"I said, 'Aren't you the woman who was recently given a Fulbright?'" If you're a nerd for Paul Simon, you've been looking to drop this line at a party since the mid-80s. And you should totally do it if Shara K. Lange is in the room. Around this time last year, the Fulbright committee granted her an award and shipped her off to Morocco to film a documentary. She had recently graduated from UT's Radio, TV, and Film Department’s MFA program in production. Her thesis project, "The Way North," was in a stage of mid-completion, but that project is now finally wrapped up (much to our delight)! It premieres at AFS this Wednesday along with other UT films....

Though Fantastic Fest '08 is nearly five months away (why won't you work, time machine!?), devotees and newcomers alike can get a taste of the kickass genre film festival TONIGHT as the Alamo presents Exte: Hair Extensions and Big Man Japan, two favorites from FF '07....

Austinite Mike Judge, creator of that cultural zeitgeist and all-around-super-cool-guy, got his start on the art house circuit with traveling animation compilations and in turn has cultivated The Animation Show, a blitzkrieg of independent animation talent, the 4th annual edition of which will have its world premier tonight at the Alamo Drafthouse. Featuring a wide range of styles and narrative structures, including repeat appearances of some jail-bait bunnies, a Teletubby like crotch-cruncher and a couple of wacky, half-witted Australians, our eyes were glued to the screen for the full hour and a half....

Cine Las Americas Film Festival schedule for Thursday, April 24th....

After taking a short pause in their bi-monthly schedule to allow everyone a full recovery from the nine day movie marathon that is SXSW, the Avant Cinema Series is back with a bullet. The series featuring short experimental, avant-garde films and videos by regional filmmakers, curated by Austin Film Society programming director extraordinaire Chale Nafus and local filmmaker Scott Stark, presents its second night of films-that-you-won't-see-in-theaters tonight, yes tonight. A Dazzling Trio highlights the works of three prominent Austin filmmakers: Samantha Krukowski, PJ Raval, Rick Reed....

Cine Las Americas Film Festival schedule for Wednesday, April 23rd....

Basically, the consumption of food is an inescapable facet of life; there are those to whom the act gives not even the slightest pause, but for some people it consumes every moment of conscious thought, whether it be avoiding caloric intake or hoarding it. Members of the later group, three women to be exact, are the focus of the dark and whispery Malos Hábitos (Bad Habits), the feature film debut of Mexican director Simón Bross, which is screening tonight at the Alamo South Lamar as part of Cine Las Americas. ...

For some reason, we as a culture have spawned an entire generation of college aged people who have all of the opportunity in the world, but absolutely no direction or decision making skills. The four characters in Box Elder fall into familiar archetypal roles: the ladies man, the idiotic ape, the sweet hearted romantic and the wise sage (well, as wise and sage-like as an early-to-mid-20s dude can be), but none of them are particularly noteworthy or spectacular. Think of them as Animal House meets Clerks, with even slightly less ambition. At some point they realize that they cannot continue just coasting through life, but not before many sammiches and beers are consumed and many hilarious moments brought on by everyday situations have occurred. If you are a dude, or an appreciator of dudeism, then this film is for you....

Cine Las Americas Film Festival schedule for Monday, April 12st....

Cine Las Americas Daily schedule for Sunday, April 20th....

Cine Las Americas Film Festival schedule for Saturday, April 19th....

In addition to all the films screening at Cine Las Americas on this beautiful Friday evening, tonight is also Brazil Night (which is code for "party till you drop"). From 10pm until question mark, Academicos da Opera Samba School and DJ Boris will be spinning Brazilian and World Contemporary Music at the Copa Bar & Grill on Congress. Admission is free with Film Pass or festival ticket stub....

Tonight, the Cine Las Americas film festival will screen four films, including the Argentinan drama XXY, Alejandro Springall's dramatic comedy Morirse está en hebreo (My Mexican Shivah), actor Diego Luna's legendary boxer doc JC Chavez and Lorena Giachino Torrens' doc Reinalda del Carmen, mi mamá y yo (Reinalda del Carmen, My Mother and Me)....

Tonight, the Cine Las Americas International Film Festival will kick off its 11th edition with a reception and screening at the Paramount Theatre, followed by an after-party at the Mexic-Arte Museum on Congress (where there'll be appetizers, drinks and music). The program this year looks amazing--in all, the festival will screen eighty-two films from eighteen countries in a wide range of genres, including drama, documentary, experimental, animation, film noir, thriller, comedy and fantasy. And, of course, all of the films are made by or about Latino and indigenous people of the Americas....

In tandem with its current exhibit, "On the Road with the Beats," the Harry Ransom Center is presenting a month-long Beat Film Series at the Alamo Ritz....

Award-winning filmmaker Jennifer Fox spent four years documenting her own life in an attempt to better understand the female condition. As she juggles relationships with two men (one of whom is married), she struggles to come to grips with the definition of womanhood, and the limits of morality. In her quest for knowledge she travels to more then seventeen countries and interviews countless women about their own lives, passing the camera around to whoever is willing to ask questions. The result is a complex yet intimate mini-series that sometimes seems more like a real-life soap opera than it does a documentary....

Starting tonight, the Harry Ransom Center, The Austin Film Society, The Austin Chronicle and, err, Austinist (so many "Austins"!), will be presenting a weekly series of rare and rarely screened films from the era of Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs. All told, there'll be 16 films jammed into four nights at the Alamo Downtown, where you unfortunately won't be able to smoke, but will definitely be able to wear a beret and not work....

This week's news in art, books, music, and film....

Beaufort, an Academy Award nominated narrative, follows the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Southern Lebanon, 18 years after the occupation began. As opposed to rooting out terrorists and massively destructive (and non-existent) weapons, the Israelis had come to Lebanon in 1982 to secure their purported birthright—the land of their forefathers, or, the Abraham side of the coin—and did so by bombing the hell out of Beirut and anything else they could hit, forcing their mortal enemies, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, to retreat. Granted, Lebanon was not necessarily the land of Abraham, but since the PLO was camped out and had attempted to assassinate the Israeli ambassador to the UK, we suppose Israel figured that whatever place Palestinians chose to inhabit was fair game for bloodshed. Clearly, we are oversimplifying this and depending on which side of the strip you stand on, the view may be very different. ...

Tonight, the Alamo Ritz will be holding a free screening of the award winning documentary For the Bible Tells Me So, a film that digs into the basis of this hate filled view and how five God fearing families reconcile their faith with the realization that one of their members is gay. Featuring the families of former House Majority leader Richard Gephardt and Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, we will be led through a conversation of healing, offering clarity and understanding to a topic that is seldom spoken about sans fire and brimstone....

The week's news in the world of art, books, film and music....

We just woke up from a heavy post-SXSW slumber, and thought we'd share some of our personal highlights from this year's SXSW Film Festival, along with a tidy roundup of our interview and preview coverage (and we've still got a couple interviews in the queue, so keep an eye out for even more!)...

Obama to make a speech on race this morning which will address his pastor's none-too-politic comments on the subject. The Dalai Lama might "resign" if violence in Tibet keeps getting worse. News flash: US consumers are going to become fiscally responsible again! Oh man! The new New York guv has had affairs too! But at least this time, his wife got hers as well. ...

To be honest, of the narrative features premiering at SXSW shot by Texas based filmmakers, the two that we were immediately drawn to were Bob Byington's RSO [Registered Sex Offender] and Alex Karpovsky's Woodpecker. The first initially drew us in because we have a morbid fascination with all things criminal, especially criminal acts that traditionally allow for no possibility of redemption and the later because of the duality of a film that injects a non-fictional situation with fictional characters. Serendipitously, we recently had the chance to sit down with both Byington and Karpovsky at the same, and during a very circuitous conversation we got the chance to discuss film festival groupies, Olive Garden movie goers, fanatical birdwatchers and well, registered sex offenders....

One Minute to Nine is the story of a family crushed in the tyrannical grip of an abusive patriarch, and what happens when the saying "enough is enough" is a monumental understatement. Director Tommy Davis met the Maldonado family a couple of days before Wendy, the mother of four boys, was to be incarcerated on the charge of murder. Using hand shot chronicles and aging home videos, Davis pieces together the last moments of freedom for a family who has already lead a long life of imprisonment. We had the chance recently to pick Davis' brain about courage, exploitation and a little bit of old fashioned luck. ...

While the city denied their request for jurisdictional release last week, city officials have made offers to continue negotiations and "work out some sort of deal," but it looks like Villa Muse is playing hardball and refusing to go a step further with Austin unless the release issue is revisited by a new City Council vote. Which is something the City has stated it will not do. ...

Heavy Metal in Baghdad has amassed a considerable amount of buzz in the run-up to its US debut at SXSW tonight. The film follows Acrassicauda, the only heavy metal band in Baghdad, from the fall of Saddam Hussein in late 2003 through December 2006. We spoke with Suroosh Alvi, one of Heavy Metal’s directors, about his experience shooting the film in Iraq....

This isn't your typical high school student council race—it is a full fledged election with primaries and running mates, televised debates and newspaper endorsements. The candidates must take such things into consideration as "Can a ticket without Asian representation win?", "What is the best way to market our platform?", and "Will I have to quit the theater council if I am elected?" These kids take themselves incredibly seriously and fight for their right to rule until the final ballot is cast....

In this follow up to his moving documentary Mojados: Through the Night, which won the Audience Award at SXSW 2004, Director Tommy Davis pieces together the puzzle of what happens when, after 18 years, one woman reaches the summit of suffering and finally summons the courage to deal with her husband in the only way that she knows how....

Cook County, premiering at SXSW this week and showing at 4 PM Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday at Alamo South Lamar, is about two generations of a rural family dealing with their collective addiction to crystal meth. ...