Flow Conference this Week
This week marks the fourth biennial Flow Conference, put on by the Department of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin.
This just in from the Flow Conference staff:
The 2012 Flow Conference staff is pleased to invite you to the fourth biennial Flow Conference, a critical forum on television and media culture. The conference will be held Thursday, November 1st to Saturday, November 3rd at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center.The Flow Conference is hosted by the graduate students and faculty of the Department of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin. The conference is comprised of a series of roundtable discussions addressing the future of television and media culture and scholarship. The goal of the Flow Conference is conversation; there are no traditional panels, papers or plenary sessions. Instead each roundtable is organized around a compelling question regarding television and media culture. We have invited columnists from the FlowTV journal to propose these organizing questions to which scholars, practitioners, journalists, and other members of the public have proposed responses.Attendees are also invited to attend the conference screening and opening reception at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum (Friday, November 2nd, 6-10:30pm), as well as the closing party at the Dog and Duck Pub (Saturday, November 3rd, 5-8pm).Registration is free for all UT students and faculty. Walk-in registrants welcome.Conference response papers and a full schedule of conference events are available on the conference website: http://www.flowtv.org/conference/overview/.
Hope to see ya'll there!
Alumni Voices: Film Director Bob Byington
Today we feature some words from Bob Byington, who pursued a career in film after graduating with an MA in American Studies. His films have screened in theaters and festivals nationwide, including our own South by Southwest. His most recent film, Somebody Up There Likes Me (2012), stars Nick Offerman, Keith Poulson, and Jess Weixler and was filmed right here in Austin.
How is the work that you're doing right now informed by the work that you did as a student in American Studies at UT?Bill Stott, who was my primary mentor at UT, let me make a movie for the Doc. class he was teaching, and that got me started on the whole idea of trying to make a movie instead of being fascinated by watching them. And I was able to take RTF classes as a kind of cross-discipline thing.Do you have any words of wisdom or advice for students in our department about how to get the most out of their time here?The facilities and resources at UT are astounding. Professors work for the students, tho' it's not set up to seem that way. And the equipment you have access to as an American Studies grad. student, that's sitting in the RTF building -- even when I was there in the early '90's it was great, and now it's obviously way better...
Texas Book Festival this Weekend
This weekend, downtown Austin will be abuzz with the Texas Book Festival. Over the course of this two-day event, over 40,000 people will descend on Austin to take part in readings and presentations, panel discussions, book signings, and musical entertainment.Here are a few events that caught our eye. There's so much more to see, so check out the full schedule of events here.SATURDAYThe Dust Bowl: An Illustrated History10:00 - 10:45 / Capitol Auditorium Room E1.004with writer and Ken Burns collaborator Dayton DuncanMod: Helen ThompsonThe Onion Book of Known Knowledge11:00 - 11:45 / The Sanctuary at First United Methodist ChurchYou will learn everything at this eventMod: Cindy WidnerD. T. Max: "Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace"12:30 - 1:15 / Capitol Auditorium Room E1.004Max, a staff writer at The New Yorker, speaks with Megan Barnard, Assistant Director for Acquisitions and Administration at the Ransom Center, about his biography of David Foster Wallace. Wallace's papers reside at the Ransom Center.SUNDAYHidden America: The Unseen People Who Make America Work12:30 - 1:15 / Capitol Extension Room E2.030with Jeanne Marie LaskasMod: Cyndi HughesLatinometro.com & TBF present Taco Politico2:00 - 3:00 / Lone Star TentThe testy politics of Tex-Mex food with Gustavo Arellano and Jeffrey PilcherMod: Addie Broyles
Announcement: AMS Film Series Continues this Week!
Happy Wednesday, Austin!Join us tomorrow night for the next installment of the American Studies Film Series. This week, we will show the ever-so Halloween appropriate The Cabin in the Woods. Hope to see you there!
Thursday, October 25th, the American Studies Film Series will be presenting a free screening just in time for Halloween! We’ll be watching Drew Goddard’s 2012 film The Cabin in the Woods. Starring Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, and Fran Kranz, the film follows five friends who travel to a remote cabin and quickly find themselves at the mercy of forces beyond their understanding. Co-written by Joss Whedon, the film acts as a great piece of criticism of the American horror genre. It’s also pretty bloody! So join us for this subversion of the dream space as we look in on the American nightmare in this month’s free screening!Stay tuned for info on this weekend's Texas Book Festival, including our picks for authors and events worth getting downtown for!