AFS Announces Its May/June 2024 Program Calendar
(Baloji’s OMEN, 2023)
April 9, 2024, AUSTIN, TX— The Austin Film Society announces its calendar for May and June of 2024 featuring signature programs, special screenings and events and a new, diverse lineup of films from around the globe that filmgoers can only see at the AFS Cinema. The full calendar and more information can be found at www.austinfilm.org.
The Austin Film Society will present two series of Essential Cinema programming. The first, beginning in May, will feature works by Oscar Micheaux, one of the earliest major Black filmmakers in America, showcasing some of his best-known films, like Within Our Gates, alongside newly restored titles like God’s Stepchildren. The second, beginning in June, is called “The Paranoid Style in American Cinema” and will take audiences on a journey through American cinema in the ’70s, an era of filmmaking that often explored themes of cynicism, corruption and conspiracy, including The Parallax View and Sidney Lumet’s Network. On May 30 and 31, Ethan Hawke will join Richard Linklater and AFS audiences in person to discuss his latest directorial effort, Wildcat, a new biopic about the life of Southern author Flannery O’Connor. The film stars Maya Hawke as O’Connor alongside Laura Linney, who plays her mother. AFS will also screen four films in its Noir Cannon series, including works by Billy Wilder and Fritz Lang. As previously announced, AFS Doc Days, the annual documentary film festival, also returns for its fifth edition on May 1–5, highlighting the freshest voices in non-fiction filmmaking across 10 films. This year’s lineup includes the opening-night film Union (preceded by a reception in the AFS Cinema lobby), Devo by Chris Smith (dir. American Movie) as the festival’s Centerpiece Screening and Sugarcane as the closing-night title. On May 10, the Austin Film Society will host a special screening of Lost Soulz attended by Katherine Propper, the film’s AFS Grant-supported filmmaker, and featuring a musical performance by the film’s cast. The Austin Film Society will host Paper Cuts, a partnership with local bookstore Alienated Majesty, wherein the film The Garden by Derek Jarman will be paired with the book Modern Nature, also by Jarman, both of which will be discussed at the June 16 screening at AFS Cinema. On May 6, there will be a presentation of Teknolust starring Tilda Swinton, as a part of Science on Screen®, an initiative of the Coolidge Corner Theatre with major support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Calendar highlights in detail:
Between May 7–June 2, AFS will present Essential Cinema: Oscar Micheaux. The series will feature five films, including one double feature, directed by one of America’s first major African American filmmakers. While Micheaux began his career as a writer, negotiations to adapt one of his novels into a film in 1918 sparked his interest in the new medium of motion pictures. While many of his films are now considered lost, he left a prolific filmography that represented the Black experience in America at the time. AFS’s series begins with Micheaux’s second film, Within Our Gates; then continues with Body and Soul, which includes the on-screen debut of Paul Robeson; a double feature of Veiled Aristocrats and Ten Minutes To Live; and God’s Stepchildren, newly restored.
In June, the Austin Film Society will screen Essential Cinema: The Paranoid Style in American Cinema. This four-film series focuses on the newly formed anxieties of the 1970s, which were, in part, created by watershed cultural moments (like the Watergate scandal) that exposed a darker side of America. The series includes The Parallax View, starring Warren Beatty as a reporter who witnesses an assassination; Blue Sunshine, about a string of murders connected to the titular strain of LSD; Winter Kills, in which Jeff Bridges becomes embroiled in the aftermath of a Kennedy-like assassination plot; and Sidney Lumet’s Network, which takes critical aim at television news.
Returning to AFS Cinema is another series of films in the Noir Cannon, highlighting film noir favorites as well as hidden gems by some of the biggest names in Cinema. The first title in the series will be Ace in the Hole, directed by Billy Wilder (dir. Some Like It Hot, Sunset Boulevard) and starring Kirk Douglas, followed by Clash By Night by Fritz Lang, the director of influential crime films like Fury and M. Also included in the series are Samuel Fuller’s Pickup On South Street and Gilda starring Rita Hayworth and George Macready.
The AFS Doc Days film festival returns for its fifth annual celebration of non-fiction filmmaking from May 1–5. This year’s lineup includes 10 documentaries, many of which will be attended by filmmakers and other special guests. On May 1, which is International Workers Day, the festival will kick off with Union, a film about the labor organizers fighting to unionize an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island. The film will be preceded by an opening-night reception in the lobby of AFS Cinema at 7 p.m., which will be open to those attending the film as well as full-festival pass holders. The festival’s 2024 Centerpiece Screening will be Devo by Chris Smith (dir. American Movie), which tells the story of the iconoclastic band from its beginnings as a reaction to the 1970 Kent State massacre and its rise to cultural notoriety with the song “Whip It.” The closing-night film will be Sugarcane about the unmarked mass grave site found in Canada at a former “Indian residential school.” The film won the Directing Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and the screening at AFS Cinema will be attended in person by co-director Emily Kassie. AFS Doc Days 2024 will also include Time Passages and Guián, both of which were directed by AFS Grant-supported filmmakers.
Throughout May and June, the Austin Film Society will also host a variety of special screenings and events. On May 10, AFS Cinema will host a special presentation of Lost Soulz. The film was directed by AFS-supported filmmaker Katherine Propper (dir. Birds), who will attend the screening along with members of the film’s cast, who will also participate in a musical performance on stage. On May 30 and 31, audiences will be joined in person by Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke, who will discuss Hawke’s latest film, Wildcat, at AFS Cinema. The new biopic, directed by Hawke, is about author Flannery O’Connor and stars his daughter Maya Hawke (Asteroid City, Stranger Things) and Laura Linney (The Savages, The Squid and the Whale). On June 5, Humanities Texas will present Seadrift, a new documentary about racial hostilities between Vietnamese immigrants and the Texas communities along the Gulf Coast. The film’s director, Tim Tsai, will introduce the film and participate in a post-screening Q&A. This program is made possible in part by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The full May/June lineup continues below, and a complete list of all film screenings announced to date and special events are on our website at austinfilm.org. Ticket prices range from $11 to $13.50, with discounts for AFS members. Special pricing is noted if applicable.
AUSTIN FILM SOCIETY MAY/JUNE CALENDAR
ESSENTIAL CINEMA: OSCAR MICHEAUX
Oscar Micheaux is one of the founders of the African American Cinema tradition and the first major Black feature filmmaker. Beginning as a novelist, Micheaux was introduced to filmmaking when one of his novels was purchased as a film property. He made the film and, in the process, gained a love for the then-young medium. His perspective as a Black man in America makes these films, which were created for African American audiences, invaluable documents of their social milieu. This series presents some of Micheaux’s most important works alongside new restorations of his films.
WITHIN OUR GATES
Oscar Micheaux, USA, 1920, DCP, 79 min.
5/7, 5/11
Oscar Micheaux’s second film is an ambitious attempt to depict some of the post-World War I realities of life for Black Americans. The young female hero witnesses lynchings, segregation, and other injustices as she strives to better her life with education.
BODY AND SOUL
Oscar Micheaux, USA, 1925, DCP, 82 min.
5/14, 5/19
Paul Robeson made his film debut in BODY AND SOUL as a magnetic ne’er-do-well who, while on the run from the law, impersonates a clergyman and generally embodies what Micheaux saw as the most pernicious vices affecting his community.
VEILED ARISTOCRATS and TEN MINUTES TO LIVE
Oscar Micheaux, USA, 1932, DCP, 106 min.
5/21, 5/25
Micheaux adapts Charles W. Chesnutt’s novel The House Behind The Cedars for a second time; his first version is now considered a lost film. This melodrama concerns the subject of light-skinned African Americans “passing” for white and considers the social dynamics at play in such a scenario.
GOD’S STEPCHILDREN
Oscar Micheaux, USA, 1938, DCP, 70 min.
5/27, 6/2
Now newly restored, this is a film in which Micheaux again returns to the issue of the color line within the Black community as a lighter skin tone is perceived (sometimes problematically here) as a social asset. As one of Micheaux’s most accomplished works, it deserves to be seen, and the attitudes depicted also deserve to be examined in a sociological and historical light.
ESSENTIAL CINEMA: THE PARANOID STYLE IN AMERICAN CINEMA
The 1970s in America were a period of economic downturns, resource instability, political opportunism, revelations about abuses of power, and civil unrest. This mindset is reflected in much of the Cinema of the time. Here is a selection of films that serve to sketch an approximate portrait for the anxieties of the age of disco and bell bottoms.
THE PARALLAX VIEW
Alan J. Pakula, USA, 1974, 35mm, 104 min.
6/4, 6/8
One of the crown jewels of the Cinema of Paranoia. Warren Beatty plays a reporter who witnesses an assassination and finds himself a target of the dark forces that perpetrated the crime. The cinematography by the great Gordon Willis contributes immeasurably to the atmosphere of ever-tightening suspense. In 35mm.
BLUE SUNSHINE
Jeff Lieberman, USA, 1977, DCP, 95 min.
6/11, 6/16
Jeff Lieberman’s unforgettable horror/political thriller-hybrid BLUE SUNSHINE introduces us to a group of upwardly mobile young people who share a secret: they all took the titular strain of LSD in the ’60s and now the deadly flashbacks have begun. Is there a malevolent political force behind it all? Exciting, genuinely surprising, a true classic of its kind.
WINTER KILLS
William Richert, USA, 1979, 35mm, 97 min.
6/18, 6/23
In a film as wild and messy as the decade that birthed it, Jeff Bridges plays the Kennedy-esque scion of a political family who starts putting together the pieces around the assassination of his brother, the president, and uncovers a conspiracy so vast it boggles the mind. With John Huston, Anthony Perkins, Eli Wallach, and Toshirō Mifune (playing a character named Keith). Insane. In 35mm.
NETWORK
Sidney Lumet, USA, 1976, DCP, 121 min.
6/25, 6/29
It is a measure of how influential this film was that Peter Finch’s newsman character’s tagline “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” became a national rallying cry for the ’70s. Screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky and director Sidney Lumet expose the media’s role in manufacturing consent with a stellar cast including Faye Dunaway, William Holden, and Ned Beatty, whose chilling monologue is one of the high points of ’70s American Cinema.
NOIR CANON
In Paris, after the World War II Nazi occupation, American crime and detective films flooded back into cinemas after a four-year absence. The moral and visual darkness of these films caused French critics and audiences to coin a new term, film noir, to describe them. The narrative directness, visual sophistication, and dark humor that characterized these films have made film noir enduringly popular. With this series, we hope to share some of the foundational films of film noir and, in our introductions to these screenings, help people understand what characterizes the genre, what it meant to audiences of its time, and what it still says to us today.
ACE IN THE HOLE
Billy Wilder, USA, 1951, DCP, 111 min.
5/8, 5/11
When a young man is trapped in a New Mexico rockslide, dissipated and deeply cynical newspaper reporter Kirk Douglas sees it as an opportunity for career advancement and he creates a media circus around the tragedy. Billy Wilder’s diagnosis of something broken in the 20th Century American character still rings true today.
CLASH BY NIGHT
Fritz Lang, USA, 1952, DCP, 105 min.
5/20, 5/23
In this excellent film noir melodrama written by Clifford Odets and directed by Fritz Lang, the great Barbara Stanwyck plays a woman who returns to the tough waterside district of Monterey, California, after many years away from home and tries to start anew. With Robert Ryan as a proto-edgelord film projectionist (!) and Marilyn Monroe before she achieved her greatest fame. Free Member Monday — free admission for all AFS members on May 20.
PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET
Samuel Fuller, USA, 1953, DCP, 80 min.
5/24, 5/26
Samuel Fuller’s tough, economical narrative about a pickpocket (Richard Widmark) who gets in over his head has a formal sparseness that helped to inspire generations of filmmakers after him. As with all of Fuller’s work, there’s a lot of the filmmaker’s no-nonsense personality in the storytelling.
GILDA
Charles Vidor, USA, 1946, DCP, 110 min.
5/29, 6/1
This psychosexual noir love triangle benefits immensely from Rita Hayworth’s portrayal of the title character. She’s a trophy for her wealthy husband (George Macready) and an arouser of strong, contradictory emotions in Macready’s tough new associate, Glenn Ford. With plenty of forbidden desire and even a couple of song numbers from the never-better Hayworth.
FRIGHT CLUB
LA RESIDENCIA AKA THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED
Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, Spain, 1969, 35mm, 104 min.
5/22, 5/26
This extraordinarily atmospheric period horror film set in a French girls’ boarding school is one of the crown jewels of European horror. Lilli Palmer is unforgettable in the role of the psychotically strict headmistress who conceals some dark secrets underneath the facade of order. Charged with a political subtext and seriously moody. A secret influence on many horror films that followed.In 35mm.
NEWLY RESTORED
LE SAMOURAÏ
Jean-Pierre Melville, France, 1967, DCP, 105 min. In French with English subtitles.
5/10–5/15
Cool is an understatement when describing this chilly work by master of intrigue Jean-Pierre Melville, ice-cold is more like it. Alain Delon is Jeff Costello, a fedora-clad contract killer caught in a dangerous cat-and-mouse game with the strong arm of the law and the way of the gun. If there’s any wonder as to how this one film could influence everyone from John Woo to Jim Jarmusch, there won’t be once the credits roll.
NOT A PRETTY PICTURE
Martha Coolidge, USA, 1976, DCP, 83 min.
5/23, 5/25
The first film from Martha Coolidge (VALLEY GIRL, REAL GENIUS) is a formally complex, emotionally harrowing, autobiographical film about the director’s own experiences as the teenage victim of a sexual assault. The structure of the narrative is punctuated by behind-the-scenes and rehearsal footage, which bring added layers of depth to the situation and Coolidge’s (and her actors’) feelings about it.
DAYS OF HEAVEN
Terrence Malick, USA, 1978, DCP, 94 min.
6/1–6/3
Terrence Malick’s second feature film (after which he took a 20-year break) is a visually rapturous story of American losers on the run who hide out on a wheat farm and are subject to challenges and privations on a Biblical scale. With Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard, and the always-electric Linda Manz (OUT OF THE BLUE).
LET’S GET LOST
Bruce Weber, USA, 1988, DCP, 120 min.
6/7–6/9
Bruce Weber applies his signature “jazz noir/California cool sensibility” to the life of Chet Baker, the great Jazz trumpeter. From his early brushes with fame as a James Dean look-alike wunderkind to later brushes with the law and struggles with substance abuse, this stunning portrait captures a man whose “frosty hipness was, in the ’50s, considered a sexy alternative to that era’s prevailing ethos of earnest, striving respectability” (The New York Times).
PANDORA’S BOX
W. Pabst, Germany, 1929, DCP, 141 min. Silent with English intertitles.
6/13–6/19
Thoroughly, startlingly modern, this look at Lulu, a sexy-but-innocent showgirl who suffers for desire (her own) and others, made an icon of its star — Kansas-native, former Ziegfeld girl, and later film critic, Louise Brooks — and became one of the most controversial films in history.
NAKED ACTS
Bridgett M. Davis, USA, 1996, DCP, 87 min.
6/19, 6/24
Writer-director Bridgett M. Davis bares it all in this revealing comedy about an actress, Cicely (Jake-ann Jones), who discovers what stands between her and her big break: a layer thicker than a robe. From body issues to a contentious childhood as the daughter of a Blaxploitation star, the trauma we carry is more than skin deep in this widely celebrated yet oft-forgotten ‘90s indie. Free Member Monday—free admission for all AFS members on June 24.
BEIJING WATERMELON
Nobuhiko Obayashi, Japan, 1989, DCP, 135 min. In Japanese with English subtitles.
6/23, 7/1
Dubbed a “Japanese masala,” this “multi-ethnic mix of spices” (Japan Society) from Nobuhiko Obayashi (HAUSU) crafts a subtle dish out of the tale of a Japanese greengrocer whose encounter with an annoying customer leads him to lend a hand to poor exchange students from China. Inspired by true events.
BIG SCREEN CLASSICS
HAIRSPRAY
John Waters, USA, 1988, DCP, 92 min.
6/8, 6/9
From John Waters comes a “pleasantly plump” comedy that’s heavy on laughter and light on its feet. In a breakout performance, Ricki Lake is Tracy Turnblad, a teenager who pursues dreams of stardom and racial integration in 1960s Baltimore. Starring Divine, Debbie Harry, and more!
WORLD CINEMA CLASSICS
MILLENNIUM ACTRESS
Satoshi Kon, Japan, 2001, DCP, 87 min. In Japanese with English subtitles.
5/22–5/26
Freely inspired by the life of Setsuko Hara, Ozu muse and star of 101 films, Satoshi Kon (PERFECT BLUE and PAPRIKA) brings his elliptical style to the story of a documentarian whose investigation into the life of an actress sends him on an adventure through time and straight into the heart of cinema.
ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER
Pedro Almodovar, Spain/France, 1999, 35mm, 101 min. In Spanish and Catalan with English subtitles.
6/12–6/17
In this complex portrait of motherhood from Pedro Almodóvar, Cecilia Roth (ARREBATO) is Manuela, an Argentine nurse spurred by the death of her son to embark on a trip to Spain to find Esteban, the father the boy never knew, now living as Lola. Co-starring Marisa Paredes, Candela Peña, and Penélope Cruz. In 35mm.
MODERN MASTERS
ABOUT DRY GRASSES
Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey, 2023, DCP, 198 min. In Turkish with English subtitles.
5/9, 5/13
In the latest epic-length film from Turkish master Nuri Bilge Ceylan (WINTER SLEEP, THE WILD PEAR TREE), a selfish teacher, posted in remote Anatolia and itching for a transfer to a more desirable locale, is accused of inappropriate behavior by a student, and his feelings of despair deepen.
AVANT CINEMA
ALCHEMICAL PRAXIS
5/12
In this showcase of avant-garde classics curated by Nayantara Bhattacharya, the films of American eccentric filmmaker and folklorist Harry Smith are presented along with some of his peers, among them Jordan Bellson.
BEST OF THE FESTS
THE SWEET EAST
Sean Price Williams, USA, 2023, DCP, 104 min.
5/8, 5/12
High school senior Lilian (Talia Ryder) encounters Neo-Nazis, side-hustle cons, and a Pizzagate Rambo as she makes her way across the good ol’ U. S. of A in this “grody cinematic experience” from Safdie-brothers collaborator Sean Price Williams. Co-starring Jacob Elordi (SALTBURN), Ayo Edebiri (FX’s THE BEAR), and Simon Rex (RED ROCKET).
FEMME
Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping, UK, 2023, DCP, 99 min.
6/10, 6/13
When drag performer Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) is brutalized by a neck-tatted homophobe (George MacKay), he turns the life of his attacker, and his own, on its heels. Digging a stiletto deep into safe notions of submission, dominance, and desire — in FEMME, revenge is served.
OMEN
Baloji, Belgium/Netherlands/Democratic Republic of Congo, 2023, DCP, 90 min. In French, Swahili, Lingala, and English with English subtitles.
5/27, 5/29
In this witch’s brew from Congolese-Belgian rapper-turned-filmmaker Baloji, amidst accusations of sorcery, four individuals must make peace with the demands tradition and family make on the soul.
QUEER CINEMA: LOST & FOUND
ROOMMATES
Chuck Vincent, USA, 1981, DCP, 89 min.
5/16
The door is always open … The lives of an ex-sex worker trying to go legit, an aspiring actress, and a model with a weakness for men and drugs become intertwined when they all move into the same Manhattan apartment. The signature film from “the George Cukor of porn,” Chuck Vincent’s ROOMMATES is a queer take on Old Hollywood melodrama and an adult film like no other. Screening the softcore version.
SHE-MAN: A STORY OF FIXATION
Bob Clark, USA, 1967, 35mm, 68 min.
6/20, 6/23
A macho soldier is forced to take estrogen as part of a blackmail scheme led by the mysterious Dominita. The shocking part? He likes it. Advertised as being “for psychologically mature adults only,” SHE-MAN: A STORY OF FIXATION is a singularly screwy piece of pre-Stonewall queer cinema history and the greatest force-fem story ever told by the director of BLACK CHRISTMAS and SUPERBABIES: BABY GENIUSES 2. In 35mm.
PAPER CUTS
No adaptation here. In this special partnership with local independent bookstore Alienated Majesty, films are paired with books to enrich the movie-watching experience far beyond the cinema with selections available for purchase at Alienated Majesty in the weeks preceding the screening. While the book and film are complementary, this is the one book club where it’s okay to skip the reading beforehand — or lie — it’s fun either way.
THE GARDEN
Derek Jarman, UK, 1990, DCP, 95 min.
6/16, 6/20
Derek Jarman’s film THE GARDEN is abloom with rage and longing; a work of genius; a work of life in all its complicated, all-too-human nature, and it’s paired here with book club selection Modern Nature, Jarman’s part-diary/part-meditation on the reality of HIV-seropositivity in the 1980s. THE GARDEN screens June 16 & 20 at AFS Cinema, featuring a book club discussion with Francesca Balboni, doctoral candidate in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin, on June 16 along with a pop-up shop.
LATES
TOKYO EYES
Jean-Pierre Limosin, Japan/France, 1998, DCP, 97 min. In Japanese with English subtitles.
5/17, 5/18
Love is blind, or nearly, when a teenage girl wittingly (and deliberately) falls in love with a bespectacled killer stalking the streets of Tokyo. A stylish ’90s ode to the Nouvelle Vague featuring Takeshi Kitano from FAUX FUYANTS director Jean-Pierre Limosin. U. S. Premiere of new restoration.
THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR
Tom Tykwer, Germany, 2000, 35mm, 135 min. In German with English subtitles.
5/24, 5/25
Following the international smash hit RUN LOLA RUN, Tom Tykwer increased the heart rate for THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR. Starring LOLA’s Franka Potente as a psychiatric nurse whose path crosses with a former soldier and PTSD-sufferer, sending her on a mystical awakening best described as “MTV programmed by Deepak Chopra.” Healing.
DANCER IN THE DARK
Lars von Trier, Denmark/France/Germany/Italy/Sweden/UK/USA, 2000, 35mm, 140 min.
6/7–6/9
If the heart sees what the eyes cannot, what is there to make of a Lars von Trier musical featuring the music of Björk and starring the Icelandic superstar as a Czech émigré and single mother losing her eyesight while working the assembly line alongside Catherine Deneuve? See it for yourself in 35mm.
FÖGI IS A BASTARD
Marcel Gisler, France/Switzerland, 1998, DCP, 91 min. In French with English subtitles.
6/14, 6/15
Fögi is punk. Fögi is queer. Fögi is a bastard. Teen Beni falls in love with the front man of local legends The Minks in 1970s Zurich. At first a willing submissive “dog,” he soon discovers what every pet must, a leash too tight. An essential alternative queer-teen coming-of-age story featuring the music of The Stooges and The Velvet Underground.
SCIENCE ON SCREEN®
TEKNOLUST
Lynn Hershman Leeson, USA/UK/Germany, 2002, 82 min.
6/6
We will be joined by a panel of geneticists for a special screening of this arthouse sci-fi comedy starring Tilda Swinton as scientist Rosetta Stone who creates a trio of identical self-replicating clones, all played by Tilda Swinton, if you think you can handle that. Science on Screen® is an initiative of the Coolidge Corner Theatre with major support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
DOC DAYS
UNION
Stephen Maing and Brett Story, USA, 2023, 102 min.
5/1
On May 1st, International Workers Day, AFS Doc Days will open with the Austin premiere of UNION, the new documentary following the group of Staten Island workers behind the first Amazon Labor Union. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, organizer Chris Smalls led an 11-month-long grassroots effort to support the creation of a union in the Amazon warehouse where he was once employed. Embedded with direct access to the organizers behind the scenes, the filmmakers documented the group’s struggles and herculean achievements against the union-busting efforts of one of the world’s biggest corporations. Featuring an in-person Q&A with labor organizers Chris Smalls and Angelika Maldonado and the film’s producer and director of photography, Martin Dicicco.
Doc Days festival pass holders and UNION ticket holders are invited to an opening-night reception with the filmmakers in the AFS Cinema lobby from 7–8 PM.
LOOK INTO MY EYES
Lana Wilson, USA, 2024, DCP, 105 min.
5/2
Five New York City psychics invite a documentary crew to observe their mysterious world. Clients come to communicate with the dearly departed or to enter the mind of a beloved pet but often end up sharing their greatest fears, darkest secrets, and unresolved traumas. Director Lana Wilson (MISS AMERICANA, PRETTY BABY: BROOKE SHIELDS) tracks these sessions with beautiful and sensitive verité, full of honesty and humor. As this incredible cast of characters share their special gifts, they reveal the richness of the human experience and new possibilities for connection and grace. Featuring an in-person Q&A with director Lana Wilson.
A NEW KIND OF WILDERNESS
Silje Evensmo Jacobsen, Norway, 2024, DCP, 84 min. In English and Norwegian with English subtitles.
5/3
In this miracle of intimate verité filmmaking, winner of the best international documentary at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, we spend a year with a young family in rural Norway as they grapple with a fracturing loss. In the microcosm of this single family is a universal modern dilemma — how to live according to your values in a culture/society that so powerfully imposes a different set of rules? A vital new work of narratively immersive non-fiction.
SEEKING MAVIS BEACON
Jazmin Renée Jones, USA, 2024, DCP, 102 min.
5/3
Filmmaker Jazmin Jones and wunderkind technologist Olivia McKayla Ross join forces as a “very online” improvised cyber-detective team with a single goal—to find the real Mavis Beacon, a fictional Black female typing instructor and avatar for typing educational software. Their search takes them down internet wormholes and across the United States where they find themselves in search of more than the real Haitian-American fashion model behind the Mavis Beacon image. This singular film offers a fresh, funny, and modern deep dive into representations of Blackness in technology and reveals how our and cultural imaginations are reflected back to us through our ubiquitous screens. Featuring an in person Q&A with Olivia McKayla Ross.
TIME PASSAGES
Kyle Henry, USA, 2024, DCP, 86 min.
5/4
At risk of losing his elderly mother to COVID in a nursing home, filmmaker Kyle Henry wrestles with the murky space between the identities of child and parent in this delightful and inventive film about family love and loss. Diving into the extensive record of his family, Henry plays with the concepts of distance and intimacy, both in relation to his memories and in the ongoing interactions with his mother as she succumbs to dementia. The film is a sincere and often funny and playful journey about making meaning from our family stories. With director Kyle Henry, producer Jason Wehling and editor Karen Skloss in person.
DEFIANT
Karim Amer, Ukraine/US, 2023, DCP, 94 min. In Ukrainian, Russian, and English with English subtitles.
5/4
A riveting documentary taking place on the front lines of Ukraine’s international diplomacy efforts during wartime, directed by Oscar®-nominated producer of THE SQUARE, Karim Amer.
DEVO
Chris Smith, UK/USA, 2024, DCP, 93 min.
5/4
Step inside the minds of one of the most unusual bands of all time in Chris Smith’s electric retelling of the highs and lows of DEVO, the most experimental art-rock band to ever accidentally become mainstream. Taking advantage of the band’s incredible archive and artistic output, Smith fully immerses us in the DEVO aesthetic and philosophy, articulating the culture-shifting power of the band.
GUIÁN
Nicole Chi Amén, Costa Rica, 2023, DCP, 75 min. In Spanish, Chinese regional dialects, and Mandarin with English subtitles.
5/5
Director Nicole Chi Amén, a Costa Rican filmmaker of Chinese descent, investigates her fascinating family story in this sensual diaristic film about language, nationality, and identity. As a young woman, Amén’s grandmother fled China’s cultural revolution, following a handful of relatives to Costa Rica. Exploring the textures, sounds, and objects connected to her grandmother, Amén searches for belonging in her family’s Chinese past. A selection of the Visions du Réel festival in Switzerland, GUIÁN was supported by an AFS Grant. With Nicole Chi Amén in person.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH
Alex Braverman, USA, 2023, DCP, 99 min.
5/5
Andy Kaufman is one of the most influential entertainers/performance artists of the American 20th century. Whether delighting club audiences with his Foreign Man character or infuriating them with a live reading of the entirety of The Great Gatsby, Andy was a self-described “song and dance man” who would entertain by pushing the limits of performance, and without ever telling a joke. With the help of Andy’s friends, lovers, co-conspirators, and official collaborators, this documentary looks back at Andy’s performances, the complicated life that inspired them, and searches for the truth about the enigmatic man who gave birth to modern comedy.
SUGARCANE
Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, USA/Canada, 2024, DCP, 107 min. In English and Secwepemctsín with English subtitles.
5/5
When a mass unmarked gravesite is uncovered at the site of a Catholic church-run “Indian residential school” in British Columbia, the people of the Williams Lake First Nations face a public confrontation of past horrors. Filmmakers Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie follow community members dedicated to surfacing the truth in this powerful and beautifully complex documentary about reckoning with state violence. Winner of the Directing Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. With co-director Emily Kassie in person.
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
LOST SOULZ
Katherine Propper, USA, 2023, DCP, 95 min.
5/10
Freely inspired by the life of star Sauve Sidle, here as Sol, an aspiring young rapper whose entree to the world of SoundCloud rappers and Instagram clout includes a once-in-a-lifetime invitation to join a crew on a bumpy road trip on the way to fulfill their dreams of “making it” in LA. Unable to shake his past, Sol soon begins to question all that he knows of himself — and the game — in this heady blend of lo-fi hip-hop and improvisational energy. With the AFS-supported LOST SOULZ, director Katherine Propper crafts a freewheeling paean to youthful ambition, friendship, and, of course, music. Take note, this is how you drop the mic. Featuring Aaron Melloul, Malachi Manson, Alexander Brackney, Kristall Poppin, Tauran Ambroise, and Micro TDH. Including a special performance by the film’s stars and a conversation with the cast and director Katherine Propper.
COMMUNITY SCREENINGS
Humanities Texas presents SEADRIFT
Tim Tsai, USA, 2019, DCP, 65 min.
6/5
After the fall of Saigon, millions of Vietnamese “boat people” escaped their homeland by sea in a desperate attempt to find refuge. Many sought to build new lives along the Gulf Coast, finding available work and a favorable climate comparable to coast-rich, subtropical Vietnam. But the sudden influx of Vietnamese led to strained tensions in many fishing communities. In 1979, a fatal shooting in the small Texas fishing village of Seadrift ignited a maelstrom of hostilities against Vietnamese refugees along the Gulf Coast.
What really happened during this conflict, which was rife with rumors and false assumptions? How does a community recover and heal after a deep rift that erupted in violence? SEADRIFT examines this turbulent yet little-seen chapter of American history and explores the consequences that continue to reverberate today. The film’s director, Tim Tsai, will join us for an intro and Q&A following the screening. This screening is free and open to the public but requires a ticket reservation.
This program is made possible in part by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
About Austin Film Society
Founded in 1985 by filmmaker Richard Linklater, AFS creates life-changing opportunities for filmmakers, catalyzes Austin and Texas as a creative hub, and brings the community together around great film. AFS is committed to racial equity and inclusion, with an objective to deliver programs that actively dismantle the structural racism, sexism and other bias in the screen industries. AFS supports filmmakers from all backgrounds towards career leaps, encouraging exceptional artistic projects with grants and support services. AFS operates Austin Studios, a 20-acre production facility, to attract and grow the creative media ecosystem. Austin Public, a space for our city’s diverse mediamakers to train and collaborate, provides many points of access to filmmaking and film careers. The AFS Cinema is an ambitiously programmed repertory and first run arthouse with broad community engagement. By hosting premieres, local and international industry events, and the Texas Film Awards, AFS shines the national spotlight on Texas filmmakers while connecting Austin and Texas to the wider film community. AFS is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. More at austinfilm.org.
Media Contact
Will Stefanski
will@austinfilm.org
