If you're not running around breathless from trying to keep up with all the special screenings going on in this town, then you only have yourself to blame. The burst of activity is the surest sign that summer's over here in these parts where you can't depend on the heat index as a true indicator of when the season ends. At Dobie, there's another full week of screenings remaining for aGLIFF, the Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival. Other special aGLIFF events include the public symposium -- Into Focus: The Past, Present, and Future of Gay/Lesbian Film Festivals -- on Sat. Aug. 30, 1:30pm in the fourth floor seminar room of the HRC on the UT campus; the Regional Shorts program on Sun. Aug. 31, 2pm, at Dobie; and the closing night party and awards presentation on Sat. Sept. 6 at the Sheraton Atrium. For more info call 476-2454 or visit their website at
http://www.agliff.org. Three other special film series are also scheduled to begin the week after next and we'll tell you more about them in the coming issue, but here's some of the basics. During the weekend of Sept. 5-7, the Chicano/Latino Film Forum presents the El Teatro Campesino Film Festival, which will feature all the film and video works ever created by the well-known farmworker troupe. More info is available by calling 708-0904 or visiting the Film Forum's website at
http://members.aol.com/aavila9999. On Sept. 9 and continuing on all the following Tuesdays in September is the Austin Film Society's (AFS) new series of four films by Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. For those not hip to it, Iran has one of the hottest national cinemas currently around, although it's rare that anyone, either at home or abroad, gets to see it. After an international furor, Kiarostami's latest, The Taste of Cherries, was permitted to play the Cannes Film Festival, where it became the co-recipient of the Palme d'Or, the festival's top honor. Then, Wed., Sept. 10 kicks off a new monthly documentary series put together by Peabody Award winner and UT production head Paul Stekler (Vote for Me), the AFS, SXSW Film, and The Austin Chronicle. Also in the offing is the Sept.12-13 Austin visit by experimental film legend Stan Brakhage...
Inquiring minds have been wondering if Stamp and Deliver, the new Dan Mirvish postal Western that was due to start production last week in Austin, has stalled in the Dead Letter Office. What's clear is that lawyers for Mirvish and his producers are currently hashing things out with lawyers for local executive producers DVC Entertainment. At issue are discrepant tales about financing agreements and other areas of creative control -- the kind of stuff, unfortunately, best left to lawyers -- but Mirvish and company swear that the show will go on, one way or another...
A film that was shot here a few years ago finally begins a 12-city release this Friday under a new name, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation. When it will come to Austin is anybody's guess but in the meantime you can refresh yourself by seeing the original at the Alamo Drafthouse this weekend...
While downtown, note that the Paramount Theatre has extended its successful summer classics program by another few weeks so that it can bring back some of the season's favorites.
