Texas Focus: Barracuda
Texas Spirit Theater | NR | 100 min. | Drama, Music, Thriller
January 18, 2018 7:00pm - 9:30pm
Join the Bullock Museum for a screening and conversation about the film Barracuda.
Barracuda begins when a strange woman comes to Texas to meet her half-sister and one way or another she stakes a claim to the family music legacy.
Event Details
Directing duo Julia Halperin and Jason Cortlund bring first class suspense to our own backyard in Barracuda, which follows Sinaloa, a young musician who comes to Texas to find her half-sister Merle by way of their dead country musician father. While the family music legacy brought this stranger to town, the bonds she's trying to create begin to unravel and darker motives are revealed
A cinematic exploration of the Texas narrative, the Museum's Texas Focus Film Series highlights stories by, for, and about Texans. This evening's program includes a film screening and Q&A with co-director Jason Cortlund and co-producer David Hartstein. Come early at 6pm for a cash bar.
Please note: Entrance for this screening will be at the IMAX lobby doors.
Your ticket purchase supports the Bullock Museum's exhibitions and educational programming.
Rating: NR
Suggested age: 18+
Starring: Allison Tolman, Sophie Reid, JoBeth Williams, Luis Bordonada
Writer: Jason Cortlund
Directors: Julia Halperin, Jason Cortlund
Runtime: 100 min.
Genre: Drama, Music, Thriller
Release year: 2017
Directors' Statement (Julia Halperin & Jason Cortlund):
Barracuda won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature at the Oak Cliff Film Festival and was nominated for the SXSW Film Festival's Grand Jury Award for Narrative Feature and their Gamechanger Award.
Directors Julia Halperin and Jason Cortlund wanted to create a different kind of suspense film with Barracuda. In their words, "our favorite suspense stories come from a palpable uncertainty of the world around us. Barracuda is grounded in the conflicting loyalties between mothers, daughters, and sisters. It’s about our own worst instincts to steer into the crash. It’s about the tension between progress and nostalgia--the past fighting not to fade away. And it’s about a deep, simmering female rage forcing its way to the surface. We’re interested in testing the bounds of working in genre by consciously turning away from over-defined plot and structure conventions. Instead, we trust our characters to drive and shape the story."
Julia Halperin and Jason Cortlund are a directing team based in Austin, Texas. Their debut feature Now, Forager premiered at IFF Rotterdam and New Directors/New Films. The film earned “Two Thumbs Up” from Roger Ebert and an IFP Gotham Award nomination for Breakthrough Director. Julia and Jason’s follow-up feature (La Barracuda) was developed with support from Venice Biennale College-Cinema, IFP, IFF Rotterdam's CineMart, Austin Film Society, US in Progress, and a Yaddo residency.
Born in Sugarland, Texas, Allison Tolman earned a BFA in theatrical performance from Baylor University. After graduation, she moved to Dallas where she helped found and foster the independent ensemble based non-profit Second Thought Theatre while also learning that the whole being an adult thing is like, super hard. In 2009, she was accepted into Second City's Conservatory Training Program and later went on to write and perform sketch and satire with several groups throughout Chicago, most notably the monthly comedy podcast The City Life Supplement.
Throughout her career, Tolman has played a veterinary receptionist, personal assistant, children's theatre teacher, vocal coach, phone sales associate, client services representative, and dog walker - never on film, but in her actual life in order to pay her rent and be able to afford more tank tops from Target than any human actually needs. Tolman lives in Chicago with a portly cat named Annie who enjoys staring at her blankly whenever there is a house centipede in the kitchen.
Sophie Reid stars in La Barracuda opposite Allison Tolman for directors Jason Cortlund and Julia Halperin. Sophie trained at the prestigious Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and being a gifted musician was cast in the West End production of Once. Lucy Bevan then cast her in several scenes in Beauty And The Beast, directed by Bill Condon. Sophie’s television credits include Game of Thrones and Doc Martin, directed by Nigel Cole (Made in Dagenham/Calendar Girls).
Jason Cortlund (Writer/Co-Director) earned a Master’s in screenwriting at University of Texas and was a postgraduate fellow at the James Michener Center for Writers. He wrote and co-directed the feature Now, Forager with longtime collaborator Julia Halperin, which premiered at IFF Rotterdam and New Directors/New Films. They were nominated for the “Breakthrough Director” IFP Gotham Award in 2012. Their follow-up feature Barracuda premiered in competition at SXSW 2016 and was invited to IFF Cairo’s Critics Week. The film was developed with support from Austin Film Society, IFP, Venice Biennale College-Cinema, IFFR Cinemart, US in Progress, and a Yaddo artist residency.
David Hartstein is an Austin, TX based producer of narrative and documentary films. After directing the feature documentary, “Along Came Kinky: Texas Jewboy for Governor”, he produced the feature comedy The Happy Poet (Venice International Film Festival), was a producer of Where Soldiers Come From(SXSW), winner of the News and Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story as well as the Truer Than Fiction Independent Spirit Award. In 2017 David released 4 feature films: The Sensitives, a Tribeca Film Institute Documentary Fund award winner (Tribeca Film Festival), Through the Repellent Fence (MoMA Doc Fortnight, SXSW), La Barracuda (SXSW, Venice Biennale College Cinema) and The Honor Farm (SXSW).
The Texas Spirit Theater located on the Bullock Museum's second floor is one of the most beautiful film experiences in Austin and features multi-sensory special effects such as lightning, rain, and other surprises.
Museum Members enjoy free unlimited IMAX® documentary films, discounts on feature film tickets, free exhibition admission, discounts in the Museum Store, and more. Learn More.
Learn about ticket prices, refund policies, and parking (free after 5 pm). For evening programs, please enter through the Bullock Museum IMAX Theatre.
