Flicker #32

October 30, 2000

Here's what we screened:

Roger Beebe "I Went to Austin"
super 8 2 min.

Megan Holley "Ivan: Rigor Mortis is not a Big Deal"
super 8 to video, 6min.

Jim Haverkamp, "Last Pack"
super 8 to video, 5 min.

Joe Gargasz "Midwest Conflict"
super 8, 7min.

Paul Heltzel "iSaucer"
16mm to video, 1min.

Jason Middleton, "Signal Transduction"
16mm, 7min.

Flicker Hat Trick #2: Lee O. Smith, "Family Tree"
super 8, 4min

Deena DeNaro, "Behind the Mirror"
super 8, 4 min.

Mathilde Geromin, "Ill Ease"
super 8, 3min

Tom Whiteside, "Ding Ding Ding"
16mm, 6min

Joyce Ventimiglia, "Water Movie"
super 8, 4min.

Brett Ingram, "Panic Attack"
16mm to video, 13min

Flicker #32

Hello again, and thanks for coming the the last Flicker of the 20th century (sorry, let's not bring up that debate again). I think you're going to be glad you came tonight, because we've got an especially strong lineup. Is there a correlation between colder temperatures and increased productity? Could be. Well, whatever the cause, I'll take the effect-lots and lots of interesting and varied films.

Roger Beebe has a travelogue of sorts kicking things off, "I Went to Austin." When he sent it, he wrote, "Please announce it as a LOUSY film by Roger Beebe" (which I think he meant at least half-jokingly). This got me thinking that one of the things I always liked about Flicker is that it's not just for polished, fancy work. No one creates a masterpiece without a bunch of sketches beforehand. Short films, small films---oh hell, let's just say it: Flicker films are steps, increments, experiments. Some steps go vast distances forward. Some go back. Sometimes the latter is better, because seeing how a Flicker crowd reacts can be enormously helpful. You may want to shoot yourself afterward, but in a couple of days it seems helpful.

Anyway, the point of all this is to say that Flicker is fundamentally about watching something on screen and thinking, 'Hey, I could do that,' and then going ahead and doing it. So go ahead. Make a film. Make a lousy film. Everybody does it. That's how you figure things out.

Enjoy the show.

Introducing Flicker Austin
 Chapel Hill's own Cory Ryan messes with Texas

A couple of weeks ago, Cory Ryan sent out an e-mail announcing an addition to the Flicker family--come January 18,2001, the world will know Flicker Austin. Cory is a Chapel Hill native, one of the founders of the Hi Mom! Film Festival, and a filmmaker who, as she says, got her start from Flicker Chapel Hill. I caught up with her by phone to get the details on her latest project...

Cory Ryan: Obviously there's a ton of filmmakers around Austin. But there's really only one organization here, the Cinemaker Co-Op, which I guess is like the Carolina Production Guild in a way, but not affiliated with school at all. They're the only people having screenings and they aren't that frequent or really that organized. I went to a couple of them and I thought, 'Wow, Austin needs something else.' When I moved here a few months ago I started working five days a week with not a whole lot going on outside of that, so I said "I gotta do something!" So just the combination of going to some of the film screenings, my boss having the space, and Austin being an environment with a lot of filmmakers, it just seemed like it was feasible to start a Flicker.

Jim Haverkamp: What's the screening space like?

Cory: I was really lucky-my boss owns a place called the Blue Theater, where they have plays, bands, films, just whatever. My boss is in charge of booking and he has all these crazy, varied interests. It'll seat about 100 people and it's in this old warehouse. So it's not like the rock and roll bar scene, like Chapel Hill and L.A. Flicker, but I think it will be good to start with. Unfortunately, this Flicker will have to be BYOB, for awhile--I haven't figured out the liquor laws here yet!

Jim: What are you doing for equipment?

Cory: I'm using my own super 8 projector, which I've had for years. I bought a l6mm projector from eBay, that was my big purchase. The video projector I'm borrowing from Cinematexas.

Jim: Now the cheesy part: what are your hopes for Flicker Austin?

Cory: I'd like it to be for filmmakers in Austin like Flicker in Chapel Hill was for me. In college I thought I was going to go into advertising or something. But then I went to Flicker and I was like, 'Wow, this is so cool.' And Norwood said I could borrow his camera any time, and I was like, 'Really??' And so Flicker just I became this ritual in my life that I absolutely had to go to every 2 months. It gave me somewhere to show my stuff. You know, my first film--no one else would have screened that! So it offers a venue for people who can't really get their films seen otherwise. Hopefully it'll add a little cohesiveness to the film scene here in Austin too. I just want to make it as cool as possible from day one.

For more info on Flicker Austin, check out www.flickeraustin.com

Thanks, happy holidaze

Thanks for keeping Flicker alive, and please raise a toast to Frank Heath, the one who lets us take over the Cat's Cradle every other month to do this.

Flicker Film Grant: Congrats to Steve Daniels, winner of the Flicker Grant last time. Steve got $100 for further filmic explorations. Another lucky winner walks home a hundred-aire tonight!