Lists: 2013 SXSW Film Picks
Every March, Austin plays host to South by Southwest, a gargantuan festival of new media, film, music, comedy, and everything in between. Although much of the week is closed to the chosen few badge holders, non-badged visitors can purchase single-admission tickets to film screenings, space permitting. With that in mind, we've curated a quick list of films that may be of particular interest to those attendees who study or are generally fans of American Studies.Click each title for screening times and locations.
Our Nixon
http://vimeo.com/58747745Recently discovered Super 8 home movies filmed by three of Richard Nixon’s closest aides – and fellow Watergate conspirators – offer an intimate and complex new glimpse into his presidency in this all-archival documentary.
The Retrieval
http://vimeo.com/60608991On the outskirts of the Civil War, a boy is sent north by a bounty hunter gang to retrieve a wanted man.
12 O'Clock Boys
http://vimeo.com/58654662Pug, a young boy growing up on a combative West Baltimore block, finds solace in a gang of illegal dirt bike riders known as The 12 O’Clock Boys.
We Always Lie to Strangers
http://vimeo.com/58654661A story of family, community, music and tradition set against the backdrop of Branson, Missouri, the remote Ozark Mountain town that is one of the biggest tourist destinations in America.
Hours
http://vimeo.com/60690646Set mostly in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Hours is the story of a man who battles looters, the elements and exhaustion for two days in a hospital while his newborn daughter clings to life inside a ventilator powered only by a manual crank.
Reality Show
http://vimeo.com/58730756A darkly comedic satire that follows TV producer Mickey Wagner and his amoral attempt to re-invent the reality genre. Mickey’s big idea is to pick a family and put them under all encompassing surveillance…without their knowledge.
Continental
Continental is a stylish examination of a lively and lascivious piece of real estate that transcended sexual identity and acted as a beacon to the hip, beautiful and infamous. Housed at the site of the legendary Ansonia Hotel,the Continental became one of the most important keystones for a sexual revolution, fostering an environment of tolerance and contributing to a level of mainstream gay acceptance the likes of which has never been seen again.
Getting Back to Abnormal
http://vimeo.com/58648734New Orleans' long history of political dysfunction and complicated racial dynamics gets a new lease on life when Stacy Head, a polarizing white woman, wins a seat on the city council after Katrina. Four years later, she needs to get black votes to be re-elected. But will her record of blunt racial talk doom her chances? Getting Back to Abnormal follows the unlikely odd couple of Head and her irrepressible black political advisor Barbara Lacen as they try to navigate New Orleans' treacherous political scene. With its cast of only-in-New-Orleans characters, Getting Back to Abnormal is a provocative and amusing look at race in America, set against the backdrop of New Orleans' rich culture.
Spark: A Burning Man Story
http://vimeo.com/60849419Each year, 60,000 people from around the globe gather in a dusty windswept Nevada desert to build a temporary city, collaborating on large-scale art and partying for a week before burning a giant effigy in a ritual frenzy. Rooted in principles of self-expression, self-reliance and community effort, Burning Man has grown famous for stirring ordinary people to shed their nine-to-five existence and act on their dreams. Spark takes us behind the curtain with Burning Man organizers and participants, revealing a year of unprecedented challenges and growth. When ideals of a new world based on freedom and inclusion collide with realities of the “default world,” we wonder which dreams can survive.
5 Takes on Women and Bicycles
Back in 2004, inspired by my friend Emily Wismer, I traded my car for a bicycle, and eight years, six cities, and thousands of miles later, I think it's safe to say that I think riding a bike is pretty sweet. I'm rarely stuck in a traffic jam, I get front-row parking pretty much wherever I go, and hey, I get me some exercise and a little daily sunshine, too, especially here in Austin. In these enlightened times, it's generally pretty awesome to be a lady cyclist, too, especially with more and more shops hiring female mechanics (thank you, Ozone and The Peddler!), more companies making women-specific gear, and folks like Mia Birk, Georgena Terry, and Shelley Jackson leading the charge in making cycling more accessible to everyone, including women.
But gender and bicycles can easily become complicated, too, and not just in a turn-of-the-century dress reform kind of way. Back in the 1980s and 90s, technophiles like Donna Haraway argued that technology was going to be the great equalizer, as though somehow the right combination of wheels and gears and metal tubing could erase centuries of gender inequality. As far as bikes go, that hasn't happened - not yet, anyway. But, with more and more lady cyclists moving into what has so far been a male-dominated technological domain, the bicycle is beginning to raise some questions about gender, female sexuality, and what it means to be a lady on two wheels. Below, five very interesting answers to these questions.1. Elly Blue, Taking the LaneElly Blue is a bike activist in Portland who writes about - and advocates for - the need for more bike-friendly (and less misogynistic) cities. Her zine, Taking the Lane, draws clear parallels between being a cyclist in a car's world and being a woman in a man's world. In its very first issue, Taking the Lane ranges from road rage and grassroots organizing to fat bias and the condescension women often have to endure from male bike shop employees. Blue argues that women cyclists as both women and cyclists are doubly discriminated against, and that only by working together can we end both gender and transportation inequality. I find her writing style intense and thought-provoking and her militancy refreshing - especially since so many of her examples hit very close to home.2. Peter Zheutlin's Around the World on Two Wheels and Gillian Klempner Willman's The New Woman: Annie LondonderryGillian Willman's film builds on Peter Zheutlin's long-awaited Around the World on Two Wheels, which tells the story of Annie Londonderry, the first woman to bike around the world. Back at the turn of the last century, Annie Londonderry (who was actually Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, a 23-year old Jewish mother of 3 from Boston), rode a Columbia bicycle around the world in 15 months - and made $5000 in the process. The whole thing was a publicity stunt, but Willman and Zheutlin both focus less on that than on the impact Londonderry's journey had on women's rights. She left her home, husband, and kids. She wore pants. She sold pictures of herself. She rented space on her body and her bike to advertisers. She rode a bicycle, and she worked it. Capitalism, feminism, and bicycles all in one place. The horror!3. Rebecca "Lambchop" ReillyPortable Portrait: REBECCA REILLY (1995) from Rachel Strickland on Vimeo.Rebecca Reilly is the stuff of legend. Not only was she a female courier in the 1990s when there were barely any female couriers to speak of, a fierce fixed-gear rider by many (many) accounts, and a woman who insisted she only wanted to be treated the same as a man; she also spent eight years traveling around the United States, working as a courier in Chicago, Houston, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, DC, Boston, and New York, and collecting hundreds of oral histories from the couriers she met along the way. In 2000, she compiled many of these stories into Nerves of Steel, an incredible 300-page rollercoaster ride through the US bike messenger scene in the 90s. The above video is from Rachel Strickland's Portable Effects project; I could talk for hours about the relationship between bicycles and femininity in it. (I've written a little more extensively about Reilly here.)4. The Dropout's Bike Taxi Babes calendar
Back in January 2010, I managed to sneak into a photo shoot for The Dropout's first bike pin-up spread, and being a good (if idealistic) feminist, I spent the rest of that semester trying to fit that night - and the photographs that eventually made it into the magazine - into some semblance of third-wave feminism. It was Elly, actually, who pointed out that not every pin-up has to be feminist, and bikes don't automatically lead to feminist liberation. (Thanks, Elly.) With that in mind, I'm fascinated by The Dropout's latest project, the Bike Taxi Babes. As far as I know, the ladies pictured are all pedicabbers, and the calendar has more of the flavor of burlesque than pornography; The Dropout is a pedicab-community organ, and the project is a resolutely for-profit venture. I can't even begin to talk about how this complicates what it means to be a female cyclist.5. Rick Darge's bike ♥bike ♥ from Rick Darge on Vimeo.Rick Darge is a cinematographer who has worked with, oh, I don't know, LCD Soundsystem, Fritos, and Dell, and his video is pretty incredible in its ability to tell a story and capture complex emotions without the main character uttering a single word. The Robert Johnston is a nice touch, too. But while I love this video for its composition, the one thing that truly stands out to me is how adolescently girly it is: how young and innocent Dee looks, how much the camera loves her sweet eyes and hair, how her delicate lace and lingerie contrast with her black socks and Vans. Her love for her bicycle, like Dee herself, is stuck somewhere between childhood innocence and full-grown lady. So what, does she have to cast off all two-wheeled childish things to become a woman? I guess it is a bit tricky to ride a bike in heels...... or is it?
List: 7 Films from 2011 that American Studies Scholars Should See
Somehow, it’s already December, and you know what that means: a million year-end lists of the best (and worst) 2011 had to offer. So we’re throwing our collective hat in the ring with this list of the best movies from 2011 that are of particular interest to American Studies scholars of all stripes. We can’t vouch for the quality of all these, of course, but they at least provide some fodder for folks to potentially research and write about.Quick note: there are a ton of worthwhile documentary films that were released this year that are worth a look, but this list only highlights fictional films. Have fun!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWX34ShfcsE]
Drive
Ryan Gosling stars in this intense homage to a very gritty Los Angeles. He plays a Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver, but a botched heist leaves him with a contract on his head. Though the film’s storyline is predominantly a tale of the unnamed driver dealing with a variety of folks who try to kill him, Drive also offers a fascinating and dark portrayal of the city. Visually and musically, it’s 1980s-style noir at its best (but caveat emptor: the violence is sporadic but incredibly graphic).
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH7KZD5vGBY]
Cowboys and Aliens
This is definitely not an Oscar winner, but for anyone who loves western-science fiction crossovers, it’s a must. Cowboys and Aliens is based on a graphic novel of the same name, centering on a no-holds-barred battle between man and alien in the Arizona territory, back in 1873. Bombastic visuals aside, the film also boasts a great cast and crew: it was directed by Jon Favreau and written by a crew that includes Lost scribe Damon Lindelof. And it stars Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, and Olivia Wilde.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_ajv_6pUnI]
The Help
Based on a novel of the same name, The Help tracks the relationship of a white woman with her black maids during the 1960s in Mississippi. Though the film has received generally positive reviews, it’s also earned some criticism for its problematic and stereotypical portrayal of black women. The Help even prompted the Association of Black Women Historians to release a public statement critiquing its treatment of the historical moment.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JerVrbLldXw]
Captain America: The First Avenger
Comic books are often very political works, and the films that are based on these stories are no different. Captain America: The First Avenger stars Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Tommy Lee Jones, and a bunch of other heavy-hitters, and features the super hero in a battle with the U.S. military against a power hungry subset of the Nazi Party called HYDRA. The film is a hell of a lot of fun, but it also comments on military technology, bodily enhancement, patriotism, and the importance of PR in fighting wars. Plus it has "America" in the title - there's lots of America.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rhNrz2hX_o]
Meek’s Cutoff
Back to the West. Meek’s Cutoff centers on a small group of settlers heading west before the Civil War. They end up lost in the wilderness thanks to guide Stephen Meek, who doesn't quite know where he's going. The desperation of the situation leaves the settlers both at each others' throats and struggling to deal with their depleting resources and energy. The narrative is intense and captivating, but what really resonates is the stunning camerawork highlighting the landscape – it really is a beautiful, deadly, painful frontier.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2DqFRsPrns]
Margin Call
Margin Call examines an investment bank (based loosely upon the now-defunct Lehman Brothers) in the throes of a financial crisis that threatens both the company and the national economy. Sound familiar? The star-studded cast, which includes Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Paul Bettany, ZacharyQuinto, and Stanley Tucci, highlights the personal stakes of the decisions made by Wall Street, so it’s worth a look if your understanding of the financial calamity that began a few years ago is centered more on numbers and formulas than on people.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdzWcrXVtwg]
Contagion
At first glance, Contagion is just another apocalyptic viral outbreak film. The real story, though, lies in the human response to an international threat. You’ll see a society deteriorate in the face of panic and fear, you’ll see how quickly information – right or wrong – can spread, thanks to new media, you’ll see the impotence of a government responding to an international disaster. It’s an upper, to say the least – but stellar performances by Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, and Gwyneth Paltrow make the film worth the inevitable uneasy paranoia you'll feel after seeing it.That's all, folks! Did we miss anything? Leave a comment if you know another film that American Studies folks might find interesting!
List: Top Picks at the Texas Book Festival
Writers and readers of all stripes and flocking to Austin this weekend for the annual Texas Book Festival. The schedule is always a bit daunting for the two day event, so here is a selection of notable events (with descriptions from the festival schedule) featuring some familiar AMS faces (Elizabeth Engelhardt and Robert Abzug, to name two) as well as a few others worth seeking out amidst the flurry of activity.
Saturday
A Mess of Greens: Southern Gender & Southern Food
with Dr. Elizabeth EngelhardtDate: Saturday, October 22, 2011Time: 11:15 - 12:00Location: Capitol Extension Room E2.030While staples of Southern foodways are often portrayed as stable and unchanging – the stories of their origins generally focused on elite whites or poor blacks – Elizabeth S.D. Engelhardt uses methods of food culture and gender studies to reveal their troubling complexities. An associate professor of American Studies at The University of Texas at Austin, Engelhardt was lead author of Republic of Barbecue: Stories Beyond the Brisket.
James Evans
the Big Bend photographer on his new book Crazy from the HeatDate: Saturday, October 22, 2011Time: 1:00 - 1:45Location: Capitol Extension Room E2.012James Evans goes well beyond his highly regarded black-and-white work in Crazy from the Heat, displaying magnificent landscapes in full color - including panoramas that fold out to reveal the immensity of the desert. Evans’ work is in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the El Paso Museum of Art, and the Art Museum of South Texas, as well as in many private collections.
American Reinventions: The Fiction of Leaving Home
with Jillian Lauren, Jennifer Niven, and Kerry ReichsDate: Saturday, October 22, 2011Time: 2:15 - 3:15Location: Capitol Extension Room E2.028"There are no second acts in American lives." F. Scott Fitzgerald's observation has always been treated as a kind of literary scripture, but is it really true anymore? Jennifer Niven, Jillian Lauren, and Kerry Reichs' new novels reveal characters willing - or desperate - to reinvent themselves, with all the excitement and uncertainty reinvention implies. Maeve Connelly's epic road trip in Kerry Reich’s new novel, Leaving Unknown, is taking her through every colorfully named tiny town in America on her way to the far less imaginatively named Los Angeles, California. Velva Jean Hart, the fiercely independent heroine of Jennifer Niven's new novel, Velva Jean Learns to Fly, is at the heart of this captivating adventure of a woman bristling at the limitations faced by a woman in rural Appalachia and fueled by the memory of her late Mama telling her to "live out there." Bebe Baker, the antihero of Jillian Lauren’s new book Pretty: A Novel, is an ex-everything: ex-stripper, ex-Christian, ex-drug addict, ex-pretty girl who looks for something to believe in before something – her past, the dangerously magnetic men in her life, her own bad choices – knocks her off course again.
The Rolling Stone Years
with Rolling Stone photographer Baron WolmanDate: Saturday, October 22, 2011Time: 3:15 - 4:00Location: The Sanctuary at First United Methodist Church (1201 Lavaca, enter from Lavaca St.)The Rolling Stone Years features the work of Baron Wolman, the first chief photographer to work for America’s legendary Rolling Stone magazine. Many of Wolman’s images from the late sixties and early seventies have become iconic shots from rock’s most fertile era. Wolman shares his insights on the world of rock, and the brilliant yet sometimes flawed characters that inhabit that world.
The Journals of Spalding Gray
with Nell Casey; this session is a collaboration with The Harry Ransom CenterDate: Saturday, October 22, 2011Time: 4:15 - 5:00Location: Capitol Auditorium Room E1.004In The Journals of Spalding Gray, Nell Casey allows us intimate access into the life of Spalding Gray, the actor/writer who invented the autobiographical monologue and perfected the form in such celebrated works as Swimming to Cambodia, before committing suicide in 2004. Culled from more than 5,000 pages and including interviews with friends, colleagues, lovers, and family Nell Casey gives us a haunting glimpse into the life of a creative genius.
Sunday
The Globalization of American Culture
Don't Fence Me In: Genre-Bending Fiction
with Lev Grossman, Erin Morgenstern, Thomas Mullen, and Charles YuDate: Sunday, October 23, 2011Time: 12:30 - 1:30Location: House ChamberIn 2009, noted science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin took Margaret Atwood to task, believing that Atwood shunned being labeled a science fiction writer because she didn't "want the literary bigots to shove her into the literary ghetto," as Le Guin called it, the place where science fiction, zombie novels, thrillers, fantasy, and mysteries live. A place where literary fiction thrives is not, presumably, a ghetto. Or is it?A number of the 2011 Festival's literary writers (besides the ones appearing in this session) are moving outside the confines of literary fiction by crafting narratives with complex characters and lyrical language but with plots that are more accurately called science fiction, fantasy, or thrillers (check out Colson Whitehead, Russell Banks, and Hillary Jordan's novels, for starters). Join us at this session for a conversation with Lev Grossman, Erin Morgenstern, Thomas Mullen, and Charles Yu, four imaginative, restless writers whose new novels are literary fiction, while stepping outside that realm to engage readers.
America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation
with David GoldfieldDate: Sunday, October 23, 2011Time: 4:00 - 4:45Location: Lone Star TentCountless books have been written on the Civil War: its causes and effects, its battles and heroes. David Goldfield’s exciting new work America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation does not simply reiterate these facts but rather reinterprets them in light of a new thesis: that the Civil War was an avoidable tragedy caused by an Evangelical fervor that stifled debate by raising political discussions to the level of religious arguments - where the sacred was non-negotiable. David Goldfield is the Robert Lee Bailey Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He is the author of many works on Southern history, including Still Fighting the Civil War; Black, White and Southern; and Promised Land.For a full schedule of events, click here.