Are you tired of the same old narrative structure in todays Hollywood and/or Independent Films? Thirsty for the more challenging side of cinema? We're happy to tell you that your welcome glass of avant-garde respite is about to be served up by the good folks over at the Austin Film Society. In keeping with the more artistic nature of our fair city, AFS boldly bounds into the world of the other with their new bimonthly Avant Cinema series, with the first installment Going Nowhere Slow scheduled for next Wednesday, January 30th at the Austin Studios Screening Room....

With the faith of a thousand men, Pastor Richard Gazowsky set out ten years ago on a divine mission: to make the greatest film ever made. Nevermind that the first film he ever saw was The Lion King, at the tender age of 40. Nevermind that he had absolutely no background in directing, editing, or producing an epic so grand that it's concept was enthusiastically described as "The Ten Commandments meets Star Wars." Nevermind that his only solid source of funding was the generous tithes of his congregation at the Voice of Pentecost Church....

AFS Essentials: J’Entends Plus la GuitareTuesday, December 11thAlamo Drafthouse Downtown (320 E 6th Street)$4 / Free for AFS Members, 7pm[info]When we think of a muse, we don't typically imagine the corporeal, but rather a winged sprite, strumming a lyre, an apparition that is not of this earth and cannot be held in its confines. We also imagine that once you have found your muse, or that which turns on the flowing faucet of your......

Photo of Frantz Fanon courtesy of AFS website AFS Essentials: Black Is, Black Ain’t and Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White MaskTuesday, November 20thAlamo Drafthouse South Lamar (1120 S. Lamar)$4 / Free to AFS Members, 7PM[info] | [tickets]Most of the time it is easier to just blend in with everything around you, to not be different, to avoid rocking the proverbial boat, perhaps to the detriment of your true identity and eventually your soul. In the......

AFS Essentials Presents Black DjuTuesday, November 13thAlamo Drafthouse South Lamar (1120 S. Lamar)7pm, $4 / Free to AFS Members[info] | [tickets]It's bad enough being a stranger in a strange land, but when you need assistance from the local people to help solve the mysterious disappearance of your father, things can get downright maddening. Tonight, the Austin Film Society sends us on a suspenseful quest as they presents Black Dju, the fifth offering in the......

Never mind that it's not that hot outside right now (though we would argue that the wet-dishrag humidity more than makes up for what the thermometer's not showing). Climate change is still happening/still scary, and the movie at the Alamo tonight, the next installment in the AFS' global scifi series, is all about that possible future heated terrasphere. The Day The Earth Caught Fire, having been birthed in 1961, is more worried about nuclear war......

Austin, Texas: It's not exactly New England here. We don't have the Liberty Bell or historical plaques on every block explaining how the Pilgrims invented the Internet in some old tavern. But we do have history! You just have to look a little harder to find it. For instance, did you know that in Austin's oldest standing structure, the French Legation, some dude's pigs broke into the bedroom in 1841 and ate the papers and......

As part of the AFS Essentials series on the films of superhuman director Michel Haneke, the Alamo Downtown will be running The Piano Teacher (or "La Pianiste", if you want to impress somebody impressionable) tonight. Do not let this film still of a scene of passion in a public restroom deceive you; this movie will not inspire you to do the popcorn trick on anybody, but rather to rush out and invest in a chastity......

Tonight, as the fifth installment in their Spaces Between Realities: the Films of Michael Haneke series, the Austin Film Society presents Code: Unknown – Incomplete Tales of Several Journeys, starring Juliette Binoche. Code: Unknown begins with a group of hearing impaired children playing a seemingly commonplace game of charades, and what is immediately apparent is that these bright young things cannot identify the emotional state that is being acted out in front of them; a......

Director Michael Haneke is best known for 2005's Caché, which used a cool, detached style to examine the effects of a stalker on a wealthy but dysfunctional Parisian family. This uncomfortable subject matter was explored by Haneke in much more bombastic fashion nine years earlier in Funny Games. A sort of meta-mixtape of Straw Dogs, Cape Fear, and A Clockwork Orange, the film wonders aloud why audiences respond to fear, violence, and torture. The......

Tonight, as part of their Spaces Between Realities: the Films of Michael Haneke series, the Austin Film Society presents Benny's Video, the chilling and controversial second installment in Haneke's "emotional glaciation" trilogy. The film follows Benny, a teenage boy whose obsession with a violent home-video ostensibly leads him to commit his own heinous act of violent destruction. But like many of Haneke's films, the most terrifying part isn't the violence itself (very little graphic violence......

Tonight, as part of their Children of Abraham/Ibrahim: Films of North Africa and the Middle East series, the Austin Film Society presents Satin Rouge, Tunisian director Raja Amari’s warm, moving tale of personal triumph and reclaimed happiness. The film follows Lilia, a conservative, widowed mother struggling to come to terms with her husband’s death and frustrated by her increasingly rebellious daughter, Salma. After fainting at a belly-dancing cabaret late one night, Lilia is befriended by......

Tonight, as part of their Children of Abraham/Ibrahim: Films of North Africa and the Middle East series, the Austin Film Society presents Iron Island, Mohammad Rasoulof’s eerie, allegorical drama about a community of Iranian squatters living on a decaying oil tanker anchored somewhere in the Persian Gulf. The ship is full of strange characters: a schoolteacher who insists the boat is slowly sinking; an eccentric old man who spends his days staring into the sun......

Tonight, as part of their South By Southeast: The Films of Thailand and Vietnam series, the Austin Film Society presents Ong-Bak, the breakout 2003 action film that brought martial arts whiz Tony Jaa to international attention. When a nasty big-city gangster steals a sacred Buddha head from a small Thai village (thereby severely messing up the village’s karma, or something), Ting (Jaa) ventures to Bangkok to recover it. With the help of his estranged con-artist......

Tonight, as part of their South By Southeast: The Films of Thailand and Vietnam series, the Austin Film Society presents Last Life in the Universe, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s gorgeously pensive tale of violence, loneliness and love on the outskirts of Bangkok. Last Life tells the story of Kenji, a timid, obsessive-compulsive librarian whose attempt to hang himself is interrupted by his brother Yukio, a Japanese gang member on the run from a vindictive Yakuza boss. After......

Tonight, as part of their South By Southeast: The Films of Thailand and Vietnam series, the Austin Film Society presents Academy Award nominee Anh Hung Tran's elegiac 2001 drama Vertical Ray of the Sun. Set in modern Hanoi, Vertical Ray of the Sun follows three sisters (Suong, Khanh and Lien) as they prepare a memorial feast in honor of their deceased parents. The more time the sisters spend together, the more they discover hidden truths......

Some people may shy away from Infamous, thinking there is no need to see two movies in one year about the complex character of Truman Capote. That would be a mistake. This film is getting favorable reviews, which is quite a feat considering it must compete in the shadow of a virtuoso performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman in the first biopic. And, the movie was filmed in Austin. So what more do you want? How......

As always, let us know about any corrections or suggestions! MONDAY [3] [music] ICP Orchestra at Scottish Rite Theatre (link) [art] Gabriel Perez-Barreiro, Curator of Latin American Art, discusses "Art is Connection: America/Americas" at Blanton Museum of Art (Free, 6-8pm) (link) [books] Michael Gordon presents Cobra II at BookPeople (7pm) (link) [books] AAIM, Austin Area Interreligious BookGroup will discuss Peace is the Way by Deepak Chopra. Lori Seremetis will be the Special Guest at BookPeople......

Because we love our readers, we'll let you know about an upcoming advance screening of Brokeback Mountain (although if you're an AFS member, you already know about it). Based on Annie Proulx's short story, Brokeback Mountain tells the story of two cowboys (Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal) who hold a slowburning torch for each other throughout the years. Screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana will be in attendance at this advance screening in our......