All Entries in the "Austin Film Society News" Category
Our First Film Club Winter Festival Is a Hit
There’s nothing like seeing your film on the big screen! In this age of digital filmmaking and online distribution (which I wholly support), showing your film in a theater just can’t compare to the computer screen. And, it’s the same for new filmmakers and experienced professionals alike. In January the Alamo Drafthouse made this dream [...]
AFS Selects A SEPARATION at Violet Crown Cinema
Iranian writer/director Asghar Farhadi’s powerful, multi-award-winning film about two intertwined couples in crisis +++++++++++++++++++++++ Written, produced, and directed by Asghar Farhadi Cinematography by Mahmoud Kalari Production design by Keyvan Moghaddam Edited by Hayedeh Safiyari Original music by Sattar Oraki Iran, 2011, distributed in US by Sony Pictures Classics, DCP, color, 123 min. Farsi with English [...]
Dictator in Documentary GRANITO Going to Court
In September, we showed the powerful documentary GRANITO, which delved into the genocide of Mayan people in Guatemala in the 1980s. The dictator in charge of those massacres, General Efrain Rios Montt, has finally been ordered into a Guatemalan courtroom to face charges of genocide, according to a New York Times report yesterday. Congratulations to [...]
Me, My Romani Family, and Woody Allen
A documentary directed by Laura Halilovic, Italy, 2010, 60 min. 19-year-old Laura Halilovic has made a completely charming documentary about her Romani family and her own interests and dreams. With her behind the camera and guided by her delightful narration, we get fascinating conversations with her mother(who wants Laura to get married), her father (who [...]
Further Film Industry Innovation: Live Streaming
My last post was on the topic of innovation in the film industry, and I wanted to continue the discussion by looking at a particular innovation. In November I was asked to stream a wedding ceremony and was introduced to Speedstream.tv (makers of a mobile, wearable iPTV streaming technology that works off of a wireless [...]
Swimming Upstream In The Film Industry
When I first got the call from AFS telling me that I had gotten the job as one of their new Interns, I was a little apprehensive. Don’t get me wrong, I was ecstatic to have been offered the position as I had moved to Austin a few months before in order to pursue my [...]
How Filmmaking Came To Me (& How I Brought It To Students)
I have always had an overwhelming desire to learn new things – especially when it comes to filmmaking. The thing is, I can’t remember whe I decided I wanted to make movies. There wasn’t a specific point when I came to a conclusion. I just know that sometime, around the age of thirteen, in between [...]
Watch STRINGS on Christmas Weekend
This year, my first Christmas present arrived several weeks early. When director/producer Ben Foster read my AFF post relating that I’d been locked out of both screenings of his film STRINGS, he sent me a screener to make up for it. The story centers on Billy, a happy-go-lucky musician whose life is derailed by the [...]
AFS Selects: PROJECT NIM
I knew I’d be in for an emotional roller coaster ride right from the beginning of James Marsh’s brilliant documentary when two-week-old Nim is taken from his mother. Shot with a tranquilizer gun, Carolyn tries valiantly to hold on to her infant son before lapsing into semi-consciousness. Wealthy, adventurous Stephanie LaFarge is handed the baby [...]
Making Some Noise At The Austin Public Library
If I were to say, “Let’s hang out at the public library tonight,” you might respond to me with a quizzical look followed by a not so pleasant, “Are you @#*$^ kidding me?” I get it. The library is probably the last place you’d like to spend an evening, right? Now what if I were [...]
