AFS Viewfinders Podcast

On this episode of the AFS Viewfinders podcast, we visit with Austin-based filmmaker Michael Tully, whose new feature film DON'T LEAVE HOME opens September 14 at AFS Cinema. Tully has been immersed in the film world for years, not only as a filmmaker but also as a writer, cinephile, and now teacher. His previous features include SEPTIEN (2011) and PING PONG SUMMER (2014), both of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. In this conversation, Tully talks about his experiences teaching film classes, hitting the international festival circuit, why he had to shoot his new gothic horror film in Ireland, what makes sound design key to making an effective horror film, and more.

This month's ongoing Essential Cinema series, Pre-Code Treasures, looks back at the unique period of time (roughly 1929-34) before the implementation of the Hays Code. Each week, we're joined by film scholars to talk about the era and the film selection for the week.

On August 9, scholar, professor, and film archivist Dr. Caroline Frick joined us to discuss "a funky artifact of its time," the Marx Brothers' THE COCOANUTS (1929), one of the early talkies that explored the transition of Broadway and Vaudeville productions to film. Lead programmer Lars Nilsen and Dr. Frick (a self-proclaimed Marx Brothers enthusiast) discussed many aspects of the movie including the Marx Brothers deal with Paramount, how cinematography had to change to adjust for sound, and a possible Austin connection between the famed Marx Brothers.

Here at AFS, we're big fans of Austin-based filmmaker and so-called "Godfather of Mumblecore" Andrew Bujalski. Later this month, Bujalski's newest film SUPPORT THE GIRLS opens around the country, including at AFS Cinema. Our Lead Programmer Lars Nilsen recently sat down with the filmmaker for a conversation about living and working in Austin, his thoughts on Hollywood movies and whether or not we would ever direct a Marvel picture, what he makes of the word "mumblecore" now, and why he will still drop everything to see a 35mm print in theaters.

Austin Film Society Lead Programmer Lars Nilsen conducts a discussion with legendary film programmer, publisher and writer Kier-La Janisse.

Janisse is owner/Artistic Director of Spectacular Optical Publications and founder of The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies. She has been a programmer for the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, co-founded Montreal microcinema Blue Sunshine, founded the CineMuerte Horror Film Festival (1999-2005) in Vancouver, was the Festival Director of Monster Fest in Melbourne, Australia and was the subject of the documentary Celluloid Horror (2005). She is the author of A Violent Professional: The Films of Luciano Rossi (FAB Press, 2007) and House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films (FAB Press, 2012) and contributed to Destroy All Movies!! The Complete Guide to Punks on Film (Fantagraphics, 2011), Recovering 1940s Horror: Traces of a Lost Decade (Lexington, 2014) The Canadian Horror Film: Terror of the Soul (University of Toronto Press, 2015) and We Are the Martians: The Legacy of Nigel Kneale (PS Press, 2017). She co-edited and published the anthology books KID POWER! (Spectacular Optical, 2014), Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s (Spectacular Optical, 2015), Lost Girls: The Phantasmagorical Cinema of Jean Rollin (2017), and Yuletide Terror: Christmas Horror on Film and Television (2017), She is currently writing the books A Song From the Heart Beats the Devil Every Time: Children’s Programming and the Counterculture, 1965-1985 and a forthcoming book about Monte Hellman’s Cockfighter.

She (and we) would love it if you would contribute to her next project, COCKFIGHT. You can do so here. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cockfight-books#/

There's a lot going on at the Austin Film Society's AFS Cinema this November and December. Programmers Holly Herrick and Lars Nilsen have an informal talk about some of their favorite films and series.

See the whole AFS Cinema calendar here: https://www.austinfilm.org/screenings/

Austin Film Society Programmers Lars Nilsen and Holly Herrick talk a bit about the opening of the new AFS Cinema and the first round of programming in the venue, including the Texas Christening series, the Noir Canon, and newly restored titles. There is special emphasis on the Comedy Italian Style Essential Cinema Series.

Last month we had a screening of TERMS OF ENDEARMENT in conjunction with the Star Of Texas Award presented to the film at the Texas Film Awards. We were fortunate enough to have Lisa Hart Carroll, who plays Patsy in the film, join us for our screening. It's a small but important part in the film and Carroll is excellent in it. After the screening she joined us for a Q&A that was as candid as it was thoughtful, and I suspect that no one who was in attendance will forget it anytime soon. Carroll is very serious about acting, and has a scholar's knowledge of the great performances to match her lifelong practice at the fine techniques of acting. In this episode we talk about actors from James Dean to Lon Chaney, Jr. with pithy observations and a special attention to the was in which actors are themselves filmmakers.

Austin Film Society Programmer and Alamo Drafthouse Programmer talk about the programmer's job, upcoming series at Drafthouse and AFS, social responsibility and the 'pulp impulse.'

Bryan Connolly, author and co-programmer of the January Essential Cinema series LOVE IS A TWO WAY STREET: FILMS OF BLAKE EDWARDS & JULIE ANDREWS joins us to talk about Edwards' and Andrews' careers and the need for a new PG-32 rating for films.

Filmmaker Kat Candler talks about the filmmaking life, choices, compromises, her working method and her new short THE RUSTED.