Films Screening during AFF 2001:
2001
Film Schedule | Shorts
Programs
U.K.
Premiere Series | Documentary
Showcase | Competition
Films
Austin
Filmmaker's Showcase | Midnight
Madness | Retrospective
Films
ADVANCE SCREENINGS
g 30 Years to
Life
(USA, 110 min.) Regional
Premiere
Writer/Director: Vanessa Middleton
Cast: Erika Alexander,
Melissa De Sousa, Kadeem Hardison, Tracy Morgan, Paula Jai Parker, Allen
Payne, T.E. Russell
With a mixture of humor and insight,
debut director Vanessa Middleton has created a lively and intelligent
comedy tracing twelve months in the lives of a group of friends, the year
in which they all reach their 30th birthdays. 30 Years to Life follows six
successful, urban, African Americans as they navigate through their adult
responsibilities, resulting in a sharp, funny meditation on our hopes and
dreams: a beautiful, successful woman finds few prospects for a
relationship; a couple must decide to marry or split up; and a stand-up
comedian watches all his chances for fame snatched out from under him –
all as they approach the “big three-oh.”
g Big
Bad Love
(USA, 111 min.) Regional Premiere
Writer: James
Howard and Arliss Howard (based on stories by Larry Brown)
Director:
Arliss Howard
Cast: Arliss Howard, Debra Winger, Paul Le Mat, Rosanna
Arquette, Angie Dickinson
Leon Barlow (also director, Arliss
Howard) is a Vietnam vet and a writer whose marriage has fallen apart.
Living a solitary life, and sending manuscripts to publishers in vain,
Leon struggles to reconcile his all-consuming, self-centered need to write
with the life he created for himself. His life includes a son entering
adolescence, a daughter with an incurable disease, and an ex-wife, played
with dignity by Debra Winger, who deftly suggests both the irreconcilable
frustration with Leon’s lack of maturity and obvious love for him. All the
while, Big Bad Love portrays the elusive experiences of imagination that
every writer fights to set down on paper.
g Brotherhood of the Wolf
(France, 142 min.) Regional Premiere
Writer: Stéphane Cabel,
Christophe Gans
Director: Christophe Gans
Cast: Samuel Le Bihan,
Mark Dacascos, Emilie Dequenne
Parts horror, fantasy, action film
and costume drama, Brotherhood of the Wolf is based on actual events that
took place in France during the reign of King Louis XV. It’s the mid-18th
Century and a mysterious beast is slaughtering women and children in the
Gévaudan region. The residents think it’s a demon from Hell, and the local
militia are inclined to agree. The Chevalier de Fronsac, a botanist and
libertine, is dispatched to capture the creature, and in doing so he finds
much more than he could have imagined, uncovering a mysterious cult and
treacherous political duplicity.
g The
Business of Strangers
(USA,
84 min.) Regional Premiere
Writer/Director: Patrick Stettner
Cast:
Stockard Channing, Julia Stiles, Frederick Weller
The Business of Strangers jumps
quickly out of the gate, following Julie (Stockard Channing) on her brisk,
calculated walk through an anonymous airport landscape. This predatory
executive is having a bad day. When she finds out she may be downsized,
Julie exercises her wrath on Paula, a darkly enigmatic new assistant,
sacking her at their first meeting. When the two are stranded and meet a
second time at the hotel bar that night, a dangerous and seductive
tête-à-tête begins. Perfectly cast and employing a fluid visual style and
murkily luscious soundtrack, The Business of Strangers is a gripping
battle of wills between a pair of unlikely adversaries.
g Cahoots
(USA,
114 min.) Regional Premiere
Writer/Director: Dirk Benedict
Cast:
Keith Carradine, David Keith, Wendie Malick, Janet Gunn
Cahoots is a fiercely dark comedy
that takes male bonding to the extremes. It is the story of two men who
grew up together as best friends and reconnect after years apart. In this
deliberately crude and politically incorrect buddy film, Keith Carradine
plays Matt, a hellraiser who comes to Los Angeles to shake up the life of
his old friend Harley, who now has a stable life (complete with trophy
wife and a struggling architecture business). Matt’s arrival will turn
Harley’s life upside down in a blistering, unsentimental journey into the
shadowy recesses of the male psyche.
g Century Hotel
(Canada, 96 min.) U.S. Premiere
Writer: David Weaver and Bridget
Newson
Director: David Weaver
Cast: Joel Bissonnette, Lindy Booth,
Colm Feore, David Hewlett, Sandrine Holt, Janet Kidder, Mia Kirshner,
Chantal Kreviazuk, Eugene Lipinski, Raine Maida, Tom McCamus, Earl Pastko,
Jeremy Ratchford
David Weaver’s feature film debut is
a sumptuous tale that tracks the inhabitants of Room 720, a seemingly
anonymous hotel room, over the course of a century. Witnessing every kind
of human drama – an illicit love affair, an unsolved murder, a young
woman’s first sexual encounter, and the creeping onset of madness –
Century Hotel is a journey through the twentieth century. Beginning with
its luxurious origins in the twenties, it sees the Great Depression in the
thirties, the sexually liberated sixties, the decadent eighties, until on
the eve of the new millennium, a young girl begins to unlock its
secrets.
g The
Devil’s Backbone
(Mexico/Spain, 106 min.) Regional Premiere
Writers: Guillermo
Del Toro, Antonio Trashorras, & David Muñoz
Director: Guillermo Del
Toro
Cast: Eduardo Noriega, Marisa Paredes, Federico Luppi, Irene
Visedo, Iñigo Garcés, Fernando Tielve
From director Guillermo Del Toro
(Cronos, Mimic) comes The Devil’s Backbone, a strange and unpredictable
ghost story. Set in Santa Lucia School, a Catholic orphanage in the middle
of the Spanish Civil War, the film orbits around the teachers and their
charges, the orphans of the Republican militia, as they hide from a war
raging outside the school walls. But inside the orphanage something far
more sinister is about to be revealed. Ten year-old Carlos (Fernando
Tielve) has run-ins with the steely headmistress (Marisa Paredes), the
aggressive caretaker (Eduardo Noriega, Open Your Eyes), and an unseen
force, determined to make the school’s inhabitants pay.
g Donnie Darko
(USA,
120 min.) Regional Premiere
Writer/Director: Richard Kelly
Cast:
Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, Noah Wyle,
Mary McDonnell
A look at a troubled suburban boy’s
fantasy life turns into an intricate and imaginative cinematic puzzle in
Richard Kelly’s directorial debut, Donnie Darko. Donnie (a brooding Jake
Gyllenhaal) is a disturbed teen, prone to visions of a grotesque,
monstrous rabbit. Under the apparition’s ominous supervision Donnie begins
to act in dangerous and antisocial ways. Though they are sinister, the
visions are not entirely evil; they teach Donnie to bend the very fabric
of his universe. Part thriller, part science fiction, and all mystery,
Donnie Darko is as memorable and accessible as it is totally
unexpected.
g Green
Dragon
(USA, 115 min.) Regional Premiere
Writer: Tony
Bui & Timothy Linh Bui
Director: Timothy Linh Bui
Cast: Patrick
Swayze, Don Duong, Forest Whitaker, Hiep Thi Le, Billinjer Tran, Long
Nguyen
It was at the end of the Vietnam
War, in 1975, when tens of thousands of Vietnamese refugees were brought
into camps throughout the southwestern United States. In resonant and
long-lasting images, Green Dragon imagines one camp from the perspective
of those who had lost their families, fortunes, and their country, as a
result of the war. Timothy Bui (in his directorial debut) and brother Tony
Bui (co-writer of Green Dragon and director of the award-winning Three
Seasons) collect a visually arresting and poignant amalgamation of tales
of both Americans and Vietnamese whose human spirit persevered in spite of
their miserable surroundings.
g Gypsy 83
(USA,
92 min.) Regional Premiere
Writers: Tim Kaltenecker & Todd
Stephens
Director: Todd Stephens
Cast: Sara Rue, Kett Turton, Karen
Black, Paulo Costanzo, Anson Scoville, John Doe
The remarkable velvet corsets, dark
eye make-up and crow-feather boas on Todd Stephen’s title character Gypsy
Vale (Sara Rue) makes old ladies cower and nuclear families step aside.
Gypsy is a latter-day Stevie Nicks wannabe, and with her Goth,
barely-out-of-the closet friend Clive (Kett Turton), they feel like freaks
in button-downed Sandusky, Ohio. Hearing of “The Night of a 1000 Stevies”
look-alike contest in Manhattan, Gypsy and Clive leave town with dreams of
a new life. Fueled by a fantastic soundtrack including Siouxsie and the
Banshees, the Cure, and Bauhaus, and backed by talent like Karen Black as
a washed-up lounge singer, Gypsy 83 is an unflinching and raucous road
trip to remember.
l
Sponsored by aGLIFF, which brings to the
Southwest the best new films and videos by, about, or of interest to gay
men and lesbians. aGLIFF members can purchase $5 discount tickets to this
screening by showing their membership card at the box
office.
g Lakeboat
(USA,
98 min.) Advance Screening
Writer: David Mamet
Director: Joe
Mantegna
Cast: Charles Durnign, Peter Falk, Robert Forster, J.J.
Johnston, Denis Leary, Tony Mamet, Jack Wallace, George
Wendt
David Mamet’s first play and Joe
Mantegna’s directorial debut converge in Lakeboat, the film that follows
Dale (Tony Mamet), a grad student trying to earn a few bucks, as he boards
a steel freighter to work for the summer. This loose narrative tracks the
profane, sexist, and homophobic outbursts, but also humorous and poignant
exchanges between a mostly middle-aged and all-male crew. When the night
cook fails to show up for the ship’s departure, the crew churns up
outrageous rumors, but all in true bachelor style: it must been booze,
cards or women to blame.
g Liam
(U.K., 90 min.)
Writer: Jimmy McGovern
Director: Stephen
Frears
Cast: Ian Hart, Claire Hackett,
Anthony
Burrows
Liam, by Stephen Frears (Dangerous
Liaisons, High Fidelity) is an emotionally charged portrait of a Catholic
family in Liverpool, caught in the grips of almost total social and
political upheaval. Liam (Anthony Burrows) is the seven year-old boy who
watches as his father (Ian Hart) loses his job at the shipyard. Liam’s
sister must take a job as a maid for the wealthy Jewish family who laid
their father off, fueling their father’s anger and driving him to join the
local Fascist party. Frears’ channels all Liam’s experiences through his
looming first Communion, in all its requisite hellfire and brimstone
imagery.
g Lisa
Picard Is Famous
(USA,
90 min.)
Writer: Laura Kirk & Nat DeWolf
Director: Griffin
Dunne
Cast: Laura Kirk, Nat DeWolf, Griffin Dunne
Lisa Picard (Laura Kirk) and Tate
Kelly (Nat DeWolf) are actors and best friends, desperately and
hilariously trying to catch their big break. The film’s director, Griffin
Dunne (Quiz Show), plays a documentarian bent on capturing the very moment
when the unknown Lisa becomes famous. He believes she’s perpetually on the
verge of stardom, or she would be if she could just manage to keep off the
cutting room floor. Every painfully funny moment in her so-called career
is captured in this mockumentary, including the humiliation of seeing
Tate’s one-man show about homophobia get optioned by Spike Lee. Look for
cameos by Lee, Charlie Sheen, Carrie Fisher, Sandra Bullock and Mira
Sorvino (co-producer), who cannily observe the flip side to the Hollywood
insider’s story.
l
Sponsored by aGLIFF, which brings to the
Southwest the best new films and videos by, about, or of interest to gay
men and lesbians. aGLIFF members can purchase $5 discount tickets to this
screening by showing their membership card at the box
office.
g Lonesome
(USA,
93 min.)
Writers: Sidney Brammer & Elke Rosthal
Director: Elke
Rosthal
Cast: Aleska Palladino, John Pyper-Ferguson, Marisa Berenson,
Brian Delate
Lily Randolph is a headstrong
teenager who is constantly at odds with her parents. Just days before her
18th birthday, Lily is thrown out of her family’s car after a heated
argument with her political-candidate father. She then hitches a ride with
Tom, a down-on-his-luck country-singing cowboy. In dire need of publicity
for his campaign, Lily’s father goes public with her “disappearance,”
triggering the FBI to begin an investigation. Pursued by her parents and
the authorities, Lily flees with Tom to his deserted family home. Lily is
then forced to make a decision that will affect her, and everyone around
her, forever.
l Sponsored by
Reel Women, a non-profit organization that provides support for women at
all levels of experience in the film and video industries. Reel Women
members may purchase $5 discount tickets for this program by showing their
membership card at the door.
g Novocaine
(USA,
100 min.) Regional Premiere
Writer/Director: David Atkins
Cast:
Steve Martin, Helena Bonham Carter, Laura Dern, Elias Koteas, Scott
Caan
Dr. Frank Sangster (Steve Martin)
seems to have a picture-perfect life: he has a beautiful fiancée (Laura
Dern) and a thriving dental practice. That is, at least, until the
provocative Susan Ivy (Helena Bonham Carter) comes into the office,
needing a root canal and lots of painkillers. No sooner does he write the
prescription than he is drawn into a world of sex, drugs and murder,
running from the authorities and also from his angry fiancée. Boasting
expertly timed gags and macabre moments, Novocaine, by first-timer David
Atkins, is a highly original genre-bender, merging film noir thriller with
riotous comedy.
g Pendulum
(USA,
95 min.) Advance Screening
Writer: Jason Kabolati
Director: James D.
Deck
Cast: Rachel Hunter, James Russo, Matt Bataglia
When an esteemed professor at
Welland Law School is murdered, the deep-rooted Dallas power structure
must scramble to find his killer without revealing dark secrets hidden
within the prestigious institution, secrets that could destroy the rich
tradition of the university. Police detective Amanda Reeve (Rachel Hunter)
quickly finds herself drawn into an investigation where the truth would
cost powerful men their positions and reputations. In Amanda’s search for
the truth, she investigates two enigmatic but beautiful lesbian law
students, until her investigation leads to clues that link the District
Attorney and her boyfriend (Matt Battaglia) to the mysterious old boy
network.
g Seven and a
Match
(USA, 111 min.) Regional
Premiere
Writer/Director: Derek Simonds
Cast: Eion Bailey, Heather
Donahue, Devon Gummersall, Tina Holmes, Adam Scott, Daniel Serafini-Sauli,
Petra Wright
A reunion weekend takes an
unexpected turn when seven Yale classmates meet at an isolated summer
house in Maine, for possibly the last time. Ellie (Tina Holmes) owns the
house, but broke and facing foreclosure, she gathers her friends and
proposes that they set fire to the house and provide her with an alibi, so
that she may collect the insurance money she needs to stave off
bankruptcy. While carefully avoiding the romantic nostalgia that can
accompany reunion films, Simonds provides a smart and engaging arena for
this gifted ensemble of young actors to play out a conflagration of a
different kind, as each character assesses the bonds that tie friends and
lovers.
g The
Salton Sea
Director: D.J. Caruso
Cast: Val Kilmer,
Vincent D'Onofrio, Adam Goldberg, Deborah Kara Unger, Pater Sarsgaard,
Meat Loaf Aday, Luiz Guzman
If you're looking for truth, you've
come to the wrong place. The Salton Sea is a character-driven thriller
about an unlikely hero's search for redemption following his wife's
murder.
g Twelve
(USA,
82 min.) World Premiere
Writer/Director: Daniel Noah
Cast: Lauren
Fox, Maurice Carr, Randall Jaynes, Daniel Vespa, Bob Harbaum, Ean Sheehy,
James Sobol
Zach Taylor wakes up in a strange
apartment. He doesn’t know where he is, he can’t remember what he did last
night, and he doesn’t even know his name. It might have been that he just
partied a bit too hard last night, except that when he looks in a mirror,
he can’t even see his face. But he’s determined to investigate the secrets
of his identity, his baffling physical ailments, and the group of thugs
who are after him. Shot entirely from Zach’s point of view, Twelve is a
baffling sci-fi thriller about much more than a case of simple
amnesia.
g Waking Life
(USA,
97 min.) Regional Premiere
Writer/Director: Richard Linklater
Cast:
Wiley Wiggins and an ensemble of 74 other actors
Experimental both in terms of format
and content, Waking Life, by Texas native Richard Linklater (SubUrbia,
Before Sunrise) resists any easy description. This head trip of a film was
conventionally shot with live actors on handheld digital cameras, edited,
and then “painted” over by a team of animators, giving the film a dreamy,
fluid texture. But the technique is also carried over into the narrative
as well, as Linklater’s hero, played by Wiley Wiggins, drifts though a
seemingly dream-like narrative, interacting in dialogues on life,
existence, consciousness, and dreams. Waking Life seems more dreamy than
awake with its saturated hues and surreal images.
U.K. PREMIERE SERIES
The Austin
Film Festival is proud to launch this premiere series of films from the
U.K. and Ireland. Through these four very different films, programmed in
conjunction with the ukfilmla, we have endeavored to bring you some
exciting new ideas from established and emerging filmmaking
talent.
g Like Father
(U.K., 96 min.) U.S. PREMIERE
Writer/Directors: The Amber
Collective: Richard Grassick, Ellin Hare, Murray Martin, Pat McCarthy,
Lorna Powell, Peter Roberts, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen
Cast: Joe
Armstrong, Ned Kelly, Jonathan Dent, Anna Gascoigne
This is the latest offering from the
Amber Collective, a filmmaking group that has been making socially aware
films since 1969 using non-professional actors in similar situations
similar to their characters. Joe Elliot (Joe Armstrong), a club musician
and composer in northern England, is torn between three people. His father
(Ned Kelly) is being forced out of his home by the developers; his
troubled son (Jonathan Dent) is being bullied by cruel schoolmates; and
his wife (Anna Gascoigne) has left him over his financial irresponsibility
and his fondness for the “club.” At the heart of their conflict lies an
unspoken family tragedy that may lead the way to
reconciliation.
g My Brother Tom
(U.K.
110 min.) Regional Premiere
Writers: Alison Beeton-Hilder & Dom
Rotheroe
Director: Dom Rotheroe
Cast: Jenna Harrison, Ben Whishaw,
Honeysuckle Weeks, Michael Erskine, Adrian Rawlings
Two teenagers, Tom and Jessica, meet
and enter into a compelling and intimate relationship, one in which no
compromise seems possible. When they meet, Jessica is fascinated by Tom’s
sinister side and the forests to which he retreats from trouble and misery
at home. Theirs is a powerful bond, but one doomed to fail because one
person can change, but the other cannot. Using digital hand cameras,
director Dom Rotheroe and cinematographer Robby Müller (Dancer in the
Dark) record the raw, intense relationship, allowing for improvisation and
complete freedom of movement.
g Peaches
(Ireland, 84 min.) Regional Premiere
Writer/Director: Nick
Grosso
Cast: Matthew Rhys, Kelly Reilly, Sophie
Okenedo
Determined not to be upset by
failing his final year exams, Frank (Matthew Rhys, Titus) consoles himself
by facing an indolent summer, living rent-free, avoiding work, and ogling
all the “peaches,” or women, London has to offer. But Frank starts to
botch things up when a play for a college friend (Kelly Reilly) on a
weekend in the country ends in humiliation, his free rent seems to be
coming to an end, and his slacker friends start looking for, gasp, work!
Writer/director Nick Grosso’s film, adapted from his play by the same
name, set in London but filmed in Dublin, is a wry, charming view of lad
culture.
g Understanding
Jane
(U.K., 99 min.) U.S. PREMIERE
Writer: Jim
Mummery
Director: Caleb Lindsay
Cast: Kevin McKidd, John Simm,
Amelia Curtis, Louisa Milwood Haigh
Elliot (Kevin McKidd, Trainspotting)
and Oz (John Simm, Wonderland) unwittingly get involved in a scam when
they respond to a personals ad to meet two women. Dallas (Amelia Curtis)
and Popeye (Louisa Milwood Haigh) are two streetwise girls who use the ads
to scam men out of cash, gifts, and food. One man immediately sees through
the ruse, but is he infatuated anyway? The two pairs are complete
opposites, never meant to meet or get along, but a drunken night and a
blind date could change all that.
DOCUMENTARY SHOWCASE
g Grateful Dawg
(USA,
81 min.) Regional Premiere
Director: Gillian Grisman
David Grisman met Jerry Garcia in
1964 in pre-Grateful Dead days when Garcia was an unknown banjo player
from San Francisco. Directed by Grisman’s daughter Gillian, Grateful Dawg
records the affectionate and intimate musical friendship between the two,
tracking both the musical collaborations that produced a best-selling
bluegrass album, and a decade-long rift that separated them after business
squabbles broke up their band. This enjoyable audio-visual scrapbook is a
mix of formerly unreleased performances, home movies, and rare and unique
personal moments from the studio, backstage and home-style jam sessions,
sure to offer up insights to both new and longtime fans.
g The Mancha Blanca
(USA,
68 min.) WORLD Premiere
Director: S.R. Bindler
From a letter to S.R. Bindler from
Matthew McConaughey (executive producer) regarding the Mancha Blanca (the
White Spot): "...I finish and ask myself is this about the 'White Spot'
virus? Is it about 'AYAHUASCA'? Is it about 'Shaman John'? Is it about
'Inca Cola' (a.k.a. Ayahuasca)? STOP!!! It's more lateral... I realize...
it's larger than any of those specifically... is it about the preservation
of the environment? And man's cohabitation with mother nature? 'Yes' is
the answer, but there's more. I relaxed and let the messages come to me...
quit seeking an end to the means and found myself noting down lessons that
it offered... as they came... about life..." The Mancha Blanca is an
experimental documentary that follows a Peruvian medicine-man's attempt to
solve a devastating shrimp virus using a psychotropic Amazonian-brew
called Ayahuasca
COMPETITION FILMS
g After The Flood
(81
min., color, 35mm) Regional Premiere
Writer/Director: Robert
Saitzyk
Cast: Shawn Andrews, Ola Metwally, Joseph Chase
After The Flood follows a young
man’s desperate search for spiritual redemption on the streets. Simon is a
street kid turned to dealing guns to survive. When one of the junkies who
owes Simon money pays his debt with a young El Salvadorian girl, the
relationship between Simon and the girl becomes a provocative character
study. The film spirals through a gritty urban neo-realism, then into
haunting, surreal images that evoke the loss of innocence and a fractured,
vulnerable sexuality. After the Flood paints an impressionistic portrait
of a soul hopelessly struggling to escape the prison of the modern city.
4 Plus: Golden Gate
(15 min., color,
35mm)
Portuguese with English subtitles
Writer: Braulio
Mantovani
Director: Fernando Meirelles & Katia
Lund
Two young boys living in a dangerous
favela in Rio de Janeiro come up with a plan to raise money.
g America So Beautiful
(91
min., color, 35mm) Regional Premiere
Writers: Babak Shokrian &
Brian Horiuchi
Director: Babak Shokrian
Cast: Mansour, Fariborz
David Diaan, Alain DeSatti
America So Beautiful follows the
odyssey of a group of Iranian immigrants in Los Angeles, trying to find
their place in the U.S. amidst the unfolding of the 1979 Iran hostage
crisis. Houshang believes that his ticket out of his uncle’s Persian
market and into American society is to buy into one night’s ownership of a
glittery disco – if he can just come up with the money. Houshang tries to
pull his family into the deal by taking them out for an evening at the
disco. They encounter a night of surprise and transformation, filled with
disappointment, hilarity, pain, confusion and revelation.
4 Plus: Frank’s Book
(15 min., color,
35mm)
Writer: R.A. White (based on a book by Simon Black)
Director:
R. A. White
John C. Reilly stars as Frank, a
lowly office worker who fantasizes about the greatness of his
notebook.
g Christmas in the
Clouds
(94 min., color, 35mm) Regional
Premiere
Writer/Director: Kate Montgomery
Cast: Tim Vahle, Sam
Vlahos, MariAnaTosca, M. Emmet Walsh, Graham Greene, Sheila
Tousey
Premiering at this year’s Sundance
Film Festival, Christmas in the Clouds is a unique portrayal of
contemporary Native people that recalls the screwball comedies of Howard
Hawks and Frank Capra. The film is a heartwarming tale of tribal
enterprise, romance, and mistaken identity that takes place at Sky
Mountain, a ski resort owned and operated by a Native American tribe. When
Ray Clouds on Fire returns from the big city to manage the resort, he gets
more than he bargained for when he finds out that a representative from
the prestigious Worthington Travel Guide is coming to evaluate them.
4 Plus: Gregor’s Greatest Invention
(11
min., color, 35mm)
German with English subtitles
Writer/Director:
Johannes Kiefer
When Granny’s friends try to stick
her in a nursing home, Gregor comes up with a brilliant idea.
g Come
Together
(80 min., color, video) U.S.
PREMIERE
Writer/Director: Jeff Macpherson
Cast: Tygh Runyan, Eryn
Collins, Laura Harris
Come Together is a hilarious comedy
revolving around Ewan McKinnis, a 27 year-old greeting card writer who is
still wallowing after his breakup with Charlotte, his first true love. Not
only that, but Charlotte has just invited Ewan to her wedding... to
another man. (A man with great facial structure and lots of money.) In an
attempt to gain some closure, Ewan comes to town for the ceremony and
unceremoniously meets Amy Collins, a disarming teenager who quickly falls
for him. In the days leading to Charlotte’s wedding, Ewan and Amy fumble
through a comical and questionable relationship.
4 Plus: Breaths
(22 min., color, video)
Writers:
Amy S. Ellison & Stacy Horn, Director: Amy S. Ellison
Ellen is determined to fit in at her
new school, despite her severe asthma.
g Cow
Monkey
(88 min., color, video) Regional
Premiere
Writers: James Reichmuth, John Reichmuth, & Gabe
Weisert
Director: Gabe Weisert
Cast: John Reichmuth, James
Reichmuth, Bridget Schwartz, Dan Klein
Real life twins John and James
Reichmuth star in this hilariously deadpan comedy about two dimwitted
brothers in search of Bigfoot in the backwoods of a wilderness preserve.
They’ve got good reasons for wanting to kill the big guy: “We’ve got a
score to settle. It peeled our dog like a banana.” It won’t be easy for
the two brothers, especially since there are other folks who are also hot
on the trail of the elusive Bigfoot, including Cindy, an anthropology
student researching her Bigfoot thesis paper, and Grover, the preserve’s
custodian, who claims to have had a recent ‘sighting’.
4 Plus: Get Outta Here
(20 min., color,
16mm)
Writer/Director: Tony Shaff
Max’s one shot to escape his
everyday life is to appear on his favorite game show, “Get Outta
Here”.
g Living in Missouri
(90
min., color, video) WORLD PREMIERE
Writer: Connor Ratliff
Director:
Shaun Peterson
Cast: Connor Ratliff, Ian McConnel, Christina
Puzzo
A challenging and darkly comic film,
Living in Missouri is the story of Ryan, Todd and Amy, whose humdrum
Midwestern lives are starting to come apart at the seams. Ryan and Todd
have been best friends since the 7th grade. Ryan, now married to Amy, has
two young children and a 9-to-5 job he hates. The sexually-frustrated Todd
still lives in the basement of his parents’ house, works at a video store,
and secretly envies Ryan’s married life. When Ryan’s selfish behavior
begins to strain the marriage, Amy turns to Todd for support, and long
repressed desires come to the surface.
4 Plus: Earth Day
(17 min., color,
video)
Writer/Directors: Meredith Casey & Michiko
Byers
Saving the environment has never
been so deadly for the kids of Harmony High. (With Mark Hamill as Dr.
Bob!)
g The
Medicine Show
(100 min., color, 35mm) WORLD
PREMIERE
Writer/Director: Wendell Morris
Cast: Jonathan Silverman,
Natasha Gregson Wagner, Greg Grunberg
Inspired by the writer/director’s
own experience, The Medicine Show reflects all the strange horror,
emotion, and humor of dealing with cancer. When Taylor Darcy, a cynical
young man in the prime of life, is diagnosed with colon cancer, he wants
only to be ignored so that he might drink and mock his way through his
carcinoma nightmare in peace. While in the hospital, Taylor meets Lynn, a
leukemia patient who matches wits with him and forces him to confront the
seriousness of his ailment. Together they will laugh, fight, throw food at
nurses, and struggle to stay physically and spiritually alive.
4 Plus: The Pickle Jar
(7 min., color,
35mm)
Writer/Director: Benjamin Goldman
A young man getting ready for a date
has a strange encounter with a black bug.
g Miserable Comforters
(67
min., color, video) Regional Premiere
Writer/Director: Johnathon
Schaech
Cast: John Asuncion, Steve Longway,
Rob Naples, Alice
Barrington, Elise Ballard, Jeff Lorch
In this smart satire, a group of
young fanatical Christian film students set out on a mission to film a
documentary. Their goal is to find a “less fortunate” soul to save – and
film it. The group’s leader, Barbara Kendoll says “I want to find someone
who’s down on their luck, and help them turn their lives around, someone
who has a story to tell.” They stumble upon a young couple who are
homeless and in need of some prayers. After many heartfelt adventures,
however, they find the “less fortunate” are not the ones who need to be
saved.
4 Plus: 2 Days, 1 Dream
(30 min., color,
video)
Director: Marshall Adair
17 year-old Marshall Adair’s
documentary on participating in an experiment on sleep
deprivation.
g A
Passage to Ottawa
(90
min., color, 35mm) U.S. PREMIERE
Writer: Jameel Khaja
Director:
Gaurav Seth
Cast: Nabil Mehta, Amy Sobol, Jim Codrington, Ivan Smith,
Franceen Brodkin
The touching, funny, feature film
debut from writer Jameel Khaja and director Gaurav Seth, A Passage to
Ottawa is the story of Omi, a young Indian boy who, due to his mother’s
illness, has just been sent to live with his uncle and family in Ottawa,
Canada. Unaware that his mother is likely to die, Omi believes that he is
on a secret mission to find a superhero he can take back to India to save
her. When Omi meets Roland, the captain of a local tour boat, he believes
he has found his hero.
4 Plus: Because of Mama
(18 min., color,
35mm)
Russian with English subtitles
Writer: Karen Gocsik &
Serguei Bassine
Director: Serguei Bassine
On the eve of his cello recital, 12
year-old Slava struggles to practice as his father embarks on a drinking
spree.
g Riders
(95
min., color, video) Regional Premiere
Writer/Director: Doug
Sadler
Cast: Don Harvey, Bodine Alexander,
Sarah Stusek, Jane
Beard
A beautiful and compelling
exploration of human frailty and courage, Riders tells the story of Alex
Stone, a teenage girl who comes into violent confrontation with Ned, her
mother’s new boyfriend. When Ned moves into their home, Alex is
immediately suspicious of his attention to her younger sister, Sara. In an
attempt to protect Sara, Alex takes her on a trek to New Orleans in search
of their estranged father. In a subtle revision of the American Western,
Alex’s increasingly surreal journey takes her through the wilds of
Nashville and New Orleans in a search of salvation.
4 Plus: f8
(12 min., animation,
video)
Writers: Howard Wen & Jason Wen, Director: Jason
Wen
In the future, an unstoppable alien
power has taken over the planet. One individual manages to break
free.
g Way
Off Broadway
(84 min., color, 35mm) Regional
Premiere
Writer/Director: Dan Kay
Cast: Brad Beyer, Morena Baccarin,
Michael Parducci, Jordan Gelber, Forbes March
Way Off Broadway is a smart,
charming comedy about the changing relationships between five friends who
are struggling to be artists in New York City. Darren, a playwright
suffering from writer’s block, feels pressured by the support of his
father. Jay, a talented musician, has given up playing guitar and hides
behind his one-night stands. Mickey and Ethan, both in graduate school,
struggle with their own relationship problems. And Rebecca, an aspiring
actress who continually battles with anonymous cattle calls and misogynist
directors, is the center of the group and the force that holds them all
together.
4 Plus: The Cutting Room
(15 min.,
color, 35mm)
Writer/Director: Daniel Bernstein
In a trailer park on the outskirts
of nowhere, all the characters edited out of every movie, book, play and
TV show live together in close quarters.
AUSTIN FILMMAKER'S SHOWCASE
g The
Duo
(88 min., color, video) Regional
Premiere
Writer: Ryan Wickerham
Director: Tony Hewett
Cast: Bill
Wise, Ryan Wickerham, Marie Black, Tommy “Tiny” Lister, Jr.
Real superheroes. Fighting crime.
Battling evil. Living among us in the suburbs... sounds more like a comic
book than a serious documentary. Unless, that is, failed TV reporter
Crystal Parsons is on the case. So get ready to meet America’s newest
dynamic duo – Best Man and Buddy Boy, better known in shopping malls and
police bulletins as The Terrific Two. Crystal’s journey into their world
is anything but predictable and it quickly becomes an inescapable
collision between reality and fantasy. And when Crystal’s camera captures
the crash in vivid color, the truth is no longer black and white.
4 Plus: The
Scab
(8 min., color,
video)
Writer/Director: Shane Scott
When the film industry goes on
strike, one man must fill all the crew positions himself.
g The
Last Hope
(91 min., color, video)
Directors: Chris Hrasky
& Kurt Volk
The Last Hope is a documentary
chronicling the rise and near collapse of a makeshift society of people
who, for six weeks, lived on the sidewalk in front of Mann’s Chinese
Theater in Hollywood to await the release of Star Wars: Episode I. The
documentary follows the fans who wait in the line, a struggling actor who
works at the Mann Theater, and the three founders of Countingdown.com (a
website that organized the line as a means to promote their 24-hour-a-day
coverage of it). The film documents the increasing hostility of the fans
as they begin to feel used by the website promoters.
4 Plus: $5200 MSTA
(2 min., color,
video)
Writer/Directors: W. Joe Hoppe & Charles
Burmeister
A love poem to the beauty and wonder
that is Denis Johnson’s lipstick red ‘73 Cadillac Eldorado convertible.
g Wrong
Numbers
(75 min., color, video) WORLD PREMIERE
Writers:
Alex Holdridge & Sam Merrick
Director: Alex Holdridge
Cast: Matt
Bearden, Scoot McNairy, Matt Pulliam, Kjerstin
Cunnington
Take a ride through the bizarre
Friday night world of the underage American. Wrong Numbers is a hilarious
comedy that follows two 19 year-old kids, James and Russell, as they
travel through the streets of Austin, Texas, trying to buy beer. Living in
the Bible Belt makes that difficult, however. The seemingly simple task
spins out of control and takes the two on an all-night adventure. Cops,
parties, sex, drugs, jealousy and exhilaration await as oddball characters
crash into the two and either set them in motion or latch on to join the
ride.
4 Plus: Dents Are Us
(15 min., color,
video)
Director: James Matthews
A short documentary portraying the
true relationships in a real-life Texas dent removal shop.
MIDNIGHT MADNESS
g Ding-a-ling-LESS
(81
min., color, 35mm) WORLD PREMIERE
Writer/Director: Onur Tukel
Cast:
Kirk Wilson, Robert Longstreet, Mark Robinson, Lydia Toon
Fleury
With more penis jokes per minute
than any film we’ve ever seen, Ding-a-ling-LESS is a hilarious and
touching (seriously!) comedy about Jack Peterson, who was tragically
disfigured at birth. Yes, he has no penis, but he has always managed to be
content by erecting birdhouses and living vicariously through his
womanizing friend Alan. When a pretty girl moves in next door, however,
Jack realizes that maybe he’s not so happy after all. And when he learns
of a medical procedure that can reverse his condition, he’s soon planning
for the life he always wanted.
g Lethal Force
(75
min., color, video) Regional Premiere
Writer/Director: Alvin
Ecarma
Cast: Frank Prather, Andrew Hewitt, Cash Flagg,
Jr.
Both a tribute to and a satire of
those old fashioned, über-violent B-movies, Lethal Force is the story of
Jack Carter, a gangster whose son has been kidnapped by the evil,
wheelchair-bound villain, Mal Locke. In order to get his son back, Carter
must sell out his best friend Savitch. Mal wants revenge on Savitch, but
it won’t be easy because Savitch himself is a ruthless and fearless
assassin. Don’t worry about how the story unfolds, just sit back and enjoy
the hilarious over-the-top dialogue, the kick-ass, adrenaline-packed
action sequences, and of course the brutal, brutal, blood-soaked finale.
4 Plus: Jackie Pepper
(9 min.,
color, video)
Writer/Director: Bryant Jackson
Jackie Pepper offers a rare and
intimate look into one of popular music’s last great enigmas.
RETROSPECTIVE FILMS
g Body Heat
(113
min., 1981)
Writer/Director: Lawrence Kasdan
Cast: William Hurt,
Kathleen Turner, Richard Crenna, Ted Danson, Mickey Rourke
Florida lawyer Ned Racine (Hurt)
begins a passionate affair with married socialite Matty Walker (Turner),
who seduces him and hatches a plot to kill her rich husband, Edmund
(Crenna). Will their plan work? This is Turner’s first film and Kasdan’s
directorial debut.
g Body
Parts
(88 min., 1991)
screenplay: Eric Red & Norman
Snyder
Director: Eric Red
Cast: Jeff Fahey, Brad Dourif, Sarah
Campbell
Crime psychologist Bill Crushank
loses his arm in a car crash. A beautiful but mad doctor replaces the limb
with one from a deranged, executed serial killer. Soon, Bill starts having
bad dreams and mood swings, and the arm itself often acts strangely. Is
his mind causing these changes in his personality, or does the limb have
an evil will of its own – capable of murder?
g Places in the Heart
(112
min, 1984)
Writer/Director: Robert Benton
Cast: Sally Field, Ed
Harris, Amy Madigan, John Malkovich, Danny Glover
Edna Spalding (Field) must keep her
farm and family together during the Great Depression. She receives help
planting cotton from Moze (Glover) and takes on a border, Mr. Will
(Malkovich) in order to make her mortgage payment on time. Field won an
Oscar for her performance, as Benton did for his original
screenplay.
g Silverado
(132
min., 1985)
Writers: Lawrence Kasdan & Mark Kasdan
Director:
Lawrence Kasdan
Cast: Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Kevin Costner, Danny
Glover, John Cleese
Four unlikely friends journey
together to the town of Silverado to take on the bad guys in this
sprawling return to the tradition of classic Hollywood Westerns. Will they
win in the end and succeed in restoring peace to the city?
g The
Sting
(129 min., 1973)
Writer: David S.
Ward
Director: George Roy Hill
Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford,
Robert Shaw, Charles Durning, Ray Walston, Eileen
Brennan.
In 1930s Chicago, a young,
small-time con man (Redford) teams with a master of the big con (Newman)
to put ‘the sting’ on a New York City boss (Shaw) after he has one of
their friends bumped off. The film won seven Oscars, including Best
Picture, Director and Screenplay.
