AFF Brings on the Heat

No plans for tonight? No need to call in for backup--the Austin Film Festival has you covered with a screening of revered cop documentary Sheriff at the Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek.

Filmmaker Daniel Kraus gets up close and personal with Sheriff Ronald E. Hewett as he brings about justice in Brunswick County, North Carolina. Critics rave about the intimate portrait the film manages to capture in little over an hour; according to the event site, Kraus masters the art of documenting poignant, revealing glances into the lives of others by taking on a style akin to Frederick Wiseman’s "pure cinéma vérité.” There are no staples of the documentary genre here—out with the talking heads and the hold-your-hand voiceovers! It’s just the bare, crime-fighting bones.

The New York Post states, “Commendable filmmaking—an admirably realistic portrait of police life, pointedly different from the sensationalism of TV’s COPS…despite all the human drama going on around Hewett—including a brutal murder—Kraus refuses to be distracted from his portrait of Hewett’s life.”

As for the subject himself, the man just might be the real Nick Angel (Simon Pegg) from Hot Fuzz. Hewett is an incredibly skilled cop that patrols in a “rural community” where he deals with ruthless murderers, escaped robbers, and missing ceramic bunnies? The tone sounds familiar (and kind of awesome).

Austin Film Festival presents: Sheriff
Thursday, September 13th
Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, 13729 Research Blvd.
7:30pm, $4 / Free for AFF members
[More Info/Tickets]