Chainsaws, Slackers, and Spy Kids: Thirty Years of Filmmaking in Austin, Texas - Softcover

Macor, Alison

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0292722435 ISBN 13: 9780292722439

Publisher: University of Texas Press, 2010

Synopsis

Winner, Peter C. Rollins Book Award, Southwest Texas Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association, 2011

During the 1990s, Austin achieved "overnight" success and celebrity as a vital place for independent filmmaking. Directors Richard Linklater and Robert Rodriguez proved that locally made films with regional themes such as Slacker and El Mariachi could capture a national audience. Their success helped transform Austin's homegrown film community into a professional film industry staffed with talented, experienced filmmakers and equipped with state-of-the art-production facilities. Today, Austin struggles to balance the growth and expansion of its film community with an ongoing commitment to nurture the next generation of independent filmmakers.

Chainsaws, Slackers, and Spy Kids chronicles the evolution of this struggle by re-creating Austin's colorful movie history. Based on revealing interviews with Richard Linklater, Robert Rodriguez, Mike Judge, Quentin Tarantino, Matthew McConaughey, George Lucas, and more than one hundred other players in the local and national film industries, Alison Macor explores how Austin has become a proving ground for contemporary independent cinema. She begins in the early 1970s with Tobe Hooper's horror classic, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and follows the development of the Austin film scene through 2001 with the production and release of Rodriguez's $100-million blockbuster, Spy Kids. Each chapter explores the behind-the-scenes story of a specific movie, such as Linklater's Dazed and Confused and Judge's Office Space, against the backdrop of Austin's ever-expanding film community.

About this title

About the Author:

ALISON MACOR is a freelance writer and former film critic for the Austin Chronicle and the Austin American-Statesman. She holds a Ph.D. in Radio-TV-Film from the University of Texas at Austin and has taught film courses at the University of Texas, Austin Community College, and the Austin Museum of Art.

Review:

"Macor sketches an intriguing flow-chart of like-minded Austin eccentrics who built an economic base for the city.... the book's strength is its enduring relevance." --Film Comment

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0292722435
• ISBN 13: 9780292722439
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 392