Austin Underground Film Festival ‘06 Report

The 2006 Austin Underground Film Fest took place from 6:30pm-11:30pm on May 23rd, 2006 to a sold out theater at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema on 1120 South Lamar Plaza, voted “Best Theater in the Country” in 2005 by Entertainment Weekly and home to such events as the World Air Guitar Championships, Tenacious D Sing-a-longs, Videoke, and Quentin Tarantino’s Film Fest.

The winner of the festival as voted by the audience was Patrick Phillips’ Where There Is A Will, There Will Be A Living Wage. Click here to read an interview with Patrick.

2006 Program Listing

The Old Negro Space Program (Watch!)
Director: Andy Bobrow

The untold story of America’s first African-American astronauts.

Could This Be Real? (Watch!)
Director: Mike Z

An intercepted transmission between government conspirators

Re*Code Commercial (Watch!)
Director: The Carbon Defense League

The original commercial for the controversial internet shopping parody.

Portrait of the Artist at 16
Director: Jay Stern

The world’s first formal introduction to outsider artist/musician Cole Lanter.

How To Start a Revolution in America
Director: Mike Z

Homemade DIY instructional video by three self-proclaimed anarchists.

An Apple a Day
Director: Kevin Maher

All three versions of short subject auteur Kevin Maher’s magnum opus.

A Meditation on the Speed Limit (Watch!)
Director: Andy Medlin

Fed up with getting frivolous traffic tickets, some college kids set out to challenge the intelligence of their local speed limit.

Tales of Mere Existence (Watch!)
Director: Lev

A guy’s animated inner-monologue of all those things you think but don’t say.

Excess Psilo (Watch!)
Director: Fathy Elsherif

What happens one night when a guy succumbs to the temptation to experiment with psilocybin tea.

I’m Not Stealing, Don’t Put Me Behind Bars (Watch!)
Director: The Carbon Defense League

Fallout of the Re-Code project, once the targets of the prank caught wind of it.

Information, Lullaby (Watch!)
Director: Andy Bond (Interview)

Collage of appropriated footage highlighting our media propagandists’ greatest hits.

Where There’s a Will, There Will Be a Living Wage (Watch!)
Director: Patrick Phillips (Interview)
WINNER 1st PLACE AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD

Revealing documentary on Texas A&M’s employment practices as a microcosm of our country’s as a whole.

Texas Hospitality: Final Meal Requests
Director: Michael Pfaendtner

A look at the final meal requests of various criminals of Texas’ death row.

Don’t Call Me Crazy On the Fourth of July (Watch!)
Director: Richard Pell

Snapshot of a man convinced he’s a victim of invasive government persecution, and a primer on the CIA’s historical experimentation with mind control techniques.

C’etait un RENDEZVOUS
Director: Claude Lelouch

The underground racing rarity which resulted in the director’s license suspension and arrest by Parisian police.

Focus Group (Sneak world premiere!)
Director: Mike Z

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‘06 HONORABLE MENTIONS (Features):
The Widow Colony	Director: Harpreet Kaur
Mae Brussel in Santa Cruz	Director: Tim Canale
God is on the Other Side	Director: Mark Eisenstein
The Gods of Times Square (Watch!)	Director: Richard Sandler
Psychopathia Sexualis	Director: Bret Wood
You are Alone	Director: Gorman Berchard
i (official site)	Directors: Andres Ingoglia & Raphael Lyon
Culture Jam	Director: Jill Sharpe
Born in a Barn	Director: Elizabeth Elson
Rise by Sin	Directors: Greg Santarsiero & Mark Bernardi
‘06 HONORABLE MENTIONS (Shorts):
Hot & Bothered: Feminist Pornography	Director: Becky Goldberg
Buried in the Backyard	Director: Sarah Prior
Cross Examination (Official Site)	Director: Josh Weinstein
Joyride	Directors: Out of Our Minds Studios
Shackleton: Quest for the Pole	Director: Miska Draskoczy
Stickers	Director: Daniel Maldonado

Screening Gallery