When one thinks of B-movie icon Roger Corman's disciples, big names spring to mind: Coppola and Scorsese come first, followed by genre directors like Jack Hill. One name that's not so immediate is Monte Hellman, but for cinéastes, it's nearly as important. Hellman's films are often concerned with obsession, ambiguity, and genre in a manner that manages to be simultaneously intriguing, fairly abstract and avant-garde. ...

The Chronicle's Virginia Wood and a collection of Austin's favorite restaurants join forces this Sunday to support Chronicle columnist Stephen Moser in his battle with prostate cancer at the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar. ...

The final preliminary round of the Austin Air Guitar Championship is taking place this Tuesday at the Alama Drafthouse. This is the last opportunity for participants to compete for a spot in the finals, wherein a representative of Austin will be chosen to compete in the National Championship in New York. The winner at New York moves on to compete in the World Championship in Finland—and, presumably, to enjoy an elevated social status for his or her remaining days on Earth (air guitar champions don’t believe in the afterlife). We attended the penultimate preliminary round of the Air Guitar Championship at the Alamo Ritz last month; we share the experience after the jump....

Hard drinkers rejoice! After serving it's audiences measly draft brew, wine and 5-beer buckets for the last 10 years, The Alamo Drafthouse at The Ritz has finally obtained a TABC liquor license (which has been serving Austin for the last 70 years) and will be offering up a plethora of newly-crafted beverages to enhance Austin's movie experience!...

One of the ten million things I love about Austin is how well this town lends itself to the creative class—those of use dreamers who eschew cubicle jobs and want to figure how to put matzoh on the table through some fun, interesting endeavor that pays (I’m trying hard to avoid the word “work” here). It’s precisely because Austin embraces this lifestyle that I’ve been able to support my writing habit through putting on camps and shows and performing non-traditional weddings and working all sorts of nutty gigs. And oh, how I admire my creative class cohorts. Back around 2002, I met David Ansel at a dinner party thrown by Lisa Kaselak. David was just starting a business, inspired by a trip he took to Real de Catorce (a Mexican village I would one day come to count on for my annual escape-Christmas plot). David’s business, the Soup Peddler, involved making good, homemade soup and delivering it to people’s homes. By bicycle....

Music Mondays at the Drafthouse is traveling to weird intergalactic territories with this week’s offering Space is the Place starring jazz great Sun Ra. ...

Music is seen as a man's world. Whether it's heavy metal, mainstream rap music or today's MTV pop, today's entertainment industry is often accused of being fueled by testosterone and sexism. This leaves little room for women in the industry to create and be heard, let alone be taken seriously in a society that seems to favor male musicians over female musicians....

While not always the case, most documentary filmmakers, as invested as they may become in their subjects, try to maintain a journalistic distance. We can assume that isn’t the case for The Pied Piper of Hutzovina, a film by Pavla Fleishcer about Gogol Bordello lead singer Eugene Hutz. In fact, the impetus for making the film was largely due to the fact that Fleischer fell in love with Hutz, and it charts a 2004 visit to Eastern Europe they made together. Hutz, a New Yorker who can chart his Gypsy lineage to his grandmother, travels across the Ukraine to share his music with family, friends, and strangers, and to rediscover his roots. ...

Our sister sites in NYC, San Francisco, and Chicago may have the culinary advantage of established food scene braggin' rights, but during the long weekend of April 10-13, the Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival returns for its 23rd year, showcasing Central Texas' unique culinary points of distinction (with modern mixology, gourmet hangover breakfasts, and Austinist's most important gastronomic matter - the ubiquitous search for the perfect taco - at the head of the line.)...

Since 2001, the Rock 'n' Roll camp for girls based in Portland has instructed young women on the finer points of learning to play instruments and rocking out, while also helping to give their students a positive self-image and can-do attitude. ...

In Intimidad, documentarians Ashley Sabin and David Redmon follow the lives of Cecy and Camilo, a young couple living in Reynosa, Mexico. Cecy and Camilo both work for minimum wage in maquiladoras, trying to save money to buy land, build themselves a house, and bring their daughter Loida back to live with them....

If you were there to see the many downright amazing clips featured in “You’re Looking at Country,” a Music Mondays presentation at the Drafthouse a few weeks ago hosted by Dallas Wayne, among live performances by Faron Young, Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn and more was The Man in Black himself, Johnny Cash, pickin’ his big hit “Get Rhythm.” ...

Last Saturday, actor Will Ferrell made a quick stop in Austin during a press tour for his new film Semi-Pro. He also attended a sneak preview of the film and did a Q&A session at the Alamo Drafthouse, where attendees were required to dress in 70's basketball attire for admission - you can see the Drafthouse "team photo" here. Austinist's Tom Thornton and Gordon And The Whale's Chase Whale spoke briefly to Ferrell during the media day....

When Thelonious Monk passed away in 1982, his status as an innovator and one of the leading figures in modern jazz music was well established. A pianist who cut his first recording in 1944, Monk went on to work with fantastic musicians over his remarkable career including Sonny Rollins (tenor sax), Art Blakey (drums), Miles Davis (trumpet), John Coltrane (tenor sax) and many others. An unusual and versatile performer, Monk’s personal behavior was often just as spontaneous, and his relationships with others, including his wife and child, were as challenging as some of his best music. ...

With incredibly varied subject matter, there is sure to be an Oscar nominated film that you really love, that is if you don't fawn over every single one. And, come on, if you hate any of the films, the next picture will start in about 20 minutes, at the most....

For the first time in over a year, erstwhile Sinus Show members Owen Egerton, John Erler and Joe Parsons are back together, skewering bad films like some kind of movie mocking Voltron. And this time, they're taking dead aim at Robert Zemeckis' goofy sci-fi adventure Back to the Future....

Wednesday at the Drafthouse Downtown, Japanese documentary filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda will be on hand to introduce his documentary, Campaign (Senkyo), a fine look at campaign ethics, the dirt of politicking (we love when that's a verb) and contemporary Japanese culture in general....

This week’s installment of Music Mondays at the Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz is all country, all the way. You’re Looking at Country, a film that shares the name of a Loretta Lynn song, is a look back on that golden age of country and western music when George Jones, Johnny Cash, and their ilk ruled the airwaves and parlayed their fame into television spots and even shows. Dolly Parton, one of SXSW’s most anticipated performers, also makes appearances in the film, as does Lynn and many, many more....

Photo by chaseshumwaydotcom on FlickrDogfish Head, the Delaware-based independent brewery whose name you might recognize from those tasty craft beers lining the shelves of finer booze purveyors, will be bringing their third-annual Off-Centered Film Festival to the Alamo Drafthouse this April. The marriage of a movie-loving brewery and a beer-loving theater is plenty serendipitous in its own right, BUT! It's also a grand opportunity for you, Aspiring Filmmaker: Dogfish Head will be giving away a......

While a great deal of lip service is paid to “Keeping Austin Weird,” how did Austin manage to get so weird, anyway, and how far have we strayed from that great flashpoint of weirdness, the sixties? This special installment of Music Mondays at the Alamo Drafthouse will answer all this and more, with a presentation of the film Dirt Road to Psychedelia by director Scott Conn....

Truthfully, every week is shark week in our hearts and minds, but this week brings with it a very special engagement of the eco-mentary Sharkwater, which follows the often dangerous, sometimes illegal, but always passionate pursuit of two men to save our fine finned friends of the big blue sea from imminent destruction at the hands of careless humans....

Think a giant, disembodied penis coming out of the sky to crush a frantic little animated cinnamon bun is funny? If you said "no", quit trying to act all genteel and get over to the Alamo Downtown for this year's edition of Spike and Mike's Sick & Twisted animation fest....

On Thursday night, the Austin Film Festival will make you wonder what you would do for a joy ride as they bring us Blood Car, one of the surprise hits of the 2007 fest. Based in the not-so-distant future, where gas prices are over $30 a gallon and everyone's new mode of transportation involves Rollerblades, vegan kindergarten teacher Archie discovers that the future of the combustion engine may not lie in fields of green, but in pools of blood....

Tomorrow, for the love of God and country, the Drafthouse Village hosts a special sneak screening of the new Rambo movie. Seriously, did anybody see the new Rocky movie? It actually wasn't that bad... ...

What's not to love about that hairy chest and denim jacket?...

For the first time ever, Fangoria is bringing their Weekend of Horrors event to Austin. A pantheon of famous horror movie actors and directors, including Austin's Robert Rodriguez, will be appearing/speaking/signing autographs (IN BLOOD - just kidding) at the convention locale, the Renaissance Austin Hotel....

With the faith of a thousand men, Pastor Richard Gazowsky set out ten years ago on a divine mission: to make the greatest film ever made. Nevermind that the first film he ever saw was The Lion King, at the tender age of 40. Nevermind that he had absolutely no background in directing, editing, or producing an epic so grand that it's concept was enthusiastically described as "The Ten Commandments meets Star Wars." Nevermind that his only solid source of funding was the generous tithes of his congregation at the Voice of Pentecost Church....

The inimitably awesome Crispin Glover will be coming to the Alamo Downtown February 9 through 11, to screen two films he directed and to give an introductory slide show called "The Big Slide Show". After the films, he will answer questions. ("How did you get that way?" is probably off limits as a question.) ...

As we reported last week, the Austin-birthed Teeth will be hitting our silver screens on Friday, January 25th. But of course, it would be a grievous crime against the good people of Austin to not give them the chance to see this genre-bending flick before the rest of the unwashed masses, so the tireless miracle-workers over at Ain't It Cool News and the Alamo Drafthouse have cooked up a little sneak preview for our collective cringing pleasure, with Director Mitchell Lichtenstein live in person to field all of your probing questions....

On April 4, 1968, America's greatest civil rights leader was shot dead in Memphis, Tennessee. The following evening, one man bridged the gap between societal injustice and misery, just by being one of the world's most inspiring performer. ...