TV Eye

The Austin Film Festival and Conference brings many notable film and TV folk to town next week. Most of the AFF events occur Downtown with screenings around the city. For those of us who watch and write about TV, we'll be gathering at UT for the first Flow Conference. Hosted by the Radio-Television-Film department, the conference gathers critics, scholars, and media makers for what should be an insightful weekend of talk about this thing we currently call television and the new media experiences that come from its current morphing period.

Thanks to an invitation by UT alum Sharon Ross (now a faculty member at Columbia College), I've been invited to participate on the Diversity and Cultural Production Communities round table. Some of the more notable conference participants include John Hartley, Horace Newcomb, Douglas Kellner, Paul Stekler, Marti Noxon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Barbara Corday (Cagney and Lacey), and Wendy West (The Closer), among others.

The conference is an offshoot of Flow, an online journal for those thinking, writing, and teaching TV and media studies. For more information about the conference, go to www.flowconference.org.

Speaking of conferences, Juan Garcia will be talking about mobile technology at the World e-Gov Forum in France next week. Garcia was invited to speak because of his role as a "podcasting pioneer," specifically in video podcasting. Garcia is a UT alum and current staffer with UT's Faculty Innovation Center. He's also the executive producer of the Student Filmmakers Showcase, or SFS-TV (available on iTunes), shot right here in Austin and available to pod-catchers around the world. He's one of two U.S. citizens invited to speak at the event sponsored by the United Nations and UNESCO. Can't wait to hear how it went.

Joseph Fotinos (aka Prof. Griffin) sent an e-mail noting that he was "interviewed extensively" for American Scary, a documentary slated for screening during the aforementioned AFF. The film looks at the U.S. tradition of TV horror-show hosting, of which Fotinos has a great deal of first-hand experience and knowledge. Perhaps that experience will translate into screen time. Personally, I am hoping to see the room dedicated to all things horrifying in Fotinos' home. American Scary screens at the Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek on Sunday, Oct. 22, and Thursday, Oct. 26, both at 7pm. Check out the entire AFF schedule on p.60.

Do Tell ...

Having been out of the city for a long stretch, it was like old home week walking into last week's I'm for 4 party taking place at the Austin Film Studios. The AFS party was one of several arranged to build support for Proposition 4, which would invest $31 million in Austin's arts community. Another party happens Tuesday at Matt's El Rancho (featuring a tequila tasting – yes!). Maybe it's because I've been MIA, but several people sure were happy to fill me in on some interesting gossip. First, the naming of the first executive director of the Mexican American Cultural Center (the MACC – one of the Proposition 4 benefactors) is imminent. According to my reliable source, the competition was fierce. More than 100 applications were received, whittled down to 60, and now pared down to the two final candidates. If the selection goes the way I would vote, it means the MACC will be in extraordinary hands.

The second yummy rumor was that playwright, actor, and Teatro Vivo Artistic Director Rupert Reyes had his Petra plays in development for a TV series. As those of us in the assembled circle mulled the rumor, Reyes himself walked up to the circle just in time to be asked. He stared at us blankly and then said it was news to him. You know, Reyes is an actor – a good actor – but just in case his playing-dumb demeanor is real, and there's a producer out there looking for something to develop ...

Just for the Record

The new NBC series 30 Rock does not take place at the "fictional NBS" as I wrote last time. The Tina Fey project is clearly set at NBC. The fictional NBS appears in that other NBC series about the backstage drama of a sketch comedy series, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. My apologies for the flub, although I could swear the first screener of the pilot sent did use NBS. This was the screener that had Rachel Dratch as Jenna DeCarlo, the role now filled by Jane Krakowski. (Dratch now has recurring-role status in a variety of guises.)

I was ready to hate Krakowski, ready to pound my fist on the table for the raw deal that Dratch got. Truth be told, Krakowski isn't better; she's just different. Dratch is funny as a character actor, but Krakowski brings more believable diva anxiety, which was missing in Dratch's performance. No one said Hollywood was for the thin-skinned.

As always, stay tuned.