Fests and shorts.

"[B]etween July and October 2003, five films made in Austin or by Austin based-filmmakers opened at either No. 1 or No. 2 at the American box-office." Once again, the Austin Chronicle is celebrating its local film scene. And why not. Editor Louis Black might set a few eyes rolling with statements like, "What is going on in Austin is unique. There is no other place in the country, outside of New York and LA, with the same quality and quantity of filmmaking and filmmakers," but mightn't there be something to what he writes immediately after that assertion: "Not just because so many successful, innovative, and recognized filmmakers - established and emerging talents - work here, but because they all talk to each other." One wonders if there aren't other scenes around the country with a similar sense of "community," but still, who's to begrudge a great town its party on the eve of SXSW.

Doubters are kindly referred to the list of films, their makers and the places where they do all this talking to each other. But satisfying a more immediate concern to Austinites and those who'll be at SXSW, the weekly offers its recommendations: Which films to catch when and where. Also:

• Margaret Moser on the Texas Film Hall of Fame.

• Anne S Lewis watches Bush's Brain, based on the book about Karl Rove, and then talks to Michael Paradies Shoob, who made the film with Joseph Mealy.

• Then Lewis gets Paul Stekler to list the "Top 10 Essential Ingredients of a Compelling Political Documentary." His film at the fest is Last Man Standing, described by Lewis as "a long look at Texas' transmogrification from LBJ and Ann Richards country to today's Republican dominance."

• Shawn Badgley briefly interviews Jonathan Demme, whose most recent film is the suddenly relevant portrait of Haitian journalist Jean Dominique. But The Agronomist, writes Badgley, is also "a timely primer on Haiti, a country that when not subject to the whims of the United States is subject to despotic rule."

• Marc Savlov previews Kevin Smith's Jersey Girl.

• Jim Caligiuri talks to Luciana Pedrazza about her film, The Portrait of Billy Joe.

• Belinda Acosta points to a parallel program, "Revolución y Fantasía: Recent Mexican Cinema."

• And then, the quick previews: Savkov on A Few Good Dykes; Lewis on Nuclear Family; Rachel Procter May on Mojados: Through the Night; James Renovitch on Dear Pillow; Nora Ankrum on Barbecue: A Texas Love Story; Courtney Fitzgerald talks to Rebecca Elliot and Neil Reece about their film, Snake Hunt: These Rattles Ain't for Babies; and Savlov again on Dreams of Her.

• Robert Faires takes a brief look at Luke Savisky's cinematic installation, T/x.

• One last quick word from Savlov: Ladyfest Texas follows in May.

Another town, another fest: the 9th Annual Seattle Jewish Film Festival, March 13 through March 21.

Distant

Brian Brooks previews the City of Lights, City of Angels festival, a week of French films in LA. Also in indieWIRE: Pointers to seven more festivals in iW Weekly; Howard Feinstein talks to Nuri Bilge Ceylan about Distant and Steven Rosen rounds up expert opinions in response to the question, "Is piracy a threat to indie film?"

Via Movie City News, the line up for Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival, April 21 through 25. In Champaign-Urbana.

Latinos are flocking to The Passion of the Christ and loving it and recommending it to friends, reports Nikki Finke in the LA Weekly: "Frankly, it never occurred to the godless Hollywood liberals - as the folks at Fox News Network and wacko right-wing Web sites refer to us - to use religion as bait for Latinos. And it never occurred to the Democratic Party, pal of most Hollywood filmmakers, to embrace Gibson or his movie. Big mistake. Huge!" Also: David Ehrenstein talks with Gavin Lambert, a "leading light of that brilliant band of British émigrés (Christopher Isherwood, David Hockney, Aldous Huxley, Tony Richardson) who helped to define Los Angeles and its chief industry, Hollywood."

Embedded, the new play by Tim Robbins at the Public Theater in New York, "is not only dumb," snarls Lawrence F Kaplan in the New Republic, "It is poisonous, a production-length conspiracy theory guilty of the very sins it attributes to the 'cabal' that it claims to expose." That hasn't stopped In These Times from gleefully running an excerpt, though.

Posted by dwhudson at March 11, 2004 1:45 PM