Culture Clash: Paper Cuts Combines Literature and Film

The Garden, the first film featured at Paper Cuts (courtesy of Basilisk Communications)

One may not think an event that could easily bring the Austin film and literary communities together exists, but then one does not have the same brain as Austin Film Society’s associate programmer Jazmyne Moreno and the team at Alienated Majesty Books – creators of the new Paper Cuts series. So what is Paper Cuts? According to Alienated Majesty’s website, Paper Cuts is “where films are paired with books to enrich your movie-watching experience.” The inaugural event, premiering June 16 at AFS Cinema, pairs Derek Jarman’s arthouse film The Garden with his book Modern Nature. Both works concern themselves with Jarman’s HIV-positive status in the midst of the AIDS crisis and the literal and figurative gardens he builds to sustain himself in the wake of such a diagnosis. The screening will have a pop-up of purchasable books in the AFS lobby, as well as a discussion led by Francesca Balboni, doctoral candidate in the Department of Art and Art History at UT, who Alienated Majesty’s Stephen Krause refers to aptly as a “Jarman obsessive.”

“As a programmer, I like to think of what’s missing or what’s not there,” Moreno says, sitting diagonally to me at the table in the corner of Alienated Majesty’s 29th Street location. “This gives you a way to connect with something you maybe never would’ve considered as pieces of material that could be connected to one another or enrich one another’s experience.

“I’m always trying to impress myself with the work that I’m doing. If I’d want to go to this event, then job well done.”

Krause, who first worked with Moreno at the now-defunct Austin pillar Vulcan Video, expresses the Alienated Majesty team’s excitement was palpable when Moreno first approached them with the idea. “We all wore denim jackets to the meeting, we were so excited,” they say.

“With our events at the store,” Krause says, “we don’t really care how many books we sell. We instead prefer events to show people we have a community space we want to share with them.” Alienated Majesty’s previous events have already proven the bookstore’s unorthodox, community-driven playfulness: In addition to the expected book readings, Alienated Majesty has hosted an after-hours metal show, a comedy showcase, and proto-Paper Cuts screenings of Road House and David Cronenberg’s Crash. They are changing the expectations behind what a bookstore can – and should – do. A series with AFS like Paper Cuts feels only natural.

Both explain that the post-film discussions are the true meat to the collaboration’s potatoes, with the intent to go beyond the average Q&A. While patrons are encouraged to read the paired book beforehand to contribute their thoughts and feelings during the discussion, the two assure this is not necessary for overall enjoyment of the event. “If you want to raise your hand just to say 'I liked this movie,’ go on ahead,” says Moreno. “I want people to feel like they’re just talking.” The event’s significance is the ability to weave two separate, seemingly disparate art forms into one cohesive whole – not pitted against one another, but rather entered into a marriage of thought expansion as to what a film or a book can be.

Moreno and Krause tell me they hope what starts on June 16 becomes a long-held monthly tradition. Interested parties can purchase Modern Nature from Alienated Majesty’s storefront or website, then grab tickets for AFS’s The Garden screening at austinfilm.org.

Paper Cuts: The Garden

Sunday 16, AFS Cinema