of the better shows.
That persuaded me that, yes, maybe this can be a great outlet for creating characters we fall
in love with and want to watch week after week. I'm really enthusiastic about this. I don't think
anything quite like it has ever been made as a series for adults. I mean, we have an animated
Stickman running around, blowing up things, who transforms the quirky family of prodigies he
lives with.
The other thing the series means is validation, personally.
It feels great to have a major studio backing your work and
Fox has been quite exceptional at championing a concept
that I wouldn't have guessed studios would want to do.
PoV
What will a TV series based in Austin mean for
our city?
JT
I hope that it would help solidify the film and TV
industry here. Austin is home to some of the biggest film
productions already, although there's still a lot of room to
grow in terms of nurturing local talent. But having a series
here would just add another economic and creative pillar
— an element of permanence to Austin as a production
center.
PoV
What is it like working with a major network? For
the pilot, are you able to maintain creative control?
JT
It's been really interesting. This is the first time
for me to work with a network or studio. The people I work
with at FOX are super nice, accessible and supportive. I
haven't met any of the cigar-chomping, profanity-extruding
producers… yet.
Creative control, for the most part, I have been able to
keep. Not all, of course. Getting strange or conflicting
notes back from the studio can be frustrating (my first
experience with “they don’t get it”). But overall, the
experience has been very positive. I've been allowed to run
with this ball a lot more than many writer-producers, from
what I hear. In the end, the final story and concept is still
mostly mine, even if some details had to be changed for
the studio, which is why I feel I can feel passionate and
proud of what we shot.
PoV
How has Austin factored into your career track?
What will Austin's role be in the future?
JT
I moved from Argentina to Austin to go to U.T.
It's a funny destination, because Travis County, the Alamo
— it's part of my history even though I didn't grow up
here. William B. Travis was my great-great-great-(never
sure how many)-uncle. So I feel a special connection and
I love the town. I've lived here 14 years now, so I consider
myself an Austinite.
I've been to L.A. and New York but I would much rather be
here. Our film biz is nowhere as mature, but there is a lot
of good energy from the crews that I don't think you could
get in those other cities.
And I have young kids, so I'd much rather have them grow
up here. If I have my way, I will stay in Austin and keep
making movies or TV shows.
PoV
If the pilot is picked up, will the series be
produced in Austin? Is the City of Austin an important
part of the idea?
JT
If it's up to me, yes. The series is about a family
of prodigies. The dad, who is Hispanic, is a business whiz
who runs for mayor of a fictional Austin township that
looks suspiciously like Westlake. The 15-year-old daughter
is a performer in the Austin Ballet. The 11-year-old son is
out to take on Michael Dell with his new line of watercooled computers. The mom is on a quest to find organic
BBQ. So there's just a lot details that I've worked into the
fabric of the family and stories that give it a unique Austin
flavor. And I think that's interesting to audiences. Even
people who haven't been to Austin feel charmed from the
hearsay about the city.
I feel fortunate to be in Austin doing what I do, it's such a
supportive film community. I want to say thanks to all the
folks out there who are working hard making films and
shows, many of whom I've had the pleasure of having on
my crews. People like Seth Caplan, Damon Chang and
Molly Ainsley are doing a tremendous job helping me put
this project together, along with many others.
PRODUCTION JOURNAL
Drop Dead Sexy
struts its stuff.
B Y C H R I S T I A N R AY M O N D
Some would say that successfully making and
distributing an independent film takes a rare
conglomeration of synchronous cosmic elements.
Demystified, what are we talking about here? A provocative script. A
divergent, yet commercial vision. Financial backing. Exceptional crew
and a name cast. A proactive producer team with solid domestic and
foreign distribution plans.
Austin’s latest independent feature, DROP DEAD SEXY, hopes to lay
claim to all the above.
Budgeted at $1.3 million and financed almost exclusively by local
funding, the film is a collaboration of homegrown Texas talent and
notable Hollywood stars. The cast includes Crispin Glover, Jason Lee,
Lin Shaye, Xander Berkeley and Pruitt Taylor Vince. It was shot over a
four-week period in March with an approximately 90 percent local crew.
Set in small town Texicana, DROP DEAD SEXY is a dark comedy about
the desperate escapades of Frank (Lee) and Eddie (Glover), who lose a
bundle of cash in a contraband delivery scam gone bad. To recoup their
boss’s money and save their own hides, they exhume a woman’s grave
in hopes of selling her jewelry. Not finding the goods, they’re forced to
flee with the dead-yet-oddly-charismatic woman’s body, which Eddie
forms a compassionate bond with. On the run and fearing for their lives,
Frank and Eddie must navigate a farcically interconnected web of lies
and double-dealings if they hope to survive.
The film’s fortuitous pilgrimage to the big screen may have been jumpstarted by a chance encounter in Austin. “It doesn’t matter where you
go, the Four Season’s Lounge is always a good place to start,” said
director Michael Philip. In a case of mistaken identity, two camps came
together while waiting for their prospective parties. In typical Austin
fashion, Philip received a hospitable recommendation to take the
project to local 501 Studios and Richard Kooris. The ball started rolling
downhill from that point.
Actress Audrey Marie Anderson
Budgeted at $1.3 million and financed almost exclusively by
local funding, the film is a collaboration of homegrown Texas
talent and notable Hollywood stars.
DROP DEAD SEXY is the first co-production
between Arrival Pictures and GSD&M’s Mythos
Studios. Richard Middleton and Duncan
Montgomery are also on board as producers.
To attract investors (ranging from oilers to
other business folk), a three-minute video was
created to pitch the project in lieu of more
traditional methods. “What they really want to
know is how does it compare to an East Texas
oil deal?” said Mythos Studios head and
executive producer Tim McClure. The video
pitch incorporated actual film clips of the
stars plugged into a short synopsis of the story.
McClure, co-founder and chief creative officer
of advertising powerhouse GSD&M, says “I
often joke that I’ve been making 30-second
films for over 30 years, so this is obviously
longer than that, but I believe the discipline to
tell a story in 30 seconds gives you a great
sense of discipline to tell a longer story.”
Plus, “Austin is a rich place to shoot,”
according to executive producer and
cinematographer Kooris. “We have such
fabulous crews and a community that is still in
love with film.” He says the film will ideally be
cut and ready for release by fall.
Added co-producer and production supervisor
Dirk Higdon, “It speaks a lot about this
community that even though there’s a lot going
on in town right now we can still find a great
crew. It’s the whole spirit of ‘I really like this
script and want to work with these people.’”
Q & A with Michael Philip
How did you come upon the script?
Well, I’d always been looking for a project
to call my own. Being a work-for-hire
producer is a pain in the ass, especially
when you’re like one of 16 producers on
a project and in danger of being bumped,
which almost happened to me on my last
film. So I thought, you know, I’m going
find my own project and raise my own
money. “Why are you doing this?” people
asked. “You’re not in the money. Why
you?” But I said, you know, too many
people I see are doing it. Too many
people are getting money that shouldn’t
in my mind. I remembered a script from
a good friend in New York – one of his
students wrote it, called GRAVE ROBBERS.
That was the early title and first draft.
What drew you to the material?
I have this philosophy of wanting to do
independent films, which is interesting
since my parents and family have always
worked on studio films. I always kinda
liked the independent work. I like the
energy and it’s much more what I want to
see in theaters.
The two main characters have a sort
of “Of Mice and Men” relationship. How
was this developed?
The script initially didn’t have the Eddie
and Frank characters at all. I had a friend
that I had grown up with for a long, long
time who was manic OCD, ADHD, AHD –everything, personality defects. He was a
friend simply because he was always
there, you know? He would always come
over like “hey, you’re my best friend” but
he didn’t have any friends.
What brought you and the project to
Austin?
Well, the story was originally set in Maine
and I came to Texas really looking for
money at first. A friend of a friend
introduced me to Charles Acosta who’d
made a film called PENDULUM. Within
my first two days in Austin I’d met him,
our co-producer Dirk Higdon and
executive producer Richard Kooris over at
501 Studios. We actually spent our first
five or six months in Dallas. Richard
Kooris gave the script to his partner and
I had no idea he was the “M” in GSD&M,
Tim McClure. We meet with Tim and
Richard and Tim just loved the script and
said yeah, we’re going do this. Of course,
as always, there were some road bumps
along the way too.
What are some of your biggest challenges
direction-wise?
The biggest obstacle to shoot a movie like
this – that’s character-driven and driven
by performances – is that you’ve got to
keep it moving, so you can’t really get
stuck on money covering it over and over,
and everything is so important that you’ve
got to keep moving in order to make your
schedule. I think that’s the biggest
obstacle production-wise.
Screenwriter Christian Raymondis Outreach
Coordinator for the Austin Film Society.
DROP DEAD SEXY cinematographer
Richard Kooris
D O C U M E N TA R Y D I G E S T
Paul Stekler specializes in the interpretation of politics in America. He
takes a topic that runs the gamut from tedium to chaos and unmasks it
with humor, intellect and skill. His latest film, LAST MAN STANDING, balances
insightful commentary on modern campaigning with the sometimes unbelievable characters
that populate the political landscape. Stekler’s career as filmmaker, professor, and — first and
foremost — self-proclaimed life-long “political junkie” has fostered his unique take on the
American political documentary.
DOCUMENTING POLITICS,
DOCUMENTING LIFE.
PAUL STEKLER
B Y L A U R A H O WA R D
As a little boy in New Jersey, Stekler remembers being intensely
fascinated by elections. “When I was seven, my parents found me out
on a nearby corner of my New Jersey suburban neighborhood,
stopping people as they walked by, asking them if they were for John
F. Kennedy or Richard Nixon for President,” Stekler says.
Years later, Stekler chose to study politics. Following a degree in political science was a Ph.D.
in government from Harvard and a dissertation on black politics in the South. Stekler then
relocated to Louisiana, where he taught Southern politics at Tulane, and began to explore
filmmaking. In addition to TV work for local stations covering elections, Stekler and Alan Bell
made the documentary HANDS THAT PICKED COTTON, based on his dissertation. PBS bought it,
and it aired in 1985.
In 1991, Stekler collaborated on LOUISIANA BOYS: RAISED ON POLITICS with filmmakers Louis
Alvarez and Andy Kolker, the team behind the doc classic AMERICAN TONGUES. He learned an
invaluable lesson from Alvarez and Kolker: an audience can learn and laugh. “American
documentary filmmakers are humor-impaired,” Stekler says.
LOUISIANA BOYS is anything but. Focusing on the corrupt and scandalous histories of Louisiana
governors and career politicians, the documentary manages to portray the wild personalities of
such notorious politicians as Huey Long as simultaneously endearing and unfortunate.
Humor is an integral part of Stekler’s storytelling process. Whether he is trying to expose the
idiosyncrasies of the political machine or the communities that support it, he always finds the
balance between informative and entertaining. His humorous approach serves to restore those
most American of sentiments, hope and pride, even while delivering fodder for cynicism.
With his skillful eye, Stekler turned his attention to Texas. The average born-and-bred Texan is
likely to forget how different this state can be, and for locals and visitors alike, LAST MAN
STANDING is as enlightening as Stekler’s previous documentaries on Southern politics. Raised
and educated in the Northeast, Stekler has been able to look at the South as an outsider.
He views Southern politics as inherently distinct from other regions in the country because of
the vast changes the South has undergone, mainly as a result of the civil rights movement. For
him, politics in the South is not only interesting because of the transformations that have taken
place in the last century, but also because of the unique personalities and paradigms which
embody it. “I grew up in New Jersey, and we didn’t sing songs about New Jersey,” Stekler laughs,
alluding to “Texas, Our Texas” and other such songs that every elementary student knows.
LAST MAN STANDING illustrates the extremes of Southern politics: candidates campaign in church, go
door to door, sample tamales at local festivals, and become the object of many a woman’s affections.
The original catalyst for the film was the 2002 gubernatorial
and senatorial race, specifically Tony Sanchez and Ron Kirk.
Much was made of the “New Texas” the two represented.
However, Stekler and his crew did not receive much access to
their campaigns. “You want to be filming people who want you
there,” Stekler notes. Besides, neither Sanchez nor Kirk won.
So the film transformed into the story of Rick Green and Patrick
Rose as they campaigned for Texas State Representative.
American
documentary
filmmakers are
humor-impaired.
In addition to interesting characters and willing
participants, Stekler says that being in the right place at the
right time is a factor that can make a good documentary
great. The unplanned meeting of Rose and Green on
election night in the parking lot of a polling place is a
perfect example. The scene brilliantly exposes the tensions,
frustrations, and hopes of campaigning, and it was pure luck.
The hour-and-a-half long film is the product of over 200
hours of footage, shot over six months. Stekler and his editor
and co-producer Sandra Guardado spent a year gleaning the
footage, looking and listening for their story. As Stekler
describes it, editing a documentary is like taking a big piece
of stone and chipping away at it to discover the film that’s
inside.
One hundred ninety-eight hours of their work ended up on
the cutting room floor. Not all of the unused footage was
immaterial. For example, after spending days at a few
different Luling area festivals, with hours and hours of
footage, only a few dozen shots of that made it into the final
cut. For Stekler, leaving out so much footage is not painful
because it is essential to the integrity of the story.
Along with writing, directing, editing, and producing
documentaries, Stekler has become an important part of the
UT Radio-Television-Film department. As Production Area
Head and Professor since 1997, Stekler has shared what he
has learned in his twenty years as a filmmaker with
hundreds of UT students.
Stekler says, “I’ve always liked teaching. In some ways I
think teaching may make me a better filmmaker.
Filmmaking is a collaboration.” As a film professor he is
constantly honing his critical skills when explaining films to
students. Stekler is proud of the growth of the
undergraduate and graduate film departments in both the
number of students and the diversity of classes offered.
UT and Austin have become Stekler’s home and work base
and the Austin Film Society serves as fiscal sponsor for his
films. Several fellow professors have helped out as crew on
his films, and Austin’s South by Southwest Film Festival has
shown three of Stekler’s films: LAST MAN STANDING, VOTE
FOR ME: POLITICS IN AMERICA (1996), and the critically
acclaimed GEORGE WALLACE: SETTIN’ THE WOODS ON FIRE
(2000). GEORGE WALLACE received national attention and
praise, winning the Special Jury Prize for writing in a
documentary at Sundance and an Emmy for its broadcast on
the PBS series THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE.
In the coming year, Stekler will continue teaching and
making the rounds with LAST MAN STANDING. As audiences
take in the beauty queens, televised debates, and a video
endorsement supporting Rick Green from Charlton Heston,
they will no doubt appreciate Stekler’s exceptional grasp of
documentary filmmaking.
Laura Howard is graduating in May from the University of Texas at Austin
where she majored in Radio-Television-Film. She has been an intern and
apprentice with the Austin Film Society since June 2002.
INDIE AUSTIN
Dear Pillow
breaks out of Austin.
BY GREGORY COLLINS
Two filmmakers
scraped together all
the pieces of Austin
they could find and
assembled a feature
that is both a
testament to, and a
critique of, Austin’s
film scene.
If everything has an opposite, then the opposite of Austin, Texas, is very likely Park City,
Utah — home to everydance film festival. With evergreens instead of live oaks, Robert
Redford instead of Robert Rodriguez, snow sports instead of water sports, and lodges
instead of ranch houses, it seems a world away from Austin’s quotidian life.
Measured in either distance or time, the journey to Park City for Austin filmmakers Bryan
Poyser and Jacob Vaughan has been lengthy. But fresh off the successful world premiere of their
narrative feature DEAR PILLOW at the 2004 Slamdance Film Festival, they are energized and elevated.
Receptions have been warm, Q&As have been meaningful, feedback has been positive, and the vibe
surrounding the film is that with its edgy content, clean editing and sharp picture, DEAR PILLOW is very
nearly the perfect festival film — a huge accomplishment for two filmmakers who scraped together all
the pieces of Austin they could find and assembled a feature that is both a testament to, and a critique
of, Austin’s film scene.
Boy dreams of porn. Boy stumbles into world of porn. World of porn too experienced for boy,
makes boy nervous. Boy regroups, embarks on job in porn. DEAR PILLOW’s central storyline follows a
15 year-old boy’s exploration of pornography, or rather his exploration of himself and the conflicting
emotions and influences that surround him. According to writer/director Bryan Poyser, the film “is
about reality, but a reality wrapped in a fantasy.”
“A reality wrapped in a fantasy” also aptly describes the lives of the filmmakers. “Austin is
a great place to call in favors and get your film made,” says producer Jacob Vaughan. “It’s a really
good incubator for aspiring filmmakers.”
“We had a lot of people help us out,” adds Bryan. “Friends of ours, other contacts and some
people who just thought we were crazy.” With its unique and compelling story, high production value
and professional actors (including Rusty Kelley, Gary Chason and Spanish actress Vivianne Vives),
DEAR PILLOW is a remarkable accomplishment by any standard. But considering that only a fraction of
the (low six-figure) budget was out-of-pocket cash, and that both Bryan and Jake have full-time day
jobs, it is also a validation of Austin’s truly unique film-support community.
“All good projects have a guardian angel,” says Bryan. “We found ours in [Executive
Producer] Ken Murphy.” Ken, a businessman, came to the project out of a personal interest in film
and proved instrumental in securing necessary production equipment, including the Panasonic 24P —
currently among the best-quality high definition format digital cameras on the market.
“We did have some cash,” says Jake. “The Austin Film Society [through the Texas
Filmmakers’ Production Fund] allowed us to shoot the film, but when it comes down to it, this film
could never have been made without a huge amount of unpaid help.”
The aspiring filmmakers are conflicted about the amount of help
they needed for DEAR PILLOW. “We want to be professionals. We want to pay
people for their services and not have to depend on the good will of our
friends and contacts,” says Jake. “We both love Austin, we both want to live
and work here but the fact is that the industry is on the East and West coasts
— it’s really hard to make a living as a filmmaker in Austin.”
Austin is fortunate to have an elite handful of successful
filmmakers including Richard Linklater, Robert Rodriguez, Mike Judge, Tim
McCanlies, Héctor Galán, Karen Bernstein and Paul Stekler who collectively
constitute what we might call Austin’s first generation of filmmakers
(admittedly, Austin’s recent success in film is not its first film era, and it
would be remiss to omit Tobe Hooper and others who brought the first wave
of film production to Central Texas in the 1970s). But the large majority of
these filmmakers are removed from the angst of Austin filmmaking through
external financial and professional ties, using Austin (thankfully) as a home
base — a place to live and work. As it is, Austin’s next generation of
filmmakers, whose films play at festivals around the world, are state and city
employees, bartenders and bouncers, and in the case of DEAR PILLOW,
techies. (Bryan is a data analyst and Jake works for an e-learning company.)
Certainly the struggle of artists supporting themselves through
their art is age old, but for Austin, a city whose creative class is an
undeniable economic and cultural force, the question remains whether the
city’s collective energy and resources can be better maximized vis-à-vis film.
This predicament causes Jake and Bryan considerable torment. “If we want
to keep making movies, then it becomes a serious question of opportunity
and I just don’t want to be a data analyst for the rest of my life,” says Bryan.
Consequently, the lure of Los Angeles or New York has grown in the minds
of the two filmmakers, who are entertaining possible temporary moves in
search of further film education and/or funding, with the hope of returning
to Austin better equipped to make movies.
With filmmakers following the pick-up-a-camera-and-make-a-
movie model of SLACKER and EL MARIACHI, Austin is indeed fortunate to
have the growing pains it has. And despite their frustrations, both Bryan and
Jake are firmly optimistic about the city’s future. Referencing the success
of local filmmaker Alex Holdridge’s WRONG NUMBERS (winner of the
Audience Award at the 2001 Austin Film Festival), Jake says, “There is a
lot of talent in Austin egging each other on to do better and better work.”
According to Bryan, who was writing DEAR PILLOW in 2001, Alex’s
determination to complete WRONG NUMBERS was a catalyst in getting his
own project off the ground — and that domino effect continues. “After
seeing DEAR PILLOW, [filmmakers] Jay and Mark Duplass bought the 24P
and are working on their project. And Kyle Henry, who is a great editor and
actually helped us with some really big editing decisions, just finished
shooting his first feature.”
Two months after Slamdance, the filmmakers are still immersed
in their publicity efforts. DEAR PILLOW has played at or been accepted at the
South By Southwest Film Festival, the Florida Film Festival, the
Philadelphia Film Festival, the Gen Art Film Festival in New York, and the
American Cinematheque’s Alternative Screen Series in L.A. Most recently,
trade magazine Variety gave DEAR PILLOW a stellar review, something that
the filmmakers feel greatly improves their chances of landing some form of
distribution deal.
But Bryan and Jake are already at work on two upcoming projects:
the first is a psychological thriller about a woman who believes she is dead;
the second is a comedy involving a terminally ill pre-teen boy and a washedup Hollywood stunt driver together on a tornado chase. “We know that no
one is going to hand deliver our next movie to us,” says Bryan. “We have to
write it and make it ourselves.”
(For more about DEAR PILLOW, visit www.dearpillow.com.)
Gregory Collins is Executive Administrator of AFS and Managing Editor of PoV,
EXHIBITIONS
The humanistic
films of
Islamic Iran.
BY CHALE NAFUS
Visit www.austinfilm.org for details.
❖
Starting April 13th, the
Austin Film Society presents
a series of seven Iranian films.
Despite making some of the finest international films of the 1990s, Iranian filmmakers are still not
very well known outside film festivals and major metropolitan areas. They deserve our closer attention,
especially now that the Middle East is such an essential part of the American reality. Abbas Kiarostami,
Mohsen Makhmalbaf and his family, and other Iranian directors have created important works that explore
profound human issues and complex characters, many caught between tradition and modern values. It is
through their films that we might find common ground in approaching the problems of love, marriage,
repression, depression, childhood, and the daily struggle. Filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami believes that
“through film we're able to see another reality that does not resemble the one being propagated by the
media.” ❖ Although Iran has maintained a film industry since the late 1920s, it is only during the past
10 to15 years that Western critics have paid attention to their products. The one major exception would
be UCLA philosophy/filmmaking graduate Dariush Mehrjui, who returned home to film THE COW in 1969.
The Islamic Revolution of 1979 put his promising career on hold for nearly a decade, but the 90s
returned him to Iranian screens and, with LEILA (1996), to global cinemas. The latter film is a heartrending but beautiful observation of a deeply committed marriage torn asunder by the wife’s inability to
have children. Contrary to the standard stereotype of the patriarchal drive toward progeny, it is the
husband’s mother who insists on a second wife being brought into Leila and Reza’s home to provide her
with a grandson. Not one of the family men, including Reza and his father, supports the idea, but the
mother steamrolls over everyone’s whispered preference. Mehrjui’s style is one of intense close-ups of the
beautiful young woman, her face framed by her headscarf but filled with pain, and of wide shots of the
richly textured architectural details of their comfortable, modern home. ❖ Abbas Kiarostami, the most
celebrated of all Iranian filmmakers, employs a quite different style, one that attacks virtually all the
canons of contemporary filmmaking. Seemingly set in real time, some of his films are road movies slowly
traveling through rural Iran. Kiarostami is the master of the long take, more audacious than even Renoir,
Welles, or Altman, but each minute of film allows us to study many details of the setting and to learn
more about the characters. In A TASTE OF CHERRY (1997) Badii drives around picking up hitchhikers,
asking each one to accompany him to a remote, open grave and give him the requisite Islamic burial after
he has shot himself. Suicide, religious beliefs, and reasons for living are all discussed with his passengers.
AND LIFE GOES ON (1991) observes a road trip made by a director and his young son to visit regions
devastated by a recent earthquake. The man is particularly concerned about the well-being of a young
boy who had acted in one of his films. Unsurprisingly Kiarostami himself had made WHERE IS THE
THE DAY I
BECAME A WOMAN
Directed by
Marzieh Meshkini
If we must find
Western comparisons
for the Iranian cinema
of the last quarter
century, “neo-realism
crossed with Ingmar
Bergman” would be a
starting point.
Human beings
and their problems
are the most important
raw material
for any film. A B B A S K I A R O S T A M I
FRIEND’S HOME? with the same boy some four
years previously. During their journey the father
and son see much grief and loss, mixed with
determination and spiritual strength. ❖ When
asked about his gentle, unobtrusive, linear style,
Kiarostami talks of enlisting the mind of the viewer
in completing his “half-made” films. He purposely
avoids making everything clear and fully expects
the viewer to participate in the construction of
meaning. Likewise, he eschews emotional
manipulation. Any emotional response by the
audience should be genuine, not engendered by
the director through editorial techniques. ❖
Mohsen Makhmalbaf, reportedly the director most
admired by Iranian audiences, has explored
numerous styles throughout his amazing career.
Nearly 20 years younger than either Kiarostami or
Mehrjui, he has made films only under the
watchful eyes of the Islamic rulers, who often
criticize some of his decisions. As a teenager he
participated in the struggle against the Shah. After
stabbing a policeman, he was tortured and
narrowly escaped execution. The 1979 revolution
gave him an early release from prison. He was then
able to take up filmmaking. ❖ Makhmalbaf often
takes events from his own complicated history and
turns them into powerful films. Indeed, for A
MOMENT OF INNOCENCE (1996), he revisited the
stabbing incident and even employed the original
policeman/victim to be on-camera “playing” the
acting coach of the young man portraying the
policeman. BOYCOTT (1985) provides a thinly veiled
account of Makhmalbaf's arrest, torture, and time
in prison, but this time with the execution.
MARRIAGE OF THE BLESSED (1989) is a
phantasmagoric journey through the tortured mind
of a photographer returning from the horrendous
Iran/Iraq War (1980-1988). Haji is married off to
his childhood sweetheart, Mehri, who commits
herself wholeheartedly to his rehabilitation, but the
demons are too overwhelming. A description of
Haji’s photographic talents might very well apply to
Makhmalbaf: “Brother Haji’s camera is the anxious
eye of the revolution.” ❖ While Makhmalbaf
makes full use of an extreme wide-angle lens to
distort all that Haji sees, Kiarostami uses a
standard lens to allow us to see foreground and
background with minimal distortion. Kiarostami
loves landscapes and vistas with a human scale,
while Makhmalbaf has been described as an
“expressionist sketch artist exposing the cramped
and conflicted interiors of his own brain in staccato
flashes of lightning.” ❖ If we must find Western
comparisons for the Iranian cinema of the last
quarter century, “neo-realism crossed with Ingmar
Bergman” would be a starting point. Many Iranian
films focus on real people, some portrayed by nonprofessionals, in actual locations, as in
neo-realism, while the characters depict the
complex psychology, suffering, momentary joy, and
despair often associated with Bergman’s northern
cinema. As with the neo-realists, there is
unabashed sympathy for the protagonists, an
attitude that often brings reprimands from the
moral/political censors. Nonetheless, from within
this theocratic society, the major filmmakers are
working through the grand tradition of humanism.
❖ This humanistic stance should not be surprising
in a civilization with such grand accomplishments.
There have been many notable scholars, poets,
artists, and teachers during the past two-and-a-half
millennia in Persia/Iran. Social commentary,
especially by poets, has long been practiced, and
now filmmakers are the willing inheritors of this
long artistic tradition. Even with censorship,
beautiful cinematic flowers have blossomed in Iran
since 1979. Directors who have a vision and a
story will find a way to make their films, regardless
of state censorship, market censorship, or severe
economic problems. Abbas Kiarostami concurs: “I
actually sometimes think that at least in our
country art has grown the most when the social
situation has been the worst. It seems to me that
artists are a compensatory mechanism, a defense
mechanism in those kinds of unfavorable
circumstances.”
Quotations are from various articles found on this website:
www.cinemairan.com/articleview_1.cfm
Chale Nafus is the Director of Programming for AFS.
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Word of mouth.
BY MEGAN YOUNG
It’s a warm February day, typical Texas weather –– the kind of weather able to lure
people away from their hometown. For IMELDA editor Leah Marino, it was almost
that simple.
Born in Boston, Leah studied film at Boston University. In group projects she was
frequently assigned editing duties and quickly developed a love of documentary
editing. Following graduation, Leah immersed herself in what felt like a saturated
Boston documentary filmmaking community and soon began looking beyond
Boston’s city limits. Hearing promising news about Austin, she decided to take a
chance and moved to Central Texas — at least it would be warmer.
LEAH MARINO
AFS#14196 SINCE 9.12.03
Once in Austin, Leah
immediately began
editing through what
she calls “the best
way to find work here
–– word of mouth.”
Leah pulls up a frame of film on the Avid editing suite in her apartment, makes
another comment about the sunshine coming through the window, and it is evident
that her move to Austin has more than paid off. Once in Austin, Leah immediately
began editing through what she calls, “the best way to find work here –– word of
mouth.” Austin’s word of mouth put her in touch with prominent documentarian
Héctor Galán, and she signed on to his CHICANO! THE HISTORY OF THE MEXICAN
AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT as assistant editor. (The film aired on PBS in
1996.) Leah continued working with Galàn, an association that resulted in
numerous documentary projects and allowed her to hone her craft. She attributes
much of her editing talent to Galàn’s instruction.
In 1999, Austin word of mouth again delivered for this increasingly established
editor when she connected with Ramona Diaz, a filmmaker working on a
documentary about the life of Imelda Marcos, the Philippines’ first lady from 1965
to 1986. Leah jokes that as a test Ramona asked her to cut a 25-minute segment
from assembled footage that could be used to help secure funding for the project.
Apparently Leah passed, because she and Ramona spent the next two years
turning hundreds of hours of footage into the acclaimed feature-length
documentary IMELDA.
IMELDA played at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival (and the 2004 Berlin Film
Festival) where it won the Cinematography Award and received a nomination for
the Grand Jury Prize. Leah describes her experience in Park City as “unreal. Where
else can you walk down the street and everyone you meet has seen your film and
has something to say about it?” Talk about word of mouth.
Currently Leah is working on another documentary, this time with Austin filmmaker
Amy Grappell. Yet even with this promising project, PBS, Sundance, and Berlin on
her resume, Leah still seeks new experiences and would like to venture into
narrative film. So even though she doesn’t need it, consider this a little more word of
mouth.
Megan Young received her MA in Film Studies from Ohio University last year, and is currently the
Communications Apprentice for the AFS.
MEMBER NEWS
Marcy Garriott
SPLIT DECISION released on DVD
Marcy Garriott’s award-winning boxing
documentary SPLIT DECISION has been
released on DVD by First Run Features
(available on Amazon). The film tells the
story of Austin boxer Jesus Chavez, who
was deported to Mexico for a crime
committed as a teen, just as he was on
the path to a world championship. The
DVD contains a new epilogue about
Chavez’s unexpected return to the U.S.
and the achievement of his life’s dream:
the WBC superfeatherweight world
championship. The Austin Chronicle had
this to say in February: “This excellent
doc is one of the best boxing-meetscultural-warfare docs we’ve ever seen!”
Marcy Garriott is nearing the end of
production of her current project, a
portrait of underground b-boy dance crews
in Texas.
Scott Rice
Rice’s Thesis Film wins at HBO Comedy Arts
Scott Rice’s PERILS IN NUDE MODELING
(formerly THE ANATOMY LESSON) won
Best College Short at HBO’s U.S.
Comedy Arts Festival (Aspen, CO March
3-7). PERILS has won other awards
including Best Student Narrative and
Best Directing (Carolina Film and Video
Festival), Grand Jury Prize, Audience
Award, Best Cinematography and Best
Production Design (WESTfest), Best
Cinematography (Cinematexas), and
Best Student Film (Spindletop Film
Festival). Upcoming screenings include
the DC Independent Film Festival,
Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee,
Wisconsin Film Festival and Sonoma
Valley Film Festival.
Currently teaching screenwriting at UT,
Rice is in the process of finishing five
spec commercials he shot in three days
in October and continues work on his
first book, Small Stories, Big Ideas:
Demystifying the Short Film. He also has
several feature scripts in the works for
the Brant Rose Agency, and is up for an
open directing assignment for New Line
in March.
Kenneth Johnson
JESSE’S CLOSET Honored
Kayo Production is happy to announce
that JESSE'S CLOSET took third place
honors at the Spindletop Film Festival.
Previously, JESSE’S CLOSET, written and
directed by Ken Johnson, won a Jury
Award at the Hollywood Black Film
Festival and was an Official Selection in
the Urban World Film Festival in New
York City.
Eric Doggett
Local Composer Scores for IBM/TV
Film and game composer Eric Doggett
recently completed scoring a film for IBM
titled PANIC IN THE CITY. This film, shot
entirely in Austin, depicts a mock terrorist
event in downtown, and is used as a
training aid for IBM executives globally.
Eric has also completed scoring three
television spots, which are now airing in
the Austin and Houston markets.
Matthew Daley
Film radio show premieres on KOOP radio
Daley will be hosting a new half hour radio
show on KOOP radio (91.7 fm). Deeper Into
Movies will air every 1st, 3rd and 5th
Wednesday from 6:00 to 6:30 pm. It will
focus on local films, film events and the film
community. Anyone interested in promoting
their projects, organization or event or
interested in becoming involved in the show
can contact me at [email protected].
Brian Satterwhite
Film Composer's Music Hits PBS and BNAT5
Austin-based film composer Brian
Satterwhite is pleased to announce his
film MAKING THE MODERN has premiered
on KERA (Dallas), KLRU (Austin), and
KUHT (Houston). Brian composed the
score for this award-winning, hour long
documentary on the design and
construction of the new Museum of
Modern Art in Forth Worth. Brian's
music was also heard during ButtNumb-A-Thon 5 with the premiere of the
short horror-action film BLIND.
Sandra Adair, A.C.E.
Eddie Award nomination for
SCHOOL OF ROCK
Sandra Adair was nominated for the
2003 American Cinema Editors Eddie
Award for Best Edited Feature Film
(Comedy or Musical) for SCHOOL OF
ROCK, directed by Richard Linklater.
Juan Garcia
Announcing the Austin Music Network
Student Filmmakers Showcase (AMN SFS)
The Austin Music Network Student
Filmmakers Showcase (AMN SFS) is a
weekly program airing on the Austin Music
Network that will feature the short film
talents of both local and national student
filmmakers. AMN SFS incorporates student
interns as producers of the show giving
student a chance to get hands-on
television and filmmaking experience in a
real world environment. The show will
travel around the Austin and San Antonio
areas, highlighting community hot spots.
AMN SFS has already shot at the Alamo
Drafthouse, Texas Film Commission, and
Austin Studios. Shows will also be taped
from the Harry Ransom Center and the
SXSW Film Festival. AMN SFS was created
by Executive Producer/UT RTF graduate
Juan Garcia for the Austin Music Network.
Marc English Design has been retained
by The Criterion Collection to create the
packaging and menu desin for the
anticipated August release of Richard
Linklater’s SLACKER, on DVD.
The foundation of the collection is the
work of such masters of cinema as
Renoir, Godard, Kurosawa, Cocteau,
Fellini, Bergman, Tarkovsky, Hitchcock,
Fuller, Lean, Kubrick, Lang, Sturges,
Dreyer, Eisenstein, Ozu, Sirk, Buñuel,
Powell and Pressburger.
AUSTIN STUDIOS
Behind the
Behind-the-scenes.
BY JAMES ELROD
There used to be a derelict P-38 Lightning, a
now-obsolete aircraft model, sitting on the
grass off 51st Street at the Robert Mueller
Municipal Airport. As a 10 year-old, I spent many hours
playing on the P-38, watching the other airplanes and dreaming
that one day I would fly one of those planes to some strange and
wonderful place. Cut to January, 2003…
My reintroduction to the old airport compound was as a sort of
consultant-with-tools for Austin Studios. The job was to inventory
the five hangars being used as soundstages and recommend
improvements and upgrades, a task that proved both sobering and
exciting. The exciting part was the enormous uninterrupted spans
of clear floor that had been used (and were being used) in the
production of feature films, commercials, music videos and photo
shoots. The sobering part was in fully understanding the
complexities of gradually transforming an airplane hangar — a
structure solely designed to keep aircrafts out of bad weather —
into a building able to support construction, accommodate the
operation of machinery, and properly function as a soundstage.
To add perspective, when the Austin Film Society took over the
property through the creation of Austin Studios in November,
2000, the hangar roof trusses were able to support their own
weight and that of a heavy rain, but engineers preferred that any
new conduit or wiring be run along the walls of the hangar rather
than hung from the roof beams.
To say that the Studios have made progress since then would be a
vast understatement. Studio Director Suzanne Quinn led an
aggressive improvement campaign that had included partial
soundproofing, the use of security services, the acquisition of
abundant electrical power, the addition of hog’s hair (a
soundproofing material) on the roof of Stages 1 and 5, and
countless smaller upgrades ranging from plumbing to landscaping.
One of my first projects was to comprehensively survey what,
where and how the Studios’ electrical power was available. I made
a detailed diagram of the existing circuitry, carefully indicating
where all of the (what we professional electricians refer to as)
“outlets” were located and found a number of possible
improvements that could be made.
For instance, on the north wall of Stage 4, I found that
there was only one power circuit located about 300 feet
from the power source in the southwest corner of the
building. The consequent improvement was to install a
large electric branch panel on the north wall and build
rolling electric power panels which film technicians can
station anywhere within 100 feet of the branch panel
power source. In other words, we managed to make the
existing electrical power much more convenient and
accessible to film productions.
After improving the distribution of the circuitry by creating
more outlets, the next priority was to double the number
of lights in Stage 4. A well-lit airplane hangar is not a
priority, but a well-lit soundstage is par for the course. The
new lights were installed without incident until I was told
that there was a weak breaker, one that kept tripping.
Investigation revealed that the one power circuit on the
north side of Stage 4 was also the only power circuit on
the west and south walls. This meant that anytime an air
compressor or other piece of machinery was plugged into
the south wall, a section of lights would go out on the
north wall. That put another task on my to do list, but at
least this time the necessary outlets had already been
installed.
And so it happens that one improvement highlights the
need for another. With the varying urgency of different
tasks and a large number of them already crossed off, my
to do list is a very fluid document. When something comes
up and needs attention “right now” or is brand new to me,
my creativity starts flowing, and for a stagehand/techie like
me, this is the real fun of the job. More often than not, at
the end of a task “the lights come on” (if you’ll pardon my
esoteric electrical vocabulary), and all the work that went
into it is suddenly visible.
The most exciting recent addition to Austin Studios is the
28-seat screening room located just south of the AFS
offices. Though I have worked in professional theater on
Broadway for over 20 years, I have never had the
opportunity to work in a projection booth or operate
projection equipment. Back in the days when I was playing
on the P-38 Lightning, my dad had a 8mm system that he
used to show home movies and I somehow had the notion
that the full-scale 35mm projection system would be
similar. In training to be a 35mm projectionist, I have
learned that this is decidedly not the case. For example, I
knew a film could be played backwards, but who knew it
could be played in reverse order?
I suppose that Austin Studios is a little like me, evolving,
growing, learning. I started off preoccupied by airplanes;
the Studios started off occupied by airplanes. Now we’re
both in film. This could be the beginning of a beautiful
friendship.
James Elrod worked in New York for 25 years as an electrician and
stagehand on Broadway with the American Ballet Theatre and the
Metropolitan Opera. He is now head electrician at Austin Studios.
I suppose that Austin Studios is
a little like me, evolving, growing,
learning. I started off preoccupied
by airplanes; the Studios started
off occupied by airplanes.
Now we’re both in film.
04
Thanx
H A L L O F FA M E V O L U N T E E R S
The Austin Film Society thanks this year’s Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards volunteers.
We couldn’t have done it without you.
Lauren Alexander
Syd Grimes
Cindy Lindauree
Don Smith
Jarrad Aperson
Shawna Gunkel
Abby Livingston
Reed Smith
Beth Baker
Jeff Guerrero
Melissa Martinez
Sharon Swedlow
Marilyn Baird
Chris Hadlock
Chris Markey
Jennifer Taylor
Jodi Bart
Shari Hall
Maegan McClellan
Ryan Vega
Kristi Bradford
Sylvia Hall
Rhymi Midler
Diana White
Sean Bridwell
Deborah Hammond
Brad Montesi
Jenay Wrtzen
James Borowy
Robyn Herring
Ryan Nash
Jon Wells
Krysti Burkemper
Roxanne Hilburn
Don Newman
Troy Wong
Debbie Butts
Robyn Holt
Nonnie Nutting
Sara Childress
Jeanette Chalker
Christy Horton
James Ogilvie
Derek Key
Alex Christ
Kendel Houts
Amy Payton
Greg Wilson
Mandy Couts
Laura Howard
Rebecca Patterson
Megan Young
Tony Crissman
Nicole Hyde
Dominique Preyer
Nicole Daspit
Hilary Johnson
Jamie Preyer
Emily Davis
Theodore Johnson
Anita Prewitt
Neil Diaz
Flo Jones
Ellen Proctor
Rona Distenfeld
Joel Keith
Jeff Ridenour
Jan Dunston
Adam Kepler
Andrea Reece
Erica Elliot
Bart “Bartleby” Kibbe
Betsabe Rodriguez
SCREENWRITER
EDWIN "BUD" SHRAKE
Ron Finch
Catie Killinger
Brian Scofield
PHOTO: SARAH KERVER
Valerie Finch
Crystal Kilgore
Elisa Silva
Stephen Flynn
Andrew Lee
Lisa Short
Tracy Frazier
Karen Le
Elizabeth Slaughter
A special thanks
to Tracy Gossard for
providing catering
at the volunteer
headquarters. Mmm.
ROBERT DUVALL CHRIS CAIN, ROBERT DUVALL &
& ELVIS MITCHELL GLENDA & JOHN SEVICK
PHOTO: SARAH KERVER
Alex Gonzales
Lisa Lee
SPEED LEVITCH
PHOTO: SARAH KERVER
PHOTO: GARY MILLER
Paris Simpson
JILL MCCLANAHAN,
ETHAN HAWKE,
FOREST WHITAKER ETHAN HAWKE &
JOHN MCHALE
& RICHARD
PHOTO: GARY MILLER
LINKLATER
PHOTO: TODD WOLFSON
TFHOFA CO-CHAIR
EVAN SMITH & EMCEE,
GOVERNOR ANN RICHARDS
TFHOFA CO-CHAIR
CHRISTINA RICCI &
ADAM GOLDBERG
EDDIE SAFADY &
ALI MACGRAW
PHOTO: STEPHEN STRAUS
PHOTO: SARAH KERVER
PHOTO: TODD WOLFSON
AFS BOARD MEMBER
LOUIS BLACK,
JONATHAN DEMME,
AFS EXEC DIRECTOR
REBECCA CAMPBELL
PHOTO: GARY MILLER
MARC ENGLISH DESIGN
We’ve shown you a few of the logos designed for our
film-related clients. Here are a couple for the
do-gooder crowd. The first, for Girlstart, one of the top
four organizations of its kind in the country. They
encourage gals nine through 15 to engage in science,
math, technology — areas where girls aren’t
necessarily encouraged. And yes, they came to a man
to design their identity, not because they couldn’t rely
on sisters, but because they were smart enough to
know where to go. The other logo shown is for a
IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER.
LAKE
HILLS
CHURCH
church where we were not members, but they admired
our passion and had faith in us. You can quote us on
V I S I T O U R S T U D I O. . .
this: when you are essentially doing a logo for God
DON’T FUCK UP. Or you’re going to hell. The road to
hell is paved with good intentions and our road has
brought us work in strategic branding and visual
communication design for clients from Austin to
Boston, New York to L.A., Paris to Tel Aviv.
Care to go for a ride?
marcenglishdesign.com
since 1993
D INNER S ERVED N IGHTLY F ROM 6 PM .
F OR R ESERVATIONS , C ALL 685-8300
AUSTIN FILM SOCIETY
AFS BOARD OF DIRECTORS
PRESIDENT
MARCY GARRIOTT
VICE PRESIDENT
Fame and the AFS mission.
BY REBECCA CAMPBELL
RICK TRIPLETT
SECRETARY
CORKY HILLIARD
TREASURER
CHRIS ADAMS
DIRECTORS
E L I Z A B E T H AV E L L Á N
KAREN BERNSTEIN
LOUIS BLACK
MIA CARTER
MARC ENGLISH
DEBORAH HILL
JAMES MAGNUSON
TIM MCCANLIES
TERRY MCDEVITT
CHARLES RAMÍREZ-BERG
E D D I E S A FA D Y
ROBERT STEINBOMER
DONNA STOCKTON-HICKS
STEPHEN STRAUS
R O B E R T WA L K E R
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
R I C H A R D L I N K L AT E R
AFS STAFF
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
REBECCA CAMPBELL
[email protected]
EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATOR
GREGORY COLLINS
The Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards might not seem like a neat fit with the mission of the Austin Film
Society. Whereas our mission statement is to promote the appreciation of film and to support creative
filmmaking — a phrase ringing of grassroots mobilization — sat first glance the Texas Film Hall of
Fame Awards might seem like the exact opposite, a high-cost production celebrating already celebrated
actors, directors and screenwriters. Every year I find myself mentally rehearsing my response to a
question that I know many AFS members have, and a question that I would likely have if I weren’t on
the very front lines of the event: what exactly is the connection between the Hall of Fame and AFS
membership?
From its beginning, the Austin Film Society has sought to be a bridge between film and public. We
have defined “film” as films, filmmakers and filmmaking and we have defined the public as anyone
from the casual moviegoer to the industry professional. All of our programs target this end. With
Essential Cinema, we curate series of rarely seen and hard-to-find films. The value of these exhibitions
is hard to overstate. Going to these films is often the one chance that most of us will have in our entire
lifetimes to see them in a theater, with an audience. Among the artist services that we offer is the Texas
Filmmakers’ Production Fund, which has awarded over $400,000 to Texas film and video artists since
1996. This year we are again able to increase the sum distributed, from $65,000 to $75,000. TFPF
funds have gone to over 140 projects and we are even
seeing a national impact. Not only are TFPF-funded
Austin filmmakers taking their work to festivals across
the country (for example, DEAR PILLOW, covered in this
issue of PoV) and TFPF recipients are also receiving
E T H A N H AW K E
theatrical distribution. Greg Pak’s sci-fi feature ROBOT
STORIES, distributed by ShotWell Media, will open in Austin on May 7th. Then there is Austin Studios.
Since November of 2000 this innovative partnership with the City has evolved into the heart and soul
of production in Austin. With on-site vendors, a screening room and ample production space, Austin
Studios is equipped to service productions of all kinds and budgets. In the spirit of cultivating
community, AFS also publishes this Journal of the Austin Film Community and operates an extensive
website (www.austinfilm.org) which includes a film community calendar.
“I’m here to raise
money for the Austin
Film Society.”
[email protected]
DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMMING
CHALE NAFUS
[email protected]
DIRECTOR OF ARTIST SERVICES & EDUCATION
ELISABETH SIKES
[email protected]
OUTREACH COORDINATOR
So, what does the Texas Film Hall of Fame have to do with all this? Austin-born Hall of Fame inductee
Ethan Hawke provided the most direct answer I’ve heard yet. On the red carpet on March 12, a reporter
asked Ethan why he was attending the event. Ethan looked at the reporter and, as if stating the
obvious, said, “I’m here to raise money for the Austin Film Society.” The Texas Film Hall of Fame
Awards is many things, but as a means to an end, it’s a fundraiser pure and simple. Proceeds go
towards the programs listed above as well as to our Internship Program, our Speakers Bureau, the Texas
Documentary Tour and our other programs and projects.
C H R I S T I A N R AY M O N D
[email protected]
STUDIO DIRECTOR
SUZANNE QUINN
[email protected]
STUDIO COORDINATOR
RACHEL BLACKNEY
[email protected]
DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT
WENDY ANDERSON
But even by itself, the Hall of Fame upholds our mission. It puts Austin’s dynamic film community
squarely in front of Texas’ political and philanthropic leaders. Saturating the evening news and
prominently featured in the print media, it contributes to a mainstream awareness of the impact of film
on our culture, community and economy. Visiting celebrities help keep the national spotlight on film
in Austin and the result is more incoming production. Without room here to thank the hundreds of
people who put time and energy into the Hall of Fame, it must be noted that the event could not have
happened without Louis Black, Evan Smith, Eddie Safady and Katy Gaffney, to whom we owe more
thanks than we could ever properly express.
[email protected]
DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANT
ALLISON MYERS
[email protected]
DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS
S T E P H E N G R AY
[email protected]
BUSINESS MANAGER
C A R O L E D WA R D S
[email protected]
Rebecca Campbell is the Executive Director of the Austin Film Society.
IN RECOGNITION
LEGACY SPONSORS
Richard Linklater
Robert Walker
BENEFACTORS
Marcy & Robert Garriott
MARC ENGLISH DESIGN
PATRONS
AVW-TELAV
Brad Koester
Bridgestreet Accommodations
Paul Stekler
Sarah Kozmetsky
Texas Instruments
MAJOR DONORS
AFICIONADOS
FRIENDS
Anne S. Lewis & Louis Black
Eddie Safady
Kerrie Taber
Paul Alvarado-Dykstra
Roxanne Rouse
Steven & Marci Dell
AT&T
Carleton Ranney
Chris & Carol Adams
Deborah Green
Judy Gordon
Frost Bank
Hector Galàn
Lisa & Bob Wade
Mary & Cab Gilbreath
Mort Topfer
Public Strategies, Inc
Run Tex
Stacie & Ross Cockrell
Stephen Straus
Adam Troyak & Amy Hoskins
Alison Thornt &
Marsha Fatino
Bill & Billie Jempty
Brian & Melinda Bentley
Carol Nasworthy
Charles Mulford
Christine Chapman
Huenergardt
Cindy & Bob Kunkel
Dan Lauderdale
David & Estelle Goldblatt
Davin Washington
Deborah Hill
Dennis Bishop
Dr. Samantha Krukowski
Fred Meek
Grant Sible
Jackie & Allan Nirenberg
Jackson Grimes
James Marks
Jay Rogers & Courtney
Clapper
Jeanette Scott &
Don Sembera
Jenny Trinitapoli
Joe Miguez
ENTHUSIASTS
A.J. Josefowitz
Catherine Robb
Corky Hilliard
Holt Atherton Educational
Foundation
Elio King
Julia & Evan Smith
Mark Genfan
Scott Brudner
Shawn & Kyle Jones
South Padre Island
Film Commission
Taline Manassian
Tracy & Grady Gossard
S U S TA I N E R S
Booka Michel
James & Laurie Halfpenny
Jeff Bowden
Jennifer S. Milliman
Josh & Matt Johnson
Karina Martinez & Walker
Arensen
Martin Dolence
Mia Carter
Shyamali Pease &
Clint Schneider
JOIN
John & Anne Franklin
John & Valerie Meddaugh
John Patterson &
Alice Meadows
Karen King
Laura Means
Lauren Klum
Lisa McWilliams &
Larry Bucher
Maria Tucker & John Stillwell
Mark Spencer
Michael & Angela Martin
Mike Reikofski &
Laura Means
Ms. Cyd Grimes
Nick & Michael Bradshaw
Parker Dorris
Paula Fracasso
Rebecca Dewan
Richard & Heidi Cutler
Rob & Jennifer Jones
Robin & Adam Walker
Rocky & Shannon Brown
Romeo Navarro
Sharon Strover
Steve Birmingham
Sue & Steve Bilich
Ted Powers
Thomas McConnell
Toby & Don Futrell
Van Redin
ASSOCIATES
Agence Talent
Anita Rubarth-Lay
Betsy Thaggard
Brandon Easterling
C. Ryan Nash
Cheryl Drown
Chip Walton
D. Louise Jepson
Daniel S. Cofer
David Berman
Dee Dee Berry
Deepa Donde & Vinay Bhagat
Delfin Salazar
Ellen Wartella
Eric Morson
Erik Bliss
Erik McCowan
Erika Kane
Ethan Worrel
Fred Moffitt
Gail Thomas
Hill McLain
J.F. Kerr
James Elrod
Jameson West
Jamie Preyer
Jenn Garrison
John Montgomery
Josh Krauter &
Kristy Sorensen
Juan Diaz
Juliette Kernion
Kathy Lowry
Kevin Coogan
Kirby McDaniel
Kris McDonald
Kristy Sorensen
Mark Lee
Richard Lewis
Rick Krivoniak
Sev “PiS” Coursen
Skip Martin
Stephen Becker Ph.D.
Theodore Patrick Johnson
MEMBERSHIP LEVEL
THE AUSTIN FILM SOCIETY
AND RECEIVE A SUBSCRIPTION TO POV
E-MEMBER
AFICIONADO
MEMBER
ENTHUSIAST
ASSOCIATE
MAJOR DONOR
FRIEND
PATRON
SUSTAINER
MEMBERSHIP LEVELS
E-MEMBER
$20
Save a tree! Instead of AFS printed mailings, receive your AFS news and notifications via email. E-members receive annual membership; plus subscription to quarterly
newsletter PoV.; advance email notice and early ticket purchase for special events;
an AFS sticker; discounts on tickets, subscriptions and purchases; and special
member-only log-in privileges on the AFS website
NAME
TITLE (IF APPLICABLE)
COMPANY (IF APPLICABLE)
ADDRESS
CITY
MEMBER
$30
All of the above, plus: all AFS mailings including screening flyers and printed
invitations
STATE
ZIP
HOME PHONE
WORK PHONE
ASSOCIATE
$50
All of the above, plus: AFS t-shirt; recognition in PoV
EMAIL
FRIEND
$125
(per household)
All of the above (includes maximum of 2 membership cards), plus: invitations to
private gatherings to celebrate film series and visiting filmmakers; AFS hat
SUSTAINER
$250
All of the above, plus: free admission and reserved seating to all regular AFS series
AFICIONADO
$500
All of the above, plus: a premium gift (Peckinpah monograph, a Robert Rodriguez
Yee Haw poster or an Albert Maysles poster); year-round recognition in PoV; up to four
membership cards for your household or co-workers.
(Great for small businesses!)
A mount enclosed
$
Please make check payable to The Austin Film Society or charge
payment to:
Visa
MasterCard
American Express
NAME (AS IT APPEARS ON CARD)
ACCOUNT NUMBER
EXPIRATION DATE
PREMIERE MEMBERSHIP LEVELS
ENTHUSIAST
$1000 All of the above, plus: two premium tickets for two gala premieres
MAJOR DONOR $2500 All of the above, plus: two premium tickets for ALL gala premieres; invitations to
private celebrity events
PATRON
$5000 All of the above, plus: two tickets to the Texas Film Hall of Fame or $1000 discount
on Hall of Fame table purchase; priority seating at all events; two 10-day passes to
the QT Film Festival
For information on additional sponsorship opportunities, visit www.austinfilm.org or call 322-0145.
join online:
www.austinfilm.org
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