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Big idea: Space movies
Idea person: Patrick Kwiatkowski, CineSpace Star Ship Commander.
Idea: Screen short films about space.
How it started: More than 20 years ago, Kwiatkowski was a radio deejay in Paris. “I have always been more comfortable presenting the party than participating in it,” he says.
There, he met his future business partner, Joel Bachar, who was dabbling in the curation of short films. The two started a company called Microcinema, and developed Independent Exposure, an competition for short films.
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Reminiscences of HCAF15
The 2015 festival is over, the best-attended and received of the seven (out of seven) I’ve programmed. Appreciative expressions by both festival audiences and guest artists have been conveyed to me and other festival personnel in many messages and ways. These have wiped away my exhaustion, and so I’m recharged and nearly ready to get started on HCAF 2016.
First, however, I want to reminisce. I’m reaching into my iPhone and the festival’s photo albums to share a few favorite images and memories. Opening day began with a visit to Bun B and Anthony Pinn’s “Hip-Hop and Religion” class at Rice University. I escorted the class’s special guest, Christopher “Play” Martin, seen here being greeted by Bun. What a phenomenal interviewer Bun B is, as he proved again that night on stage talking about Janis’ Port Arthur roots with Amy Berg after our Texas premiere of Janis: Little Girl Blue. Sitting in front of me in class, greatly enjoying Play’s reflections on hip-hop music, dance, fashion, and fame, was the amazing Lynn Wyatt, who posed with Play later at our opening night reception at the MFAH.
Cut to two nights later, and you’re backstage with me at the Cinema Arts Celebration at Brasil, where Kid ‘n Play were about to launch into their “rap battle” from House Party (after a microphone glitch was solved in the nick of time with the help of Brasil’s calm and collected owner, Dan Fergus). A Facebook post of their timeless dance number at Brasil has garnered nearly two million views. How are we ever going to top this party? Well, we will certainly try.
Technical issues also created suspense at the screening of Satellite Beach, the culmination of our glorious CineSpace Day at the MFAH. Luke Wilson managed to get on Skype for the first time ever, after a bout of the flu kept him from flying to Houston. When the connection was made after 20 minutes, during which time co-director Andrew Wilson and producer Steve Eckelman and moderator Joe Leydon kept the crowd informed and entertained, Luke burst onto the screen, looming like Big Brother over his actual big brother Andrew. Dosed on Robitussin, lounging in the kitchen with a dog ambling in and out of the frame, Luke was comfortable and hilarious. We should definitely do more Skypes with guest stars in the future.
Here’s another favorite image from the festival, photographed by Jeanne Liotta, showing Julia Oldham, Jeanne’s fellow artist in the CineSpace gallery installation at She Works Flexible on Dunlavy and Westheimer. Julia is standing alongside a section of Kidlat Tahimik’s temporary installation, depicting the allure and resistance to Hollywood by Third World filmmakers, in the gallery. Kidlat himself can be seen photographing the installation, which he and his son carried with them from the Philippines. The CineSpace exhibition of outer space-themed media art works by Liotta, Oldham, Laura Heit, Kelly Sears, and David Janesko is on view through December 5, and, take my word for it, you should run to see this.
A few other unforgettable moments:
As I moderated the post-Krisha discussion with Krisha Fairchild and Trey Edward Shults, recipient of the first Levantine Emerging Artist Award, his cast (mostly members of his family) stormed the stage and joined in one of the most lively and moving discussions I can remember.
Live music at our festival was more lively and varied than ever before. Audiences who arrived at Sundance Cinemas for The Winding Stream: The Carters, The Cashes, and the Course of Country Music, were treated to a pre-screening concert by the dazzling Americana group, Hogan and Moss. And audiences who came to see The Jones Family Will Make a Way at the MFAH and Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten at the Asia Society heard stirring performances by the Jones Family Singers and Chhom Nimol and Zac Holtzman of Dengue Fever.
There were so many wonderful guest artists at this year’s event, and they were very happy to socialize together in the Lancaster Hotel, visit the Rothko exhibit at the MFAH and the Menil Treasure Rooms together, and, especially, attend each other’s programs. I will have more to say about their events in our Yearbook, which will be published and made available online in mid-winter. Each guest took home a whistle (seen below) specially carved by Connie Roberts to reflect the work the artist presented in the festival. They could not have been more delighted.
“I Dream Too Much”: A Unique Coming of Age Film
Let me be clear: I hate chick flicks. I also hate all Jane Austen movies. Both genre overflow with endless dialogue and angst, and, in the end, nothing actually happens. I would rather have my hand slammed in a car door as be forced to watch one. Let’s be even more clear about my taste in films: I’m a guy who believes that Spectre is a great film, and that We Were Soldiers is one fine piece of movie making. I like shoot ’em up, high tech action films that keep you engaged from opening to closing credits, and admit I’m simple minded and prefer films where something actually happens.
From that perspective, one can understand that when I saw that the new film I Dream Too Much was on the schedule in the primo Sunday evening time slot at this year’s Houston Cinema Arts Festival, I winced and gave fleeting consideration to packing along a pillow since it looked like a serious chick flick. After seeing it, however, I now know how wrong I was. This is no chick flick, at least as this guy perceives them.
CLICK HERE to read more.
“I DREAM TOO MUCH”: A UNIQUE COMING OF AGE FILM
Let me be clear: I hate chick flicks. I also hate all Jane Austen movies. Both genre overflow with endless dialogue and angst, and, in the end, nothing actually happens. I would rather have my hand slammed in a car door as be forced to watch one. Let’s be even more clear about my taste in films: I’m a guy who believes that Spectre is a great film, and that We Were Soldiers is one fine piece of movie making. I like shoot ’em up, high tech action films that keep you engaged from opening to closing credits, and admit I’m simple minded and prefer films where something actually happens.
From that perspective, one can understand that when I saw that the new film I Dream Too Much was on the schedule in the primo Sunday evening time slot at this year’s Houston Cinema Arts Festival, I winced and gave fleeting consideration to packing along a pillow since it looked like a serious chick flick. After seeing it, however, I now know how wrong I was. This is no chick flick, at least as this guy perceives them.
CLICK HERE to entire article.
HCAF HIGHLIGHTS
The Houston Cinema Arts Festival continues throughout the week concluding Thursday, November 19.
Monday – When I Live My Life Over Again unwinds at the Sundance Cinemas at 7 pm. Christopher Walken and Amber Heard star.
Tuesday – Cinespace 2015 unreels for free at 11 am. at the Sundance Cinemas. A unique series of shorts that incorporate NASA footage gets an encore screening after its sold-out show last Friday.
Wednesday – Peggy Guggenheim Art Addict explores the life of the heiress who used her wealth to advance the arts and build a substantial art collection while also bedding major artists of her time. 7 pm. at the Sundance.
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ASTRONAUTS & MOVIE STAR TAKE FIRST LINESPACE INTO STRATOSPHERE
When film, space and art meet almost anything can happen. That seemed to be the gravity-defying message of Houston Cinema Arts Festival’s space day on Friday. The day of fictional and documentary films about our journey beyond Earth culminated in a night full of possibility and wonder.
Astronaut Scott Kelly, high above the world in the International Space Station, offered a recorded welcome to the audience at the MFAH’s Brown Auditorium for CineSpace, the short film competition organized by NASA and Cinema Arts. 194 films were submitted from 22 countries and 32 states. Sixteen finalists were chosen by committee and then the final judgment with Oscar nominated director Richard Linklater.
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LIFE IS BUT A DREAM
IN WRITER-DIRECTOR KATIE COKINOS’S COMING-OF-AGE FILM, I Dream Too Much, post-grad anxiety is brought into full frame. The movie, which shows this Sunday at Houston Cinema Arts Festival, shines a light on life as a Millennial, brought to life through poignant, true-to-life moments.
As recent liberal arts grads, many of my friends and I spent months listless and lost after college. When I say this to Cokinos, she laughs and replies, “That was totally me too! I graduated from A&M with a history and philosophy degree and didn’t know what to do with my life…I was interested in capturing that time period after college—which is exciting but also a little stressful.”
CLICK HERE to read entire article.