Lone Star International Film Festival

Film fest signals a homecoming for Huckabee
Michael H. Price - June 18, 2007 04:00

Huckabee has returned to Fort Worth to head the Lone Star International Film Festival.
Photo by Jon P. UzzelTom Huckabee has thrived as a Hollywood-based filmmaking talent – not a marquee name, but rather a versatile and influential artist and manager capable of initiating and nurturing movies from concept to completion.

His return this summer to Fort Worth bespeaks a debt-of-honor development that is part native-son homecoming and part cultural venture. The professional objective is to develop a film festival of popular appeal and staying power, building upon some qualified successes of the past decade in which I have – full disclosure, here – taken part.

Huckabee’s restless strivings toward a career in film have figured all along, in any case, in Fort Worth’s long-term maneuverings toward moviegoing activities beyond routine patronage of the mass-audience theaters and the pure-commerce treadmill of prefabricated hits. Both the local-interest stirrings and Huckabee’s career date from the 1980s, running parallel though at a distance. Their crossing might seem a matter of destiny.

Huckabee is, after all, a hometowner whose Texas loyalties have colored much of his work in Hollywood, often in partnership with a school-chum cohort, the actor-turned-director Bill Paxton. Huckabee’s purpose is twofold – to sign on as artistic director of an emerging Lone Star International Film Festival, and to rally with his local household in the wake of two deaths in the family.

Huckabee’s name had cropped up as early as 1983 as a motivating influence for a loose-knit group that fellow newspaperman Larry Swindell and I called the FWFFF – short for Fort Worth Friends of Fine Film. Among other encouragements, Swindell and I sought to put a local-gone-Hollywood face or two upon the urge to develop a showcase for more adventurous moviegoing. Huckabee and hometown cohort Bill Paxton had recently completed a Texas-bred feature film called Taking Tiger Mountain, and that project suggested a local-

origin kinship that might help to further the desire to develop a picture-show outlet independent of the mass-market theaters.

There already was such a place, of course, though not for long. W.C. Austin’s Heights Theatre, which showed imports and Old Hollywood classics, had become an imminent casualty of eminent domain – the broadening of the West Freeway. The transformation of the nearby Ridglea Theater to an art-film showplace was still several years distant (an impermanent upturn, as thing developed), and nearly 15 years would pass before I assembled a five-member team responsible for the incorporation of a Fort Worth Film Festival. The fewer the cats, the easier their herding.

But the Huckabee connection remained steady, however apart. We compared notes on occasion, often through the mutual friendship with Paxton. Upon consulting with both during 1997’s South by Southwest Film Festival at Austin, I selected their collaborative film Traveller, a crime drama set amid a nomadic tribe of ethnic Irish-Americans, to launch a series of special-event screenings that would evolve into the Fort Worth Film Festival.

That event ran annually, with monthly supplements of classic-film revivals and new-movie previews, from 1998 through 2002. The run saw appearances from the crowd-pleasing likes of Gregory Peck, Tippi Hedren, Anne Francis, John Saxon and M. Emmet Walsh. Cutbacks following Sept. 11, 2001, stemmed from a decision to quit putting famous people aboard airplanes, and from a prevailing interest in local-filmmaker encouragement and film-history scholarship as opposed to glamorized festivities.

The announced staging of the Lone Star International Film Festival – this coming November, with specific attractions yet to be announced – is neither a resumption nor a continuation. Nor is the Lone Star Film Society so much a descendant as it is a tangent, with some original-festival participants in addition to a more extensive complement of members and officers.

I mention all this in light of my having become more kibitzer than participant, and more keenly interested in film-appreciation activities that require no management-by-committee. Current professional commitments, from the Business Press to a long-running series of movie-history books, take prior claim. The stress of extracurricular film-fest production made strategic sense only during the several years I had spent as director of motion-picture programming – with 20 screens in need of promoting – at AMC Theatres’ downtown venues.

Prelude to an arrival

I announced Tom Huckabee’s arrival last month to a gathering of several hundred film-festival volunteers – something of a torch-passing moment, perhaps, though hardly with ceremonial pomp. Beats having everybody hold hands and sing “Kumbaya.” And I acknowledge a bias in the belief that if anybody can get this enterprise up and running, Huckabee is the one to do so.

Huckabee, 52, has been a creative and administrative presence in the film industry for more than 25 years, with involvement as a writer, director, producer, film-festival promoter, project developer and researcher. He became entranced as a child with “hearing the clickety-clack of celluloid passing between sprockets,” as he puts it, after discovering his father Hugh Huckabee’s 16-millimeter camera at the family’s Wedgwood home.

“It’s all I’ve wanted to do since I was 13,” Huckabee says. “I’ve worked in other media – photography, poetry, painting and music – but my favorite thing is telling stories, and film has a unique advantage along those lines … incorporates most of the other arts.”

A 1975 graduate of Southwest High School, Huckabee worked early on for such picture-making companies as The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Stephen Busustow Productions and the Film Factory, a pioneering music-video house, and made short films from scratch, often in league with Bill Paxton. They had met while traveling to England in 1973 to attend Richmond College, affiliated with the University of London. Huckabee had a head start in the shared ambition, having aced a TCU-sponsored competition with a film called “Into the Light.”

Upon returning to Fort Worth from England, Huckabee and Paxton purchased Super-8mm Ektasound equipment from Ridglea Camera. They staged a first effort, “Victory at Auschwitz,” at the train yards between Lancaster Avenue and Vickery Boulevard. The police arrived as if responding to a crisis.

“They had gotten a tip that there was a Nazi uprising going on down at the train yard!” laughs Huckabee. “Luckily, one guy playing a Nazi was a rookie cop who knew the officers.”

Follow-up films landed, variously, awards from 1974’s Brooklyn Film Festival and a KERA-sponsored event, with a Channel 13 airing. Paxton departed for Hollywood and, at 19, went to work as a set dresser while urging Huckabee to join him.

“Even though my personal fantasy was to stay in Texas and try to foment a local film scene, I took the Hollywood plunge,” says Huckabee. He and Paxton continued with their maverick films as a creative side-track.

Paxton left, then, to study acting in New York. Huckabee detoured to Austin, tackling radio-TV-film studies at the University of Texas and finding crucial mentors in associate professor Thomas Schatz – author-to-be of a significant film-industry book called The Genius of the System – and artist-in-residence Edward Dmytryk, a big-time filmmaker with a resume ranging from such seminal film noir titles as The Devil Commands and Murder, My Sweet (1941-44) to The Caine Mutiny (1954) and The Carpetbaggers (1964). Small world: Dmytryk and I worked together during this same 1970s-into-’80s stretch in preparation of a series of books including Human Monsters: The Bizarre Psychology of Movie Villains and Spawn of Skull Island: The Making of King Kong.

Toward the close of a busy six years in Austin, Huckabee began Taking Tiger Mountain, starring Paxton and boasting the participation of Naked Lunch author William S. Burroughs. The venture carried over to Hollywood following Huckabee’s graduation.

“I went back to L.A. out of necessity,” Huckabee says. “Although there was much talk about Texas becoming the ‘third coast’ [of filmmaking], it was still just a fantasy, really. It would be another decade at least before the emergence of Rick Linklater, Robert Rodriguez and SXSW [South by Southwest] would make the fantasy come true.”

Huckabee’s girlfriend, Barbara Cohen, a social worker from Dallas by way of Austin, joined him in Los Angeles. They married in 1983 and found compatible movie-biz careers, Cohen developing a specialty as a casting director while Huckabee moved into such areas as research-and-production for the History Channel and quality-control supervision for Lucasfilm. Cohen died in May 2006 following a nine-year struggle with breast cancer.

A formalized partnership with Paxton saw the completion of the murder drama Frailty (2001), along with Huckabee’s unbilled script-consultant work on such Paxton-starrers as Twister and Mighty Joe Young (1996-98). More recently, the partners tackled the golfing drama The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005), which provided Paxton with a directing-assignment follow-through to Frailty.

A homing instinct

The death of Huckabee’s wife, followed by the death in Fort Worth of his mother, JoAnn Huckabee, had left the filmmaker pondering a return home.

“The family rallied,” he explains, “and it was decided it would be best if I came home to help out. So I rented out my house in L.A. and moved back to Fort Worth.” In addition to father Hugh Huckabee, the circle includes brothers Pat, of Fort Worth, and Danny, of Austin, and sister Susan Roche, of Georgetown.

Tom Huckabee’s move coincided with a search for an artistic director by the Lone Star Film Society. He had met several of the organization’s volunteers during a 2006 event in honor of Bill Paxton.

“Once I moved back,” Huckabee says, “it was a foregone conclusion that I would get involved in some way.”

Huckabee perceives that “Fort Worth is being underserved in the realm of independent and foreign film.”

The appraisal is correct, given that AMC Theatres’ rejection of any hard-and-fast art-film commitment – and a refusal to sub-lease downtown-screen space to an art-house exhibitor such as Angelika or Magnolia – has left the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth as the constant standard-bearer. The Magnolia at the Modern program, utilizing the museum’s auditorium with its full-scale film-projection system and concert-caliber acoustical design, descends from a business plan that I had written in 2001 to sublet part of AMC’s Houston Street showplace to Magnolia Theatres.

And Magnolia at the Modern has been a weekend staple since early in the decade, with such special-event marathons as a foreign-classics series announced for August.

A longer-running film festival, Q Cinema, pursues a gay-and-lesbian motif with various special-event screenings in addition to an annual festival at the northside’s Rose Marine Theater.

A generalized lack of offbeat movie choices, though, strikes Huckabee as “odd,” he says, “because [the city is] so well represented in other areas of modern art. I want to help solve that problem through the auspices of the Lone Star Film Society.

“If I can do that, I will feel like I have given something back to the town that gave me so much during my formative years.”

Contact Price at mprice@bizpress.net

Bill Paxton homes in on Fort Worth for film festival, Kennedy miniseries
Michael H. Price - September 03, 2007
“Well, now,” Bill Paxton begins, “Fort Worth seems to be proud of me — and I’m certainly proud of Fort Worth. Which makes for as good a reason as any for me to want to be renewing my involvement with the ol’ hometown.”

We’ve parked ourselves around the dining table of a Texas & Pacific Lofts suite, a home-away-from-home setting for Paxton’s occasional return from Hollywood. The occasion is twofold.

The star player of HBO’s family-intrigues drama Big Love has become a participant in the development of a Lone Star International Film Festival in Fort Worth.

And for the longer term, Paxton is homing in on the city as a touchstone in his involvement with an HBO-network adaptation of Vincent Bugliosi’s Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Norton; $49.95). The 1,600-page book poses a polemic with such conspiracy theories as those presented in Oliver Stone’s 1991 film JFK.

I’ve been cordially acquainted with Paxton since 1985. We first met in a newspaper-interview setting in connection with Paxton’s scene-stealing impersonation of a bully who gets what’s coming to him in John Hughes’ Weird Science. In 1997, Paxton’s ambitious independent production of Traveller, about a clannish society of grifters, served as the inaugural attraction of an art-film program that I had developed for the downtown Fort Worth theaters. And he and I had pondered in 1998 the prospect of his participation in a Fort Worth Film Festival organization.

“The timing wasn’t right, back then,” as Bill has explained. “I didn’t feel, at the time, that I had achieved a ‘body of work,’ as the saying goes, that would merit such recognition. Maybe I still haven’t — although I have accomplished some directing credentials since then, in addition to quite a few movie roles. And the newer involvement of my moviemaking pal from way back, Tom Huckabee, with the Lone Star Festival project, kind of makes it a given that I should pitch in now.”

The Lone Star International Film Festival is announced for Nov. 7-12, with Tom Huckabee, newly returned to Fort Worth from Hollywood, as artistic director. (See the Business Press, June 18.) Paxton’s participation as honorary chair of the advisory board amounts to what he characterizes as “that kind of name recognition, that local-boy-gone-Hollywood image, that we hope will encourage the business community to step up to the plate and make a commitment to support this project.”

The adaptation of Bugliosi’s Kennedy book will take shape as a serialized epic for HBO, with Paxton and the Playtone Co.’s Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman as executive producers.

“It’s like Tom Hanks told me when I presented him with the idea,” says Paxton. “He said, ‘You take this on as a feature-length film, and all you’re gonna have is JFK II.’ It’s too big a story to tell, really, in a self-contained feature.

“The long-form series is the way to go with such a big story,” Paxton continues. “And I’m here, in part, to research the logistics of it — in the hope of bringing the production to the North Texas area during the next three years.

“Fort Worth is, after all, where the interest began for me — back when I was 81⁄2 years old.”

Paxton and his older brother, Bob, and their father, Fort Worth lumberman John Paxton, had visited the Texas Hotel at Eighth and Main in Fort Worth in 1963 to witness a ceremonial appearance by President Kennedy, shortly before the assassination in Dallas. The memory has remained vivid — Bill Paxton, astride his father’s shoulders, scarcely 30 feet away from the presidential entourage — but only in recent years has the actor turned up palpable evidence of his presence. With the help of Dallas’ Sixth Floor Museum, Paxton turned up news-camera footage from Nov. 22, 1963, showing him among the crowd.

“That discovery marked a turning-point for me,” says Paxton. “The story of Nov. 22, 1963, has always held a deep meaning for me, with my memories of having been there, at the Fort Worth rally. And as its 50th anniversary approaches, that meaning becomes deeper.”

The HBO network, which has launched a new season of Paxton’s Big Love series, also plans a documentary production as a supplement to the Kennedy project. The documentary will feature Bugliosi discussing an assortment of conspiracy theories, including those involving the KGB, the Mafia and Fidel Castro.

Paxton’s approach to Tom Hanks — the artists’ work together since the 1990s includes a co-starring hitch in Ron Howard’s Apollo 13 — led them to the Bugliosi book as a foundation. Bugliosi, the prosecutor-turned-author best known for his work on the Charles Manson serial-murder case and the resulting book Helter Skelter, had staged an imaginary prosecution of accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald for British television. He became convinced in the process that the Warren Commission had accurately cited Oswald as the sole agent. Bugliosi’s recently published book is the result of 20 years’ research.

“I totally believed there was a conspiracy,” Hanks’ production-company colleague Gary Goetzman has told the show-business trade paper Variety, “but after you read the book, you are almost embarrassed that you ever believed it … But time and evidence can change the way we view things.”

Variety also quoted Bugliosi: “Many more people will see the miniseries than will read the book. With the integrity that Tom, Gary and Bill bring, I think that we will finally be able to make a substantial dent in the [percentage] of people in this country who still believe the conspiracy theorists.”

With the Kennedy miniseries in planning stages and an enthusiastic popular following in place for Big Love, Paxton says the time seems right to renew his native-son ties to Fort Worth.

“Y’know, when I left to purse an acting career,” he explains, “I never thought about coming back. But the ties remain in place, and the timing seems right to acknowledge the cultural heritage and the overall bounty that Fort Worth represents — time to give something back. And if my movie-business identity can help this film festival get started, then I’m glad to have a hand in it.”

Contact Price at mprice@bizpress.net

Just adding a few stories to keep everyone up to date on the film festival...

If party's any indication, film fest is on cusp of big things
By MARY ROGERS
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Fort Worth kissed summer goodbye this weekend with rounds of benefit parties -- and a few private celebrations.

Roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em: Actor Bill Paxton told the crowd that jammed Therese and Tom Moncrief's home that the Lone Star International Film Festival slated for Nov. 8-11 is a first step to bigger things.

Never mind that for several years the Lone Star Film Society has struggled to find sure footing on this slippery festival slope; Bill says this is the turnaround year.

If the crowd that attended last week's cocktail party kickoff is any indicator, then Bill is right. This could be the year.

There were so many revelers, it was difficult to push through the enthusiastic throng. Cowtown notables who attended included Imagination Celebration powerhouse Ginger Head Gearheart; cowboy Steve Murrin, restaurateur Shannon Wynne, artist Nancy Lamb, Convention & Visitors Bureau boss David DuBois, arts patrons George Ann and Bill Bahan, Lone Star Film Society President John Langdon and businessmen Carlos de la Torre, Craig Kelly and FredDisney, to name only a few.

Paxton goes home again

Even appearing in the blockbuster film Titanic didn't cement Fort Worth-raised actor Bill Paxton into the public consciousness. It was his role as the polygamist patriarch of HBO's Big Love that thrust him into the big time.

The actor was back in Fort Worth last week to help out the Lone Star Film Festival, which is coming up in November. He has agreed to serve as honorary chair of the advisory board.

Mr. Paxton greeted guests at a film festival pre-party at the home of Fort Worth mover Therese Moncrief. Among the attendees were fellow Fort Worth-raised star Betty Buckley and AFI Dallas International Film Festival artistic director Michael Cain.

Of his Fort Worth roots, Mr. Paxton observed, "I was either going to come back carrying my shield or upon it, and I'm glad it's the previous."

It's a shame this isn't being covered by the local media much. It's getting so little press in comparison to Dallas' AFI Festival

Bill Paxton is incredible on Big Love. It's one of the the best shows on TV!!!

Here's the link to the Lone Star Film Society's web page, which also leads to the festival's website (impressive list of sponsors, btw):

http://www.lonestarfilmsociety.com/

I'd say with the above articles and pre-events, looks like the media is starting to gear up for the November festival. Vjackson: interesting strategy invoking the D word already. That should generate some additional interest - at least on this forum...

I was mistakenly under the impression that the festival had begun already and I had heard nothing about it. Since DALLAS recently had a highly publicized festival it was odd to me this one has received little publicity...especially with a star in town that's on a critically praised televison show. Sorry if the word Dallas irks you, but if the AFI festival had been in Plano, the comment and sentiment would have been the same. No strategy..just reality.

And if the D word invokes interest... good.. as it seems that there hasn't been very much. I'm glad I haven't missed this festival and I'll be sure to be there in Novemeber.

No irk taken - just an observation. By the way, does Plano have a film festival, too?

Gee, I wonder why...

I like the header photo on their webpage, but maybe we should send them a picture of the Meadowbrook Drive-in with a big gas drilling rig in front... just to bring a little Fort Worth flavor to the site.

I think that's what Bill Paxton was alluding to when he said this could be THE YEAR for this festival. When I lived in FW, I attended some of the movies these folks have shown at the Modern instead of driving to the "D word" to see independent films. It is good to have someone current and on a popular, edgy, critically respected program in town to promote this festival. No disrespect to Betty Buckley and the other "celebs" that stop off in FW to play the Bass before heading off to play their main gig in Branson Missouri.

The folks producing this festival should be commended in thier efforts to bring good independent cinema to FW and maybe this will be the year people take notice. Maybe the Angelika and Magnolia folks will see FW worthy of a real arthouse theater....like Plano.

Don't even get me started, I'm still irked by that. Although, I 've got to give the Plano Angelika props, it's a really nice theater and worth the ocassional drive out there.

Betty Buckley's next out-of-town gig is at New York City's famed Town Hall Theater. The date is October 20th. You should check it out...

Who is Betty Buckley??

Betty Buckley is an actress from Fort Worth. Here are a couple of links for more info:

http://bettybuckley....raphy/personal/
http://bettybuckley....ofessional.html




There is also a festival web site, www.lsiff.com.

And she is fabulous...!

I see the schedule on the site, but where to they show the films?

Is there one named 'Illusions' or 'Allusions' by a director named Tex?

If so, please let me know how the film was for you. I met Tex at local nightclub in DTFW. Very nice, opinionated and knowledgeable. As I had studied film myself, so we had good discussion.

Story in the New York Times today about the Kennedy assassination project:

http://www.nytimes.c...KI G7IWRFxX/EOA

This ought to be pretty cool...

ROBERT M. YOUNG, XANDER BERKELEY TO PRESENT FILM, BELOW THE BELT, AT LONE STAR FILM FESTIVAL


FORT WORTH, Texas (September 17, 2007) – The Lone Star Film Society announces that Robert M. Young and Xander Berkeley will present their film, “Below the Belt,” a.k.a. “Human Error,” at this year’s Lone Star International Film Festival, set for Nov. 7-11. Both acclaimed filmmakers Young and Berkeley, along with Berkeley’s wife Sarah Clarke, will be in attendance at the festival.
Young is known for his award-winning documentaries and film, “Alambrista!” (1978). Berkeley has starred in numerous supporting roles in major motion pictures as well as the critically acclaimed role of George Mason in the hit TV show, “24.” Clarke, actress in the award winning Volkswagen Jetta commercial, “Synchronicity,” has also held a recurring role along with her husband, as Nina in “24.” Clarke also appears in the “Below the Belt.”

Description of the film:
“Below the Belt” (2004) is a comedy that follows the adventures of two men who leave their dull lives for jobs at corporation that exists in an animated world. Viewers have seen the film as absurdly amusing through its use of comedic timing and hilarious commentary on workplace relations and ethics. The computer-generated imaging used in the film gives it a whimsical vibe. This film can reach many audiences with its wit and creativity.

I have tix to see BBuckley. So I will see just how fabulosa she really is. Then I'll report back. One show, one night only at THE BASS.

It is from my understanding that Mr. Joe Peters of Peters Bros. Hats is doing quite well with this film event, selling to the likes of Bill Paxton and Mr. Klein (American Pie) and many others. BP is a really really nice gentlemen from what he says. Native FW'ian of course.

Well, it was a show alright. I had no idea who BB was, so when the tix were handed to me, I was at a loss (SHOCKER) to exactly what was in store for the night. Apparently, she is a well known FW native who sang BROADWAY stuff, and the crowd appeared to be a BROADWAY loving kinda crowd. Was not a packed house, but with football season in prime swing, not too uncommon. (Not like you can't tailgate for BASS HALL performances, or not???) But the show was very exciting, when my eyes stayed awake, long happening night over in Dallas' Maple and Wolf area (I know, tar and feather me now), but when you drive home at about 4am and then roll out of bed (2 nights in a row) by 8am, a Betty Buckley showtuneish/broadway show is just gonna take you the full 12 rounds for the night. The show was definitely all about her with the anectdotal referencing to her past success, her BRAND, who she "dated" at TCU and she might as well have named her latest album 'SHAMELESS PLUGS', because she was playing that like a broken record. BTW, it is set to debut in time for the holiday season. I thought I heard her mentioning that some old childhood recordings from a local studio were "unearthed" and set to collaborate with her new CD recordings. I guess one could look it up.

Now the show REALLY took off when her mom appeared on stage, bless her heart. Momma Betty Bob"BEBO" Buckley joined her on stage for her longtime childhood favorite standard growing up, 'It Had to Be YOU'. I gave her 5 stars for STEALIN the SHOW, as BB would jokingly point out. Truly was the highlight of the night and a memorable first, that I know of, for Bass Hall. Her bandmates were just incredible and they added an extra layer of the entertainment cake, with that solo magic throughout the night. Wonderful horn and piano play kept the golden age crowd on their feet.

All in all it was great to have a chance to see her and experience her range and dedication to music. Somewhere within I fealt quite honored to see her on stage, even though I had no idea that half of those songs my mother used to sing in the old house, were Betty Buckley tunes. I thought they were just nice songs to relax and listen to. Spectacular event and I hope she makes a swift return to her hometown.

Thanks, safly, for the review. I heard from others as well that the show was pretty good. I'm a fan, of course (not just because she's from FW). I saw her perform many times when I was living in New York City in the 80's and 90's and always thought she was terrific. She's quite popular up there among the theater folks. Her rocket to Broadway stardom was "Cats" where she immortalized the song "Memory" and won a Tony for her performance as one of the cats. Anyway, I think she lives on a ranch near Fort Worth these days and has become a big supporter of the local arts scene...

When she started the song 'Memory' (if that is the same version), the crowd ERUPTED in a monstrous applause, I think the entire orchestra had to hold their play for awhile. The crowd certainly loved her and she is quite the showwoman. Like I said before, an honor to have seen her LIVE. Never saw the CATS, but Broadway is not my thing. Rather Opera.

How is plugging your album at your own concert "shameless"?

I'm sure most people who paid for tix didn't ask for commercials???

And when you do it for about 4 or 5 times throughout the show, it's like alright already another song please.

I would have had an announcer push the product onstage before the real show began, or place a slip in the program.

If you were there, you would know how awkward it looks when someone of here stature has to promote her own upcoming CD over and over and over again. There was actually a moment where she introduced a song that had a producer in it that also is involved with the new CD by SONY and BMG, which is coming out this FALL and blah blah blah. To me, that is when the show would start to meltdown. Not so much where she couldn't hit those certain notes in certain standards. But hey, she's Betty Buckley and she obviously had a career.

A little update info....


LOCAL FILM FESTIVAL LINES UP CELEBRITIES, GREAT FILMS FOR NOVEMBER EVENT

FORT WORTH, Texas (Oct. 29, 2007) – Stars are aligning—literally—for the Lone Star International Film Festival, Nov. 7-11. Below is a list of developments, attending celebrities, and films the festival announced this month. More information and schedules can be found at www.lsiff.com.

Attending Celebrities:
• Bill Paxton, Fort Worth native, celebrated actor/director and chair of the festival’s advisory board, will host a showcase of his films.
• Martin Sheen will accept the Lone Star Film Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award at Sunday’s awards brunch.
• T Bone Burnett, also a Fort Worth native and a Grammy award-winning producer, has accepted a position as chair of the Lone Star Film Society’s honorary board and will attend the festival.
• Carolyn Pfeiffer will receive the society’s Pioneer Award and host screenings and panels about Burnt Orange and the University of Texas Film Institute.
• Robert Rodriguez will receive the society’s Maverick Award and screen a new version of “Roadracers.” He will also perform at one of the festival parties with his band, The Rumblers, featuring Johnny Reno.
• Steve-O, from “Jackass” and “Wild Boyz,” has confirmed his attendance along with associates Wee Man Acuna and Rick Kosick.
• Fred Roos, legendary producer, will be on hand at the viewing of “Expired,” which stars Jason Patric and Samantha Morton. Roos’ producing partner on the film Jeff Coulter and the director Cecelia Miniucchi are also expected to attend.
• Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit front man) will attend the screening of his directorial debut, “The Education of Charlie Banks.”
• Keith Carradine will attend screenings of “The Moderns” and “Elvis and Anabelle.” He plays characters in both of the films.
• Will Geiger, director of “Elvis and Anabelle” is expected to attend.
• Robert M. Young, director of the visually innovative “Human Error” is expected to attend with co-stars of the film Xander Berkeley and Sarah Clarke.

• Jason Sinclair Long, an ex-Blue Man Group member and a playwright, will be on hand for the world premier of his first feature, “Cul de Sac.”
• Julio Cedillo, Fort Worth native and star of “The Three Burials of Melquiades,” will host a series of Hispanic-themed films at the Rose Marine Theater during the festival.
• Paul Soter, a member of Broken Lizard Comedy Group, is expected to attend with his debut directorial effort “Watching the Detectives,” starring Lucy Liu.
• Orian Williams, producer of “Control.”
• Kadeem Hardison will attend the “Cassidy Kids” screening and the Burnt Orange/University of Texas Film Institute panel discussion.
• Steve Berra, director of “The Good Life,” starring Harry Dean Stanton, Chris Klein, Zooey Deschanel, and Bill Paxton.
• Brent Hanley, writer of “Frailty,” will attend the screening of his directorial debut short film, “Day 73 with Sarah.”
• The Dixie Hummingbirds, a Grammy award-winning gospel music group will perform at the awards brunch on Sunday, Nov. 11. A documentary about the group will be screened at the festival.
• Laura Dunn, director of “The Unforseen.”

Confirmed films:
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
The Walker
Expired
Watching the Detectives
The Education of Charlie Banks
Control
The Unforeseen
Human Error
The Good Life
The Quiet
National Lampoon’s Homoerectus
The Cassidy Kids
Kabluey
Elvis and Anabelle
Sensation of Sight
The Dixie Hummingbirds
Cthulhu
Otis Redding: Dreams to Remember
America Unchained
Good Riddance
Signos
Shut Up and Ride
Float
Nanking
Darius Goes West
Grace is Gone
Taxidermia
Veer Saara

Mumblecore Sidebar:
Quietly on By
LOL
Quiet City
Orphans
Low and Behold
Dear Pillow
Texas Mumblecore Shorts

Fort Worth Sister Cities Film Series:
Vier Minuten, from Germany
Hände Weg Von Mississippi, from Germany
El Violin, from Mexico
Mio Fratello E Figlio Unico, from Italy
Horumaika, from Japan
Hana Yori Mo Naho, from Japan
Feher Tenyer, from Hungary
Berbagi Suami, from Indonesia
Lola Rennt, from Germany


About the Lone Star Film Society
The Lone Star Film Society exists to preserve and present the art of the moving image and examine its influence on world culture. LSFS is a 501© 3 nonprofit corporation, dedicated to cultivating an appreciation of the visual arts, engender visual literacy, support community efforts regarding film and build recognition for Fort Worth as an International Film Festival destination. For more information about upcoming summer events, visit www.lonestarfilmsociety.com.

HARRY DEAN STANTON!

"Well you know Duckie, you can't always make someone fall in love. It just happens." - Jack Walsh

CLASSIC!

A viewer's guide to the film festival
By Christopher Kelly
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Opening night film

Kabluey (7:30 p.m. Wednesday, AMC Palace)

This indie comedy, written and directed by Galveston native Scott Prendergast and shot in and near Austin, tells the story of a loser 30-something named Salman (Prendergast), who moves in with his sister-in-law (Lisa Kudrow) and her obnoxious little kids, and then goes to work as the corporate mascot for a dying Internet company. It's certainly an intriguing debut effort, especially for the way Prendergast attempts to tackle such serious real-world issues as the Iraq war and the topsy-turvy U.S. economy. (It helps that he's also a very likable actor.) If only the characters behaved like actual human beings instead of contrived oddballs who have accidentally wandered off the set of Napoleon Dynamite.

Buzz titles Three movies that have made noise on the festival circuit

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (7:45 p.m. Thursday, AMC Palace)

Critics have lauded this latest thriller by 83-year-old director Sidney Lumet (Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon) as one of his greatest efforts. Well, it's not that good, but it's definitely worth a look. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke play brothers who decide to knock over their parents' small jewelry store, with predictably disastrous consequences. The plot is often implausible, and Hoffman and Hawke are perhaps the least believable siblings since Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in Twins. Still, Lumet directs the twisty proceedings with the ferocity and determination of a man one-quarter his age.

The Education of Charlie Banks (8 p.m. Friday, AMC Palace)

Wonders never cease: For his directorial debut, Limp Bizkit lead singer Fred Durst has served up a coming-of-age drama set in the 1980s, about a young man from New York City (Roger Dodger's Jesse Eisenberg) trying to make his way at an upstate New York liberal-arts college. Even more surprising: The film, which premiered this year at the Tribeca Film Festival, has earned very strong reviews.

The Walker (9:30 p.m. Saturday, AMC Sundance)

This new drama from Paul Schrader (American Gigolo, Auto Focus) finds the director once again exploring his pet obsessions: sex, money and class envy in contemporary America. Woody Harrelson plays a gay man who earns his living as a "walker" -- an exceedingly proper gentleman who escorts society types to high-class events in Washington, D.C. The supporting cast includes Lauren Bacall, Kristin Scott Thomas and Lily Tomlin. The film received mixed reviews at the Toronto Film Festival, but even midlevel Schrader films are usually fascinating.

Offbeat fare Five films worth taking a chance on

In a festival filled with unheralded movies, it's often best to just close your eyes, wander into a theater and hope for the best. But if you need a bit more guidance than that, here are the titles that have most piqued my interest.

Taxidermia (10:15 p.m. Friday, AMC Sundance)

The cause celebre at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, Gyorgy Palfi's surreal fantasy is said to be heavily inspired by the works of David Lynch.

Ex Drummer (11:55 p.m. Friday, AMC Palace)

This Belgian film follows a well-known writer who becomes the drummer in a newly formed punk rock band; it was well-received in September at the Toronto Film Festival.

The Ballad of Esequiel Hernandez (2:30 p.m. Saturday, Rose Marine Theater)

Tommy Lee Jones narrates this documentary about an 18-year-old American man who was slain on the U.S.-Mexico border by a U.S. Marine in 1997. The film will be preceded by Jones' 2005 directorial effort, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, which was partly based on the Hernandez tragedy.

Watching the Detectives (9 p.m. Saturday, AMC Palace)

The terrific Irish actor Cillian Murphy (Red Eye) plays a film-noir buff who becomes involves with a mysterious woman (Lucy Liu) in this screwball comedy.

The Dixie Hummingbirds (1:30 p.m. Sunday, AMC Palace)

This documentary follows the famed gospel quartet as it tries to introduce its music to a younger generation; this version is a work-in-progress that hasn't screened anywhere else.

Sister Cities sidebar An intriguing international smorgasbord

When the Lone Star International Film Festival was first announced last year, the original plan was that it would be a joint operation with Fort Worth Sister Cities International. Sister Cities' role has been somewhat diminished, but the organization is still taking part by presenting a "sidebar" program of eight feature films, from six of the seven Sister Cities' home countries.

The two movies most deserving of your attention: My Brother Is an Only Child (8:30 p.m. Friday, AMC Palace), an Italian film that played at this year's Cannes and Toronto film festivals, and that is written by the team behind the brilliant The Best of Youth; and Four Minutes (8:30 p.m. Saturday, AMC Palace), a drama set at a women's penitentiary that won the best picture prize at this year's German Film Awards.

Mumblecore The future of cinema or just really annoying nonsense?

"Mumblecore" is a label that's been applied to a group of super low-budget indie films, often shot in black-and-white, that invariably follow the obsessive neuroses of directionless 20-something males. Some critics are suggesting that the directors behind these films, including Andrew Bujalski (Funny Ha Ha) and Joe Swanberg (Hannah Takes the Stairs), are worthy successors to John Cassavetes and Jim Jarmusch. The Lone Star festival presents a selection of five "mumblecore" titles that should allow you to decide for yourself if this is a major cinematic movement -- or just a whole lot of navel gazing.

The most notable titles are Zack Godshall's Low and Behold (5:30 p.m. Nov. 11, Four Day Weekend Theater), a drama set in post-Katrina New Orleans that premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Swanberg's LOL (7:30 p.m. Nov. 11, Four Day Weekend Theater), about three male friends struggling to reconcile their online fantasies with real-life relationships. On Saturday, Austin-based filmmaker Bryan Poyser will also moderate a panel on the Mumblecore trend. (12:30 p.m., UTA Fort Worth Center)

Cool conversations Panel discussions to check out

Jackass: The Panel (4:30 p.m. Saturday, Fort Worth Public Library)

For those of us who regard Jackass as the most fascinating, disturbing and flat-out hilarious social phenomenon of the last decade, this panel discussion looks to be a highlight of the weekend. The producer Jeff Tremaine will join with cast members Wee Man Acuna, Rick Kosick and (tentatively) Steve-O to discuss the success of the MTV show and the subsequent movies. Local artist Sarah Green, who has made paintings of the Jackass crew, will moderate.

Burnt Orange

Burnt Orange is a unique experiment that uses University of Texas-Austin film students to help produce and market independent films. In addition to screening all four of Burnt Orange's productions thus far, the Lone Star festival also will host two panels focusing on the company. The first (4 p.m. Friday, Texas Christian University) will feature the three principals of Burnt Orange: Carolyn Pfeiffer, Sam Marshall and Tom Schatz. The second (noon Saturday, UTA Fort Worth Center) will feature a group of filmmakers and actors -- including Adam Rifkin, Kadeem Hardison and Keith Carradine -- who have worked on Burnt Orange films.

Star wattage Celebrities present their own movies

Martin Sheen

The recipient of the festival's Lifetime Achievement Award, to be presented at an awards brunch on Sunday morning, Sheen will also present three of his films. It's a pleasingly wide-ranging selection, too: The Terrence Malick classic Badlands (1:45 p.m. Nov. 11, AMC Palace), which first introduced Sheen to the world; the underrated Da (4:15 p.m. Nov. 11, AMC Palace), a touching drama about a playwright who travels to Ireland to bury his father; and the recent Talk to Me (6:30 p.m. Nov. 11, AMC Palace), a biopic in which Sheen co-stars with Don Cheadle, who plays 1960s disc jockey Petey Greene.

Bill Paxton

What Fort Worth-centered film festival would possibly be complete without an appearance from native son Paxton? The Big Love star -- who is also doubling as the chairman of the festival's advisory board -- will present three of his films. Some of us would quibble with the choices here, including Paxton's ho-hum directorial debut, Frailty (9:50 p.m. Thursday, AMC Sundance) and the meandering gypsy drama Traveller (1:30 p.m. Thursday, AMC Palace), but Paxton certainly deserves a round of applause for all the behind-the-scenes effort he's undertaken to make this festival happen.

Robert Rodriguez

If you've never heard of the Rodriguez biker thriller Roadracers, you're probably not alone: The Austin-based director made it for Showtime shortly after his success with El Mariachi. He's coming to Fort Worth with a newly revised edition, which he'll present at a Saturday midnight screening at the AMC Palace. At the Sunday awards brunch, he'll also receive the festival's "Lone Star Maverick Award."

Musical events

Denton-based, Grammy-winning polka rockers Brave Combo will provide entertainment for Wednesday's opening night party (9:30 p.m., McDavid Studio), while Austin's funk-soul-pop collective Mingo Fishtrap anchors Saturday's "Rock the Boat" shindig (7 p.m., 8.0 restaurant). "Lone Star Maverick Award" recipient Robert Rodriguez will strap on a guitar to perform with the Rumblers, featuring Johnny Reno and some "special guests" Saturday night (10 p.m., Club Embargo); one of Fort Worth's most exciting, ambitious bands, the Theater Fire, closes out the festival Nov. 11 (8 p.m., McDavid Studio).

Closing night film

Grace Is Gone (7 p.m. Nov. 11, AMC Palace)

Director James C. Strouse's Iraq war-related drama was one of the most lauded titles at this year's Sundance Film Festival, and star John Cusack is being pushed aggressively by the Weinstein Co. for a Best Actor Oscar nomination. Take all of that advance hype with a grain of salt. Following a working class father who struggles to tell his two young daughters that their mother has been killed in combat in Iraq, Grace Is Gone has noble intentions, but not much more. The story quickly turns repetitive and lugubrious, and Cusack's performance comes across as mannered and overly showy. Still, you might want to catch what could be one of the year's more talked-about indies more than a month before it hits the multiplex.

Star-Telegram pop music critic Preston Jones contributed to this report.

Lone Star International Film Festival

Wednesday through Nov. 11

The venues

(All are in Fort Worth.)

AMC Palace (220 E. Third St.)

AMC Sundance Square (304 Houston St.)

Four Day Weekend Theater (312 Houston St.)

UTA Fort Worth Center (1401 Jones St.)

Rose Marine Theater (1440 N. Main St.)

J.M. Moudy building (Texas Christian University campus)

Get tickets

Passes and tickets are available at individual theaters and online at www.lsiff.com.

Five Day All Access Pass, includes all screenings, panels and parties: $295, $265 for students, seniors, Lone Star Film Society members

One Day All Access Pass, includes all screenings, panels and parties: $75, $65 for students, seniors, film society members

Five Day Movies and Panels Only Pass $175, $155 for students, seniors, film society members

Individual tickets: $8; $6, students, seniors, film society members

Centerpiece screenings: $12, $10 for students, seniors, film society members

Panels: $10; $8 for students, seniors, film society members

Online:www.lsiff.com for complete schedule

Did anyone go to any of last night's film fest events? Everything went pretty well and the party was huge!

No. Unfortunately not. There are more important things underway, such as the Distr. 9 RUN OFF elections to get cranking. AGAIN!

I caught a clip of that 'Talk to Me' movie about 4 months ago when I was watching a Charlie Rose Show interview with Cheadle. Sounds very interesting and historical, well biopic was used here.

Does anyone know if the film 'The Perfect Game' will be shown? It's about the ONLY perfect game ever pitched in a LL World Series championship game. Also gives accounts about the hard inspiring journey of the team from Mexico to get to Williamsport and win it ALL. Becoming the first non US team to win the LLWS. It stars fellow Texan and San Antonio native, Bruce McGill BMCGill IMDB (Animal House, Silkwood, Wildcats, L of Bagger Vance, Miami Vice to name a few.)

IMDB says it is in post production.

If you see Bruce, I'll give you $5 for an autographed 8.5 x 11 b/w glossy. Just his autograph and maybe a "Howdy" on it.

Lots of coverage will be appearing on http://westandclear.com . Pete G. got shots of Bill Paxton and Pete W. did a quick interview with David Newsom.

I thought this was interesting...

Posted on Fri, Dec. 21, 2007
Director's contract is not renewed



By Christopher Kelly
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
The executive committee of the board of directors of the Lone Star Film Society, the governing body of the Lone Star International Film Festival, has decided not to renew the contract of Tom Huckabee, the festival's artistic director. The move Wednesday came as a surprise because the inaugural edition of the festival in November was considered a success.
Huckabee also has close ties to actor Bill Paxton, who was a major driving force behind fundraising efforts for this year's event and who serves as the chairman of the festival's advisory board.

In an interview Thursday, board Chairman Johnny Langdon praised Huckabee's efforts, but emphasized that his contract was only for this year's festival and that there had never been any guarantee that it would be renewed. Langdon's comments suggest that the board might not have been happy with the somewhat chaotic run-up to this year's event. The festival featured little advance promotion, and the program wasn't announced until a week before opening night.

"Tom did a great job," Langdon said. "Bill Paxton did a great job helping us. But next year, we're going to get our act together more and a lot sooner. It's not fair to ask anyone to work under the circumstances they were asked to work under this year."

Langdon said that the board is focused on hiring an executive director for the society, and that the artistic director position will probably not be filled until sometime in the new year. He added that he hopes Huckabee will stay on in an advisory or consulting role.

A call to Huckabee was not returned.

Nice article on Betty:

http://fwweekly.com/...sp?article=6633

What the...???
Actor Paxton cuts his ties to film festival
By CHRISTOPHER KELLYStar-Telegram Staff Writer

Therese Moncrief
FORT WORTH -- The Lone Star International Film Festival is in chaos as fallout continues from the unexpected firing of artistic director Tom Huckabee in December.

In response to the firing, actor Bill Paxton, chairman of the festival's advisory board, has withdrawn his support for the event.

In January, Paxton, star of HBO's Big Love, sent a letter to the board of the Lone Star Film Society, the festival's governing body, severing his ties and forbidding the use of his name or likeness in promotions of the festival.

"By firing Tom, they took a mountain of goodwill and turned it into a slag heap," Paxton told the Star-Telegram this week.

Paxton, a Fort Worth native, was a ubiquitous presence during the inaugural four-day festival in November.

Several of the festival's directors have recently resigned, including Bass Hall Managing Director Paul Beard and Fort Worth arts patron Kelly Greenwell, Paxton's ex-wife.

"I didn't know [the firing] was going to happen until a day before, and I tried to talk to everyone on the executive board about not" firing Huckabee, Greenwell said.

"Tom and Bill were two of the best things the film festival had going for it. And even though [the board] had their reasons, they went at it at a very rash pace."

Therese Moncrief, president of the festival board's executive committee, acknowledged that the board has received Paxton's letter. A formal response is being drafted, she said.

"I'm afraid that there's been so much misunderstanding, but we really hope that with more conversation with Bill, there will be more understanding about ... what happened and how we can move forward," she said.

The festival board still wants Paxton to be closely involved, she said.

"He is wonderful, he is absolutely phenomenal, and he's a great son of Fort Worth," she said.

The short life of the Lone Star Film Festival has been an ongoing soap opera.

After the inaugural festival was announced in 2006 with a splashy news conference featuring actresses Janine Turner and Phylicia Rashad, the society struggled throughout 2007 to secure funding for the event. Then-Executive Director Darla Robinson was fired early last year and no replacement was named. (Robinson works for the Star-Telegram.)

Huckabee, a childhood friend and longtime creative partner of Paxton's, was brought aboard as artistic director in April, signing a one-year contract.

Paxton was integral to raising money for the 2007 festival and lured Hollywood celebrities to town, including director Robert Rodriguez and musician-actor Harry Dean Stanton.

Despite the expected first-year hiccups, a number of films played to sold-out audiences, and the festival's awards brunch Nov. 9 was star-studded, featuring the likes of Martin Sheen and Keith Carradine, as well as an impromptu musical performance by Stanton.

In late December, however, Huckabee was unexpectedly dismissed by the festival board's executive committee, which is headed by J.E.L. Management Corp. President John Langdon. At the time, Langdon told the Star-Telegram that Huckabee had not been fired, only that his contract was not being renewed.

Huckabee's contract, however, was supposed to extend through mid-April.

On Thursday, Moncrief reiterated Langdon's assertion that Huckabee had not been fired and said he is being paid for the rest of his contract.

Langdon did not return a phone message left Tuesday. According to Moncrief, he is out of the country.

Huckabee declined to comment Wednesday, citing a nondisclosure clause in his contract. He did confirm that his final day of work for the festival was Jan. 29.

Paxton said that no one on the festival board's executive committee has properly explained to him why Huckabee was let go.

"I had a broad vision for this festival, and so did Tom, and to cut us off at the knees like this ... well, I'm just confounded," Paxton said.

The controversy casts doubt on whether the festival can successfully plan its second edition, scheduled for November, and raise money for it. Many observers think that Paxton's ambassadorial role was crucial to 2007's success.

Moncrief insists that festival organizers will carry on.

Others are more skeptical. "I think it's going very difficult for them to continue forward with the festival now, because their actions upset a lot of people," Greenwell said.

"I think it's going to be next to impossible," said former board member Roger Smith, who also resigned in recent weeks.

Paxton hopes to find a silver lining to the storm clouds. "I still would like to be part of a Fort Worth-based film festival, and perhaps another opportunity will come along," he said.

"But for something to go forward, there's going to have to be some changes with this setup. I can't support this group."

Christopher Kelly is the Star-Telegram film critic. 817-390-7032
cmkelly@star-telegram.com

Nice story, Chris Kelly, but...err, welcome to a month ago.

We've been saying for a while now that firing Huckabee was a mistake. This is just more evidence of that.