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The Lone Star Film Society, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and the Texas Independent Film Network present BBQ: A TEXAS LOVE STORY and SOMETHING’S BREWIN’ IN SHINER on Thursday, March 22 at 7:00 pm at The Modern. 

To purchase tickets, click here.

 About BBQ: A TEXAS LOVE STORY: 
No other state has a culture as distinct as Texas, and there’s no better way to understand the passions and oddities of Texans than through their absolute love for Texas barbecue. Narrated by Governor Ann Richards and featuring notable Texans such as Dan Rather, “Barbecue: A Texas Love Story” is an entertaining and humorous journey through the common fabric that weaves Texans together and makes them a never-ending object of fascination around the world.

Take a tour across the Lone Star State and meet some of the most amusing folks you’ve ever seen at everything from the Great Texas Mosquito Festival to a tiny East Texas church that raises money through their truly world-famous “Holy BBQ.” You’ll even meet a group of University of Texas students so passionate about barbecue they lead “barbecue missions” (and now they’re in trouble with the school).

About SOMETHING’S BREWIN’ IN SHINER:
It’s hard to keep a secret in Shiner, TX. And in the summer of 2003 there was no bigger secret than what the new beer was going to be from their own Spoetzl Brewery. The mayor, the fire chief, the Old Geezers – everyone in this town of 2070 had an opinion. SOMETHING’S BREWIN’ IN SHINER is a humorous 30-minute documentary that captures this moment in Spoetzl Brewery’s long history and is the true story of how Shiner’s newest beer was submitted for the approval of an entire town

Not only has the Obama administration provided Hollywood with perhaps the most exciting action movie fodder in a long time with the ultra covert assassination of Osama Bin Laden, they’ve also apparently convinced the fastest growing movie market in the world to lift a major restriction on U.S. films.

At last count, about 1/5 of the earth’s population lives in China.  That’s a lot of eyeballs looking at movie screens.  An expected 16,000 movie screens by 2015 to be exact.  For the last 20 years however, only 20 non-Chinese films were allowed in the country.  The Wrap, reporting on an announcement from the White House last Friday, says 14 films will be added to that number AND the fees for non-Chinese distributors will rise from 13% to 25%.

Here’s the catch:  The 14 films have to be ‘premium format’ (IMAX or 3D) to be exempt from the 20 film quota.  So while it’s a good thing for the U.S. economy and film industry, it may not be such a good thing for the quality of films getting made. – A.J.

This is pretty interesting.  Stephen Frears (celebrated director of films like THE GRIFTERS, HIGH FIDELITY, GOSFORD PARK and THE QUEEN) is directing a film for HBO about Muhammad Ali’s greatest fight.  No, not against Smokin’ Joe.  His fight against the supreme court as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War.

So who will play Ali?  Ali himself, says Frears according to the Shadow and Act blog on the indieWIRE network.  He will use archival footage instead of casting an actor to play the legendary athlete.

A bold decision no doubt and certainly not without basis.  Actors, especially recognizable ones like Will Smith (nothing against him) can often be a distraction when portraying such memorable characters as Ali.

The question, of course, will be how to pull it off.  Will the use of archival footage be more of a distraction than a movie star?  I guess we’ll see.  The film goes into production very soon. – AJ

I’ve provided evidence of the sequence of events that led to these circumstances so you can all see how I managed to preserve my manhood:

The fact is it wasn’t all that bad.  Yes – it has its moments of shameless contrivance and yes, Hollywood still insists on making movie stars out of people who simply cannot act, but Rachel McAdams is truly lovely and truly talented and the film itself touches on interesting issues about the relationship between the mind and the heart that anyone -whether or not your betrothed all of a sudden can’t remember who you are – can relate to.

The film raked in $41.7 million dollars to beat out 3 other releases that also did well and combined for a record breaking weekend – the biggest ever non-holiday weekend in February, up 30% over the same weekend last year.

During a time when it seems the only films that are doing well at the box office are either 3D or franchises or both, it certainly is a source of hope when a film that tugs at the heart strings can tear the masses away from their VOD.  Perhaps romance can remain something many insist on seeing projected larger than life and in doing so help preserve the theatrical experience. – AJ

When I got in the van to go from Salt Lake to Park City last month I was greeted by the news that Bingham Ray, who had suffered a stroke a day or two prior, had passed away.  Unlike many of my friends in the industry, I didn’t know and never met Mr. Ray but his name was familiar to me in an iconic way.  I know from reading about him that he was a champion of independent film, a man that stood firm on his values in the industry.

On Feb. 10 a memorial was held for Ray at Manhattan’s Paris Theater.  You can read indieWIRE’s report here and I strongly suggest you do.

Also featured in indieWIRE yesterday is a critic’s retrospective of their favorite moments in the career of Hungarian auteur Bela Tarr.  Tarr appears to be serious in his proclamations that THE TURIN HORSE (which we screened at last year’s LSIFF) is his last film.

Finally, I would like to bring your attention to a new company that I’ve had the pleasure of watching develop first hand over the past year and a half called TUGG – a curatorial crowd source distribution solution to the current shortcomings of the theatrical distribution/exhibition mechanism.

That’s a mouthful so let me provide an example:  You live in Fort Worth, TX and you are interested in seeing TREE OF LIFE because you’ve been hearing about it and at the same time the director and producers of TREE OF LIFE want you to see it but unfortunately its not screening at any theaters near you.  Why is this?

It’s because distributors don’t have the money to open a film like TREE OF LIFE (which has questionable box office promise) in every single market across the country so they select the markets where history shows they have the best chance of getting a return on the investment required to put a film on screens and publicize in that market.

You can’t really blame them.  Chances are two weeks of screenings (which is usually the minimum a distributor has to book at most theaters) of the TREE OF LIFE aren’t going to have full theaters in Fort Worth, TX.  In fact, the numbers show that most theaters these days are running at about 15% capacity.  That’s not good.

But what if one or two TOL screenings in FW would sell out?  In a city of about 750,000 people chances are there are at least 300 – 400 people that would like to see the film on the big screen, right?  The beauty of TUGG is that it doesn’t leave the situation to chance, but instead brings the film to the area only after the demand is demonstrated.  To learn more go here.

The Austin Film Society and Milton Verret invite you to the 12th Annual Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards honoring actor Barry Corbin, director Douglas McGrath and Meat Loaf with special guests Grupo Fantasma with Nakia (The Voice) and Suzanna Choffel. Each year, the Texas Film Hall of Fame honors outstanding Texans who’ve made a significant contribution to filmmaking and entertainment, and classic Texas films and television programs are also honored, with a member of the cast or creative team accepting on behalf of his or her colleagues. Additional honorees and special guests will be announced.

What:  12th Annual Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards presented by the Austin Film Society & Milton Verret
When:  March 8, 2012
Time:  VIP Cocktail Party & Red Carpet Arrivals at 6 PM, CultureMap Balcony Pre-Party at 7 PM, Awards Show at 8 PM
Where:  ACL Live at The Moody Theater (310 West Willie Nelson Boulevard, Austin, Texas)
Cost:  Balcony seating $75, Mezzanine seating with buffet dinner $250, Orchestra seating with Gala Dinner starting at $500, Tables seating 10 start at $5,000

Link for More Info & Tickets: http://austinfilm.org/tfhof

Artes de la Rosa is proud to present the 2nd Annual ROSE MARINE LATINO FILM FESTIVAL.  The festival will run Friday, February 24th thru Sunday, February 26th, 2012 at the Rose Marine Theater.  After a succesful inaugural event in 2011, the festival returns to the Rose Marine Theater with focus on award winning Latino independent films from Texas, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and beyond.

For more information about the festival and ticket/pass prices, visit www.rosemarinefilmfestival.com or call the Rose Marine Theater at 817-624-8333.

Like most people I have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with Sundance.  Mostly love.  How could I not?  It’s ground zero for American cinema.  But it’s also so cold and snowy and crowded and inevitably overhyped.  After being dragged to Park City by one of his clients last minute, one of my publicist friends exclaimed “Sundance is SO gross!” when I ran into him in front of TAO last year.

None of those things are the festival’s fault though so I love you Sundance, even though sometimes you play inexcusably wretched films (that will remain unnamed here) and that is your fault.

Almost as soon as I arrived I heard BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD was the film to see.  News of SURROGATE was not far behind.  I didn’t see either of those but you can hear a lot about both in pretty much every article about the festival and rightly so.  The team that made BEASTS also made GLORY AT SEA which we screened here at the festival a few years ago.  You can watch it here.  It’s bold, original and moving filmmaking and I’m happy they found a bigger stage.

I saw an Italian film called CORPO CELESTE which I liked very much.  I can’t say the same for some of the other more mainstream Italian fare I’ve seen over the past couple of years.  I did not care for HABEMUS PAPEM in the least.  CELESTE seemed like a welcome departure from that style.  Something more gritty and honest.  The spiritual thread was, as always, a major one.  Is everyone in Italy really that religious?

I also saw THE COMEDY by Tim Heidecker of the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! On the one hand, the main character is an uncannily accurate execution.  On the other hand that’s all the film is and after 90 minutes of it chances are people are going to grow extremely weary of him and the film like I did…but I think that’s the point so Mr. Heidecker wins.  Plus the film sold, so Mr. Heidecker definitely wins.

The other films I saw will go unnamed as I mentioned above.  When I wasn’t watching films I was meeting and catching up with people like Dana Harris of indieWIRE, Mike Raisler of Cinereach, James Johnston, Toby Halbrooks, and David Lowery of the soon to be made AIN’T THEM BODIES SAINTS, Jason Krigsfeld and Eli Bronner of LUA and the short film ’92 SKYBOX ALONZO MOURNING ROOKIE CARD, Kelly Williams (LSIFF Dir. of Programming and also a Slamdance adjudicator), Kat Candler and Farah White of the short film HELLION, Michael Cain, Melina McKinnon and Richard Saunders of the Trinity Film Fund, Basil Tsiokos of Sundance and many other films and film festivals, Red Sanders of Red Productions, Brandon Bisig of Thruline and many more.  I do love you Sundance.

One late night we stumbled upon a house party up a ways from town in which producer Eric Watson was hanging out.  Eric is a filmmaker who early in his career produced a few movies called PI, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM and THE FOUNTAIN.  Most definitely the highlight of my Sundance was talking to Eric about REQUIEM (which is one of three films that made me want to make film) and all that went into the sound design and score.  I will never forget that score or those grinding teeth.  When I saw SHAME last year I was immediately reminded of REQUIEM and how great film is a complete multi sensory experience.

I do love you Sundance. – AJ

Kimbell Family Festival – Color Your World
Saturday, February 18, 2012
1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Admission: FREE

The Lone Star Film Society is partnering with the Kimbell Art Museum of Fort Worth to bring you a Family Festival on February 18th, 2012 from 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM at the Kimbell Art Museum.  Admission is FREE.

A kaleidoscope of colors brightens and lightens, dances and calls for your attention. Play with the possibilities of your favorite colors with multimedia art projects and enjoy related films, scheduled family tours, and live performances.

The Lone Star International Film Festival and the year-round programs of the Lone Star Film Society are made possible by the generous support of our members and patrons. Please consider making a secure donation to the Lone Star Film Society by clicking on the donate button below.