Nature Abhors Vacua (and so do I).
Nature Abhors Vacua
June
Film and Art
I've been working hard on preparing for the San Antonio Underground Film Festival and Contemporary Art Month. Saw a great show with The New Year and Tortoise last night in Austin. Here are some film reviews for the festival that I wrote for Voices of Art:
3 days, 55 films
If the San Antonio Underground Film Festival (SAUFF) weren’t so underground, it would be a local institution. In its 10th consecutive year, the film festival shows anything and everything from homemade cartoons and small time productions to directorial debuts and avant-garde shorts. The only common denominator is independent effort and freedom from the corporate movie machine. Last year’s SAUFF packed the Alameda Theatre to standing room only with more than 80 independent films over a three-day weekend. This year’s festival moves to Sunset Station at 1174 East Commerce and will take place over the weekend of June 25th - 27th.
The longevity and success of the film festival is mainly due to the devotion of its founder, Adam Rocha. The original name and inspiration for the film festival was the “Golden Shower of Hits” and his film fest retains its irreverent attitude towards Hollywood’s commercial products -- definitely the only film-festival in the world that awards a low-rider bike as the grand prize. Dago Patlan directs the panel of judges selecting the movies and the prizewinners, but we’ve taken an early look at some of this years strongest entries.
The Case
Directed by: Dimitri Lotovski
The Case is a serious film about a man with a moral dilemma. Set mainly in San Antonio, the film starts with a suicide and then follows a misdirected briefcase full of money from New York to the Blue-star Brewery. Strong characters making tough decisions carry the plot and the case through the 35-minute film.Between The White Lines
Directed by: Lois Ann Porter
Between the White Lines is an 89-minute documentary that chronicles the UCLA women’s softball 2002 title defense season. It’s an intimate look behind the scenes of a fiercely competitive world and follows the team from the preseason to the national championship game. The movie gives you a strong sense of the personalities of the coach and some of the players and carries as much drama as a documentary can hold.The Paper Maché Chase
Directed by: Dave Jordan
The Film Festival will debut this 12-minute short that was one of the final performances of Spalding Gray. He plays the headmaster of the most selective pre-school in the country and delivers several short parodic monologues about educational success and exclusivity. Between monologues, two sets of prospective matriculate parents worry about the PDAT’s (PlayDate Achievement Tests) and their children’s futures.The Lester Show Happy Hour
Directed by: Allan Steele
Lester has some problems. He lives in a bombed out taxi, makes friends with dead fish and processed cheese, and believes that a cardboard cutout Colonel Sanders is president George Lincoln. This short, whacked-out digital cartoon follows Lester’s trippy happy hour through a blissfully decomposed cityscape.One Nation Under Tommy
Directed by: Roger Beebe
Perhaps coordinator is a more appropriate term for Beebe’s role in this film montage than director. The basic concept is a video version of the whisper game. The process starts with a patriotic Tommy Hilfiger commercial that is transcribed by a writer into a script. The script is then passed to a director who has never seen the original. The director shoots the script and we see the results. The process iterates through 5 permutations with a new writer and director each time. The evolution of the scenes gets increasingly bizarre as subtle mutations creep in. One of the best moments comes about halfway through when a character starts drinking from what had in previous iterations been a bottle of Hilfiger cologne.Goodbye Blue Mundy
Directed by: Charlie Roadman and Adam Lyons
For full-disclosure I should admit that both the director of this film and the band (Buttercup) that it features are friends of mine. The short film documents the preparation for a Grackle Mundy show/performance piece at Robert Tatum’s South Flores gallery. The first half features the assemblage of secret rooms and video linked oil barrels while the second half shows the band’s performance. Utter Genius!Freewheelin’
Directed by: Jake Vaughn
Have you ever been to a used bookstore and met one of those crazed hippie neo-corporate fascist managers. Set in an Austin Half-Price-Books, Freewheelin’ is propelled by one such personality who’s had a little too much free time in the self-help section. Several short episodes are divided by a catchy theme as the manager’s breakdown becomes increasingly imminent.Yeti Vengeance
Directed by: Suzanne Wallace Whayne
Yeti Vengeance is a romantic horror-comedy and a campy spoof of the making of a B-movie. The main characters are everybody’s favorite Hollywood archetypes: the nerdy film-school graduate first time director, the washed up soap opera actress/producer’s wife, and the slimy fast-talking B-movie producer. And then, of course, there’s the Yeti. Keep the film rolling.Prison A-Go-Go
Directed by: Barak Epstein
Prison A-Go-Go pushes the mutant zombie ninja mad-scientist women in prison genre to a new, post-modern artistic level. Just as Goddard redefined cinematic expectations, Epstein has taken film to a place from which it may never return. Self-reflexive cuts to directorial commentary and product placement create a meta-dialogue between the audience and the very concept of mullet-sploitation itself. Also lots of shower scenes.Portal: The Movie
Directed by: Bill Sebastian
Is it a sin to drink just one drop of the world’s hottest hot sauce to impress your friends? A young office-worker finds out as one night of indiscretion leads to his toilet transforming into a fiery portal to hell. Challenged by a law of trans-dimensional parity he must find a way to seal the hole and get the demon of sloth off his couch.Collecting Fiesta
Directed by: Amy Levine
Levine’s documentary explores the world of dish collecting and Fiesta-ware plates. It includes footage from the factory, a collector’s convention, and interviews with various collectors and with Thomas Sokolowski, director of the Andy Warhol Museum. You can’t go wrong with a ‘Radioactive Red’ pitcher (unless you put something acidic inside).Dancing with the Devil
Directed by: Melinda Marroquín
Set in McAllen and the (Rio Grande) Valley, Marroquín’s film tells the story of an urban legend. Faced with a recent break-up, the heroine breaks a promise to her mother and goes out dancing at the Velvet on Good Friday. Always check your partner’s feet when you’re dancing with a tall dark stranger on a religious holiday.Antone’s Home of the Blues
Directed by: Merle Betrand
This 102-minute documentary tells the story of Clifford Antone and his world famous Austin blues club. With a stunning soundtrack filled with past masters and new generation blues performers, the film tells part of the history of the blues while it highlights the positive aspects of the Antone’s story. Little mention is made of drug charges, jail time, or the rumours about what really goes on in Antone’s back rooms, but in the end, the music tells the story.Mojados: Through the Night
Directed by: Tommy Davis
Davis follows the path of four hopeful immigrants from Michoacan, Mexico on their grueling 120-mile trek from outside Reynosa into South Texas. Cold nights, rainy days, barbed wire, dehydration, and moldy tortillas plague the men in their attempt to avoid the border patrol and reach their vision of the American dream.Half Cocked Firelock: Time Served in Santa Anna’s Army
Directed by: David N. Reyes
In the Winter of 2003, hundreds of Texas Hispanics answered Hollywood’s call to form a new Mexican Army and storm the quiet mission know as the Alamo. Reyes interviews the men who put their lives on hold to work for $100 a day in the making of the recent feature film.