Six indie film shorts an ode to Austin's punk ethos

JANUARY 13, 2016 (AUSTIN, TX) — A series of six short films from Austin’s early indie scene, recently restored and released as a collection on DVD, will be presented together as a package for the first time in Austin since American film director and producer Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, and The Manchurian Candidate) introduced them at the Collective for Living Cinema in October 1981. Jonathan Demme Presents Made in Texas will be shown at the Bullock Museum's Texas Spirit Theater on Thursday, January 14 at 7 p.m., followed by a Q&A with some of the artists who worked on the films.

Louis Black of Louis Black Productions is the producer of the recent Made in Texas DVD boxed set. He will moderate a Q&A at the Bullock Museum after the screening of the six short films with a panel featuring Tom Huckabee (The Death of a Rock Star); Sandy Boone (Invasion of the Aluminum People); Paul Collum (Speed of Light); Lorrie Oshatz, (Leonardo JR); Neil Ruttenberg (Mask of Sarnath); Missy Boswell, Edward Lowry (Fair Sisters). (Learn more about the six films that comprise Made in Texas.)

The streetwise, punk, DIY ethos percolating in the 1980s in Austin culminated in a synergistic explosion of music and film and created a unique atmosphere in which independent, maverick filmmaking took shape. The result was filmmakers like Ricchard Linklater, Robert Rodriguez, and a dozen other directors, as well as the Austin Film Society and the SXSW Film Festival.

Films in the collection represent a coming together of Austin’s punk/new wave music and film community in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The films are evidence of a robust regional independent cinema at a time when that concept was just being forged. 

In 1981 while visiting Austin, Demme viewed a number of local short films. That October, he screened Made in Texas at the Collective for Living Cinema in New York City. A few years later, Linklater saw Speed of Light and Invasion of the Aluminum People, two of the films in the program, which he has said inspired him to move to Austin and take up filmmaking.

Black co-founded and serves as editor of The Austin Chronicle, established the South by Southwest festival, and was a founding board member of the Austin Film Society. He has written extensively on film, music, and politics.  Black has also produced documentaries and reissues of classic Texas films, such as Eagle Pennell’s The Whole Shootin’ Match and Tobe Hooper’s Eggshells.

The film screening is part of the Bullock Museum's Texas Focus film series, and this screening is offered in partnership with Louis Black Productions and The University of Texas Press. The program will be held at the Bullock Museum, 1800 N. Congress Ave., in the Texas Spirit Theater on the second floor. A limited number of tickets are available. Cost is $3 for Bullock Museum members and $5 for the general public. Parking is free after 5 p.m. in the Museum's garage. For more information and tickets, visit TheStoryofTexas.com.

 

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​​The Bullock Texas State History Museum, a division of the State Preservation Board and an accredited institution of the American Alliance of Museums, creates experiences that educate, engage, and encourage a deeper understanding of Texas. With dynamic, award-winning exhibitions that illuminate Texas history, people, and culture, educational programming for all ages, and an IMAX® theater with a screen the size of Texas, the Museum collaborates with more than 700 museums, libraries, archives, organizations, and individuals across the world to bring the Story of Texas to life. For more information, visit www.TheStoryofTexas.com or call (866)369-7108.