FRIDAY, NOV. 6
The Price Center (indoor) - 222 W. San Anto St, San Marcos, TX
$5/film bloc; $10/venue day pass; $20 four-day venue badge
10 AM: EURASIAN BORDER-STATE BLOC: new shorts from neighboring nations
WICCA BOOK (Greece, 25 min); SYCAMORE (Turkey, 15 min); THE WEAPON (Iraq, 20 min); THE ROOFLESS HOUSE (Iran, 20 min)
80 min, total
12:30 PM: MONSTER-MASH BLOC: MAILER-DAEMON (Louisiana, 20 min); LOVE BLOOD PAIN (Brazil, 12 min); BARNEY (VA, 15 min); DYING EMBERS (FL, 22 min); CRYPTO (VA, 8 min)
77 min, total - followed by Q&A with Director/Writer/Producer Andrew Kovalchek (DYING EMBERS)
3 PM: TWOFERS: unique dual works from Spain, Michigan, Myanmar & the Mothersh1p
THE PROJECTIONIST: PORTRAIT OF A REAL ARTIST (Michigan, 7 min); ICE FISHING IN A CLIMATE CRISIS THAT PRECEDES A GLOBAL PANDEMIC (Michigan, 9 min); LOVE X BITES (Myanmar, 18 min); TANGLED (Myanmar, 17 min); TWO OPTIONS (Spain/France; 10 min); IMPERMANENCE: AN ELEMENTAL TRIPTYCH (Spain, 3 min); INCLUDING DEATH (TX, 11 min); THE S1GNAL (TX, 15 min)
90 min, total –– followed by Q&A with Mothersh1p filmmakers Andy Desiga & Nathan Schiefelbein
Doc’s Drive-in Theatre (outdoor) - 1540 Satterwhite Rd, Buda, TX
Tickets purchased online here: $12/car (includes driver) + $8/passenger
6 PM: MISSING IN BROOKS COUNTY: Texas, 1hr 20 min + Q&A w/ Director Lisa Molomot (Tucson); Eddie Canales of the South Texas Human Rights Center (Falfurrias, TX); biological anthropologist Dr. Kate Spradley, of TXST.
Sponsored by Mano Amiga as well as Center for the Study of the Southwest & Texas State Galleries (both of TXST), as part of a Hostile Terrain 94 collaboration
“It’s the largest cemetery in the United States,” attests Sheriff Benny Martinez, referring to the desert landscape that is his bailiwick. Brooks County, TX sits 70 miles north of the Mexican border –– & 225 miles south of San Marcos: the site of 3,000+ deaths since 2008, as migrants try to circumvent the state's busiest interior immigration checkpoint in Falfurrias, lost into the vast private ranchlands surrounding it.
MISSING IN BROOKS COUNTY follows two families who’ve come to Brooks Co to look for missing loved ones. Hunting for answers, they encounter a haunted land where death is part of everyday life. A gripping documentary mystery, it is also a deeply humane portrait of law- enforcement agents, human-rights workers, anthropologists from Texas State University & grassroots activists, who are face-to-face with the ongoing fatal fallout of a broken policy.
SOLD OUT 7 PM: A ROOM FULL OF NOTHING (Texas, 1hr 24 min + Q&A w/ Director Elena Weinberg & Duncan Coe)
Sponsored by San Marcos Arts Commission
The world's inhabitants have vanished, and it's entirely this couple's fault!
A break-up letter to Austin, A ROOM FULL OF NOTHING sardonically explores the complexity of modern relationships, plus the transient nature of art, isolationism, escapism & classic absurdity. The story follows Phyllis, a collage artist, & Barry, an actor, navigating the day-to-day –– until suddenly they find themselves the final two people on the planet.
9 PM: JOHN WAYNE GACY: DEFENDING A MONSTER (Chicago, 1hr 30min; narrated by Jim Belushi)
This authorized documentary, based on the best-selling book of the same name, profiles Sam Amirante, a young lawyer fresh from the Public Defender’s Office whose first client in private practice ends up one of the worst serial killers in American history.
It all started with a phone call from Gacy, "Sam could you do me a favor?"
10 PM: TEXAS TRIP (France, 1hr 21min + pre-film playlist by Grady Roper of Attic Ted, subject in the film)
In 2019, the French government opted to invest in dispatching filmmakers to San Marcos, & elsewhere across the Lone Star State, to chronicle freak culture. In their words:
"Dans les ciné-parcs en ruines, les monstres et les peurs n’habitent plus l’écran. Ils ont glissé vers d’autres marges. Utilisant la figure du freak pour créer leurs propres mythes, des artistes Texans interrogent leur rôle dans ce monde simulacre. Masques et rituels étranges offrent une vision intime de leur culture, là où se confondent poésie et survie."
"In the ruins of drive-ins, monsters & frights no longer inhabit the screen. They have slipped into other margins. Using the figure of the freak to create their own myths, Texan artists question their role in this simulacrum world. Strange masks & rituals offer an intimate vision of their culture, where poetry & survival merge."
Arrive at 9:30 PM for a playlist amalgamated by Grady Roper, of Attic Ted, a key subject of the unorthodox film, which features brief nudity.