by Courtenay Nearburg

There was no signature red carpet, no glittering stars emerging from shadowy limos in front of the theater. Well, there was some glitter, but that was mostly to celebrate the eve of Halloween, and the crowd gathered out front of the Alamo Draughthouse for the Cinemakers Coop showcase, dubbed Attack of the Fifty-Foot Reel, was definitely in the spooky spirit. The line at the box office snaked its way around the block, for what was a sold out show for local Super 8 filmmakers who contributed works for the evening's entertainment.

It's been a banner first year for the Cinemakers Coop, a well-organized group of "local filmmakers and loco film lovers," who have come together in the Capital City to put Austin on the map as one of the best places in the world to start from scratch and make something of it, hopefully a masterpiece. As the founder Barna Kantor puts it, Austin is already known internationally as a hotbed of dynamic independent filmmakers, and from the looks of the twenty-two short films presented on Thursday night, that ain't no lie.

The Cinemakers Coop is not a networking group, where you go to meet people and be seen. These folks are serious, about the ART of filmmaking, and about making the resources available to any and all interested in trying their hand at one of the most competitive industries in the world. "We are dedicated to inspiring and supporting small-guage film and video projects" reads the program for the Attack of the Fifty Foot Reel. One might ask, why just small-guage? Well, when an aspiring filmmaker doesn't have the cash to attend an expensive film school, or buy equipment for their project, what resources are available to him or her? In Austin, there's the Cinemakers Coop.

For a measly twenty dollars for a one-year membership, the Coop will be happy to lend you a camera, film, and if you finish your project in a timely manner, they will even develop your film for you. No more excuses. It's up to you to have an idea. But if you don't like your first idea, well then, the Coop even offers some suggestions. Twice yearly, once at Halloween, and once at Valentine's Day, the Coop presents works created by its members around these holiday themes. Who can't stand a bit of campy horror on the night before Halloween, or rejects a dose of dippy love stories around Valentine's Day? To inspire their membership, plus give them a well-needed deadline for completion of their projects, the Coop offers these showcases, along with month-to-month projects with specific themes that are taken on by volunteers at their monthly meetings. Kantor notes that people who don't plan to pick up a camera pretty soon don't stick around the Coop much. Believe me, when you attend one of these meetings and get to watch some of the members' projects, it's very hard not to get caught up in the filmmaking fever. They're that good.

For those who are illiterate when it comes to the terms of filmmaking, Super 8 (8 millimeter) is a different kind of film than the kind they use for big-budget pictures. It's only slightly smaller than 16 millimeter, the stuff the big guys use, and even though the resolution is not quite as good on the screen, the quality is still very good, and a heck of a lot more affordable than 16mm. Super 8 cameras are hand-held portable cordless tools that allow the filmmaker a lot of freedom of movement and efficiency, and the final product has a pleasing grainy quality recognized often by the layman in "artsy" films. Super 8 has resurfaced as a desireable medium for filmmakers, with Super 8 festivals springing up around the country, and sightings in major motion pictures by such notable artists as Austin's own Richard Linklater (remember the day trippers scene at the end of Slacker?) and most recently, spliced into Oliver Stone's U-Turn. The reason the Cinemakers Coop favors Super 8? It's cheap, quick and cool.

The idea is to have working filmmakers, not aspiring filmmakers who are spending all their time working to save the money to get access to a 16mm camera and film, not to mention processing. And Kantor points out that the Coop encourages folks to do their editing in-camera. How do you do that? You plan every shot very carefully before you film, so that the story goes onto the film in chronological order, without any rearranging necessary. Most films shoot scenes out of order and therefore, out of context. In-camera editing forces the creator to know what he or she wants before they pick up the camera. When they put it down, they have a finished product.

Some of the on-going projects available to filmmakers joining the Coop are the "Self-Portrait," which is just as it sounds, where the filmmaker turns the camera on him/herself and lets it fly; the "12 Houses," inspired by the Zodiac, where a new filmmaker volunteers each month to complete a 3-minute short film (the average length of Coop projects) on that month and the zodiacal symbol corresponding to it; and the "Exquisite Corpse," a project similar to a visual run-on sentence, in that every month, someone finishes a story on film, and the next volunteer is allowed to view only the last few minutes of the story, then must incorporate what he or she sees into their piece. No one sees the end result until the end of the year's period, when the Coop will present the completed "Corpse" all together. If the Attack of the Fifty-Foot Reel is any indication of what these guys can do, then I can't wait to see their "Exquisite Corpse."

The Coop already houses some remarkable talent, and has been extremely cooperative (go figure) with the other film organizations working in Austin. Kantor is quick to point out that he couldn't have organized the Coop without the help of his best friend, Kris DeForest, a talented filmmaker herself, and also the Community Liaison for the Austin Film Society, the extremely active umbrella group formed by Linklater to provide an outlet for resource sharing, networking and screenings to the Austin film community. Kantor praises in*situ, the group now best known for bringing noted avant-garde filmmakers Stan Brakhage and this past weekend, Kenneth Anger, to Austin for screenings and lectures.

The local festivals are a great help in getting people excited about the emerging film industry in Austin, as it was hard not to notice last month with the Heart of Film Festival submerging our little hamlet in the deeper waters of national attention by bringing Oliver Stone and Dennis Hopper. But Kantor says all the hype is not really helpful to his group of struggling artists. It's great that the world is beginning to notice, but how does that kind of attention filter down to the poor aspiring Austin filmmaker? Well, it just doesn't, really, and Kantor says the benefits of the University of Texas' CinemaTexas festival were much greater for his group than the hoopla of Heart of Film. CinemaTexas features short works and features by independents and most importantly, showcases Super 8 and the works of the Cinemakers Coop. Kantor would like to see South by Southwest and Heart of Film make a special effort to include the works of local filmmakers, whether they are Coop members or not. That's how the connections are made.

Kantor is also quick to mention some other fantastic showcases available to the Austin public, where they might get a glimpse of something truly inspirational, or just downright bizarre. Every Monday at the Ritz Lounge (the hippest movie theater in town), the Funhouse Cinema presents double features on different themes, ranging from the Endless Summer to Industrialand and Attack from Mars. This is a great opportunity to catch some fabulous cult classics on a (moderately) big screen with some other film freaks, for only four dollars. And then there's the free Tuesday night flick at the Texas Union theater, where some of the lesser-known-but-just-as-great features of filmmaking giants are regularly shown. And they're thinking about closing the Union Theater. Put a stop to it! Make a fuss! It's your town!

For a group that just came together in 1996, the Cinemakers Coop is making a name for itself pretty quickly. Kantor and another member traveled to Athens, Georgia (Austin's smaller twin, they say) to check out the operation of a similar cooperative group there known as Flicker. They were shocked to find that the Cinemakers Coop's reputation had proceeded them, and that they were much more organized than this group, which is older. Some say the time for an Austin Super 8 festival has come. Kantor is hesitant to commit to that right now, because the Coop's plate is so full currently with the projects they have already. But he's not saying no. He's just saying, hold on. There's definitely more to come. Let the credits roll...

For more information on the Cinemakers Cooperative, call (512) 236-8877, or (512) 469-0114.