Film News

BY JOE O'CONNELL

Austin Auteurs on DVD

One's a comedy about high school teachers; the other's a serious story
about high school students. Both are finally out on DVD.
Writer/director/producer Mike Akel calls the four-year making of Chalk
similar to making an improvisational film. "We had our outline, main
characters, beginning, middle, end, for the most part, set an 18-day
shooting schedule ... and then showed up each day to see what new
developments would come alive," he says. For instance, second assistant
director Jeff Guerrero was talked into being an extra in a lunch scene
but was so hilarious he ended up improving his own lines in a half-dozen
scenes. "I think the magic of how Jeff went from full-time AD to
part-time actor sums up the mystery and beauty of how our film was
made," Akel says. "It has been an incredible ride!" Chalk is now
available locally for rent and/or purchase at Waterloo, Vulcan, Encore,
I Luv Video, and "all the big-box stores except Wal-Mart." Meanwhile,
Kat Candler celebrates the DVD release of her second film, jumping off
bridges, Sunday from 6 to 9pm at Club de Ville. DVDs will be for sale at
the event. Candler and company already have wrangled an impressive
25-city theatrical tour for the film, which deals with the aftermath of
suicide. It's been picked up for distribution by educational distributor
New Day Films.

There Will be an Alamo at the Ritz ...

Tim League has promised word after Fantastic Fest as to the opening date
of the new Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz, and he now says to expect an
announcement next week. For now, let's officially declare Fantastic
Fest, held this year at the Alamo South, a national festival of note.
Some might say that title should have been bestowed last year when Mel
Gibson showed up for a secret screening of Apocalypto. But the surprise
showing of Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood to end this year's
fest might end up being the pivotal moment simply because the film
itself, shown for the first time publicly, might have more of a lasting
impact. Matt Dentler, programmer for both South by Southwest Film and
Fantastic Fest, called it "an amazing work of art." We can only imagine
next year when the fest moves to the Ritz. "We put VIP badges on sale
for 2008 during the festival and sold them out in two days," League
says. "The festival definitely built up its national reputation this
year, and we're getting started already working on 2008. Karrie and I
will be traveling to AFM [American Film Market] in November, Korea in
April, and Cannes in May hunting down the best and the weirdest in new
genre films." Oh, and Nacho Vigalondo's Timecrimes was named best pic of
the fest.

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