Cinema City
Austin a mecca-in-the-making for documentary filmmakers

by Shermakaye Bass

Photography by Barton Wilder Custom Images

Inside the Doc Motel, there is an air of ordered chaos, a palpably harried vibe that suggests the inner workings of a television-news station. Footage stored in hand-scribbled video covers are wedged into bookshelves and piled on desks. In the cubicles and cramped offices, information courses through dozens of computer editing systems, emerging over time as fully fleshed stories, caught for posterity (and a relative handful of discerning viewers) on 16millimeter (mm) or Super 8mm film, videotape or digital video.

Yep, the Doc Motel could be a mass media center. But it's not. It's media, all right; but not "mass," and the kinds of stories that pass through the University of Texas' Doc Motel aren't usually the sort you'll find on broadcast-news shows. One glance around the cluttered space confirms that. In the far corner, for instance, hangs a fake movie poster "touting" Texas Governor Rick Perry, circa the 2000 US presidential election. It reads, "The Sum of All Vetoes…featuring Rick Perry as Acting Governor…The Perry Administration is brought to you by Enron, WorldCom and any other special interests with a checkbook." This is one of many parody posters that decorate the offices and any politician is fair game.

Only non-mainstream media sources so boldly embrace satire and cultural truths, and the Doc Motel, where the University of Texas at Austin's Radio-Television-Film (RTF) Department has its documentary production offices, is one of them. There are other small doc-houses around town, as well-indie studios in warehouses and office spaces and extra bedrooms-that usher stories through their evolution from concept to shoot to edit to documentary.

For most people outside the slightly insular orb of documentary film, the mention of Austin film culture brings to mind Richard Linklater, Robert Rodriguez, Mike Judge and Terence Malick-feature film forces who've remained true to their Austin beginnings or who, in the course of their careers, have made the city their home. They often shoot here, support film organizations here, fund local projects, and in general represent the city as a film-friendly place to be. In many ways, their presence in Austin has helped sow seeds for their maverick comrades in documentary.

For those and other reasons, Austin has attracted an amazingly diverse and accomplished group of media-makers who mine the rich landscape of Texas-and far beyond-to produce award-winning works. Doing what relatively few American filmmakers do successfully, they sculpt visual time capsules from the raw material of life, pursuing and preserving what is marginal, beautiful, ugly, shocking and, ultimately, thought provoking. And they do it not for money or fame-fat chance for those-but because they are storytellers.

"To me, what's so beautiful about documentary filmmaking is it's this wonderful conjunction of many things-the creative, the technical and the social," says forty-six-year-old Marcy Garriott, whose 2001 film Split Decision, about the trials of Mexican-American boxer Jesus Chavez, has aired nationally on PBS and at festivals around the country.

"It's the only thing I can think of where you need to be very, very creative on many levels-the storytelling, the visual aspects-and then there's the technical side if you're very hands-on. Then there is the social side of it, dealing with social issues, history-what sorts of conflicts exist in our society and how can you make a contribution?"

Garriott is one of more than twenty documentarians in Austin who are working on films, or have just finished projects and are rolling on to their next. Some were established when they arrived here. Others moved to Austin and more or less made their mark while based here, often using the RTF Department as a launch-pad. (See "Cinema City Roster" for the list and some of the film credits.)

Notes Paul Stekler, a New York transplant who teaches at UT: "In the last couple of years, we've had Laura Dunn win a Student Academy Award (for Green, a poignant look at impoverished inhabitants of "Cancer Alley" along the Mississippi River in Louisiana). And Heather Courtney with her film Los Trabajadores: The Workers won the Student Award from the International Documentary Association. Diane Zander, another former RTF student, just showed her film Girl Wrestler at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference, which is a great thing, and she'll show it at Full Frame (a documentary film festival in Durham, North Carolina) in April. And then another student of ours, Ted Gesing, just won SXSW's award for short documentary with his film Nutria."

Most local filmmakers says Stekler, fifty, former head of production at UT's RTF Department and now an associate professor there, has had everything to do with the community's evolution. Now completing the film Miles and Miles of Texas: A Political Journey across the Lone Star State, which will be broadcast nationally on PBS in 2004 as part its election year specials, Stekler has racked up Emmy and Peabody Awards for his own films. And since UT hired him in 1997, he's attracted several other well-regarded documentary makers to the program, including Ellen Spiro, Andy Garrison, Don Howard, Mitko Panov and Anne Lewis. He's also has been instrumental in upgrading the RTF program facilities in a big way.

Though Stekler is loathe to take credit-he says others such as Ellen Spiro, the new head of production at RTF, have played a major role in nurturing the program-he doesn't mind pointing out that "six years ago, the RTF production program had only three non-linear editing stations (digital editing systems) and not a single digital camera." Today, he and Spiro say, the program has more than thirty, with both Avid and Final Cut editing software, more than forty digital video cameras and many 16mm film cameras.

Clearly, Stekler and Spiro are proud of the program and its protégés, but they've also encouraged young Austin documentary makers who aren't affiliated with RTF.

Of the up-and-coming generation, Stekler says, simply, "Austin is filled with kids who'd rather be somewhere that's not New York City or Los Angeles. And for documentary makers, this is where a lot of the stories are and will be."

That's not to say there is a particular approach to making documentaries in Austin. "It's not like there's an Austin style-thank God," says Don Howard, forty-seven, a non-linear editor and senior lecturer at RTF. "Everyone in town is radically different-Paul (Stekler), Ellen (Spiro), Laura (Dunn), me, Margaret Brown, Marcy (Garriott), Heather Courtney."

In fact, the diversity of content and style is one of the striking things about the documentary films emerging from Austin.

Stekler embraces a classic-documentary style, incorporating archival footage, well-lighted interviews, carefully selected scores, and stills with voice-overs to illuminate the idiosyncrasies of American politics, particularly Southern and Texas politics. With a Harvard doctorate in government, Stekler began to gravitate toward black politics in the South in the eighties, eventually teaching at Tulane University, where he was a political pollster and on-air news analyst. He made the leap to full-time documentary making in the early nineties, filming 1992's Last Stand at Little Big Horn for PBS' The American Experience, and the 1992 Louisiana Boys: Raised on Politics, which ran on PBS' Point of View. Currently he has several projects in the works, including Spit Farther!, a short about Luling's "world championship watermelon seed-spitting contest" and the Texas politics film for PBS.

At the opposite end of the aesthetic spectrum is Ellen Spiro, another New York transplant. Since the early nineties, she has received a Rockefeller Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts grant, having come from the Whitney Museum's Independent Study Fellowship program in the late eighties. An innovator in small-format video technology, Spiro pushes the parameters of documentary with video works like Diana's Hair Ego, Greetings from Out Here and Roam Sweet Home-all of which examine people who, for one reason or another, live on the periphery of mainstream culture. Her films have aired on public television in the States and Europe, and her 1988 Hair Ego is said to be the first documentary shot on 8mm home movie film to air on American television. Spiro's short Atomic Ed and the Black Hole, an instant SXSW favorite about a former Los Alamos nuclear scientist and his nonradioactive "junk" collection, is being developed in longer format by HBO/Cinemax, where it will air this summer.

Spiro's partner, Karen Bernstein, is working on the expanded Atomic Ed as well. Until recently, Bernstein was known primarily as a series producer for PBS' American Masters series, for which she produced segments on Ella Fitzgerald (which won a series Emmy Award in 1999 and a Grammy Award nomination in 2000), Clint Eastwood, Lou Reed (Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart won a 1998 Grammy), and other cultural icons. Since she relocated to Austin three years ago, Bernstein has created The Wrestling Party (2001), which aired on HBO's Real Sex series in March 2002, and she directed and produced Meet Mike Mills, a video-documentary portrait of the Los Angeles filmmaker for the Sundance Channel. Currently, she and Spiro are juggling several projects under their Austin-based partnership, Mobilus Media.

British-born and -educated Nancy Schiesari, a UT associate professor, comes from a cinematic background, claiming director of photography credits for more than thirty documentary and feature films, including projects for England's Channel 4, BBC in London, ABC, National Geographic, and PBS, as well as the Academy Award-nominated Regret to Inform. Schiesari recently directed a profile on Martin Scorsese for the BBC 4 series Profiles, which broadcast in London after Scorsese's Gangs of New York was released. Her latest work, the documentary Hansel Mieth: Vagabond Photographer, will premiere on the PBS program Independent Lens this May 27.

Making a fairly recent entry into the wildlife and nature documentary big leagues is Richard Lewis, an assistant professor in screenwriting and production at UT. His works include the award-winning 1998 Chimp Rescue and 1997 Snow Monkeys of Texas, both commissioned by National Geographic Television and broadcast in the United States as part of that network's Explorer series.

Then there is Hector Galan, who is cited by virtually every documentary maker in town as an indefatigable entity unto himself. Based in Austin since 1984, Galan seems to have almost single-handedly put Latino-oriented programming on the PBS map. To his credit are dozens of lushly filmed classic documentaries, such as the four-part PBS series Chicano: History of the Mexican-American Civil Rights Movement (President Clinton invited Galan to the White House to screen the 1996 series), Songs of the Homeland (1995) and its follow-up Accordion Dreams (2001), Go Back to Mexico! and many others. Galan's The Forgotten Americans, about poor border communities in Texas, premiered at the Smithsonian Institution in the spring of 2000, and PBS broadcast it nationally in December of that year. A former staff producer for PBS program Frontline out of WGBH in Boston, Galan returned to his home state of Texas, settled in Austin, formed Galan Inc. and has created straight-on groundbreaking documentaries ever since. He is currently producing Visiones: Latino Art and Culture, a three-part series scheduled to air on PBS this fall or next spring.

Bucking the genre in a completely different way, RTF's Don Howard gained something of a cult following in 1997 for the offbeat and elegiac Letter From Waco, which aired nationally on PBS and was shot by Lee Daniel, director of photography for Richard Linklater's Slacker, Dazed and Confused, Suburbia and Before Sunrise. Howard is now completing Nuclear Family, about three cornerstones of Texas culture: football, cheerleading and weddings. Funded by the Independent Television Service (ITVS) through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Nuclear Family corrals a trio of shooters-Daniels, Geoff Winningham and Deb Lewis. With them behind the lens and Howard lending his irreverent perspective, it'll likely become another parodic-Texana classic. It should air in the next year or so on national PBS affiliates.

"We really do have some great filmmakers here," says Marcy Garriott, a former AT&T executive who relocated to Austin and branched into film in recent years. "I didn't choose to live in Austin because it had a supportive documentary community. But how nice to discover that there was (one). We have a group here that are happy with where they're living and with where they're getting. I think if I'd started documentary work somewhere else, I might be doing something else by now. There's a sense of possibility here."

Possibility is a key word, and "no boundaries" is a perfect phrase for Austin's non-feature filmmakers. Despite their divergent styles and interests, local artists agree that if there is a collective sensibility here, it is that of possibility and individuality. Indeed, rather than roost in Boston, DC, New York or European capitals where documentary circles tend to thrive, they chose Austin precisely because there are no cliques, no rules, few cutthroat attitudes-and because many of them have jobs here that support their creative endeavors. Perhaps only Galan has been able to make a living solely on documentary filmmaking.

"Hector Galan is a force of nature," says Ellen Spiro, "and has been working here the longest. He was one of the first board members of the highly influential Independent Television Service," (ITVS), which formed in 1993. ITVS plays a pivotal role in funding American-based indie documentary makers, including quite a few in Austin.

"I remember when I moved back to Austin from Boston in 1984," says Galan, "you could count the documentary filmmakers here on one hand. Today it has really exploded. And I think it has a lot to do with the affordability of the new technologies…Also, the UT faculty has helped, as a whole. They're teaching and making films. And they're a great asset to the community and have attracted a lot of people here."

Overall, Galan says, documentary makers choose the work because they love the challenge, love the prospect of revealing hidden cultures and underground movements, sharing stories that otherwise might not be told. But Galan, like others here, tends to buck the notion of an Austin film scene.

"Scene implies New York," says Kyle Henry, who moved back to Austin after two years in the Big Apple. "That implies 'flash in the pan.'" And gauging from the level of activity among locally based documentary makers, nothing could be further from the truth. No one here seems remotely interested in fifteen minutes of proverbial fame, and few will pigeonhole Austin documentary makers in any way.

"It's a community, I guess you'd say, but it's odd because it's so loose," Don Howard says. "And then, that's not necessarily true either because most people here have worked on each other's films."

The Waco native recalls a trip to New York a few years ago, when he saw a screening of Ginghis Blues about Tuva throat-singing in north Central Asia.

"I'll never forget, they had a party and they had Kongar-ol Ondar perform throat-singing. And I'm alone and listening to this and pretty much being blown away. And I remember turning to someone next to me to say something about it, and I realized no one was really listening to him! They were all sort of talking among themselves. And I thought, 'Forget about it.' I don't think there's any of that here, to speak of. Hundreds of people come out to see screenings," Howard says, referring to individually sponsored screenings (which typically draw reams of documentary aficionados to private studios or public spaces), as well as the monthly Texas Documentary Tour, co-sponsored by UT's RTF Department, the Austin Film Society, SXSW and The Austin Chronicle.

"I've never seen anybody be crappy about the fact that I was successful with that last film," Howard says. "I've felt so much support here for the work I do, though I will say I don't have much of a perspective on it. This is the only place I've been. But you feel supported in trying to do something and that's what's important."

On the other hand, Howard says, "it's not a warm fuzzy thing," and he visibly shudders at the thought. "It's more like, 'Hey, good luck to you,' and 'Yeah, well, good luck to you, too.' Like: 'Yeah, good luck getting that huge grant!'"

In other words, it's quote-unquote classic Austin. Here, the whole concept of laid-backness melded with a high level of intellectual awareness was immortalized, if you will, on celluloid in Richard Linklater's Slacker. And as virtually all the documentary filmmakers in town will say, there is a loose sort of glue that binds the community, but no one can quite isolate its components or properties. There is definitely a strange push-pull effect, a regular interaction between filmmakers here who crew on one another's films or help with sound or editing, and yet they also live and create in their own private Idahos, left to their own devices. Which is fine by them. Because in many ways, documentary filmmaking is a lone-wolf pursuit, and in a mid-size city where live-and-let-live is something of a civic mantra, such filmmakers have their share of wide-open head space. And they don't have to deal with scenes or cliques or a lot of backbiting.

To that end, you'd be hard-pressed to find a particular bar or restaurant frequented by documentary filmmakers in Austin. There's not a regular chum-fest, and local documentary makers don't usually meet en mass for happy hour at, say, The Dog & Duck Pub. Often, they're a somewhat reclusive breed.

"I used to joke about it when I moved to different places," Paul Stekler says. "I'd joke about where all the documentary makers hang out. It's not as if everyone hangs out…but in Austin, there is a very cooperative and friendly community."

In a broad sense, he says, trying to nail the nature of what's here, the city has a core sort of alliance outside UT. It's an amorphous kind of camaraderie, and it's mostly an outgrowth of film organizations and film festivals in town. Austin has a surprising number of both.

For instance, there's Austin Cinemaker Coop, which specializes in Super 8mm works and filmmaking equipment rentals, and sponsors periodic guerilla-style Make A Film In A Weekend projects. There's Reel Women, centered around the broad interest of women in film. Then there is Flicker Austin, the local chapter of the national group, which promotes Super 8mm filmmaking and screens Super 8 and 16mm movies. In addition, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, the Hideout, the Paramount Theatre and the Dobie do periodic screenings in conjunction with these groups.

Then there is the granddaddy of local organizations: the Austin Film Society (AFS). Spearheaded by Richard Linklater, the group formed in 1985 to support all aspects of film in Austin. Perhaps more than any other entity in town outside the RTF program, AFS has helped nurture the city's burgeoning independent film circles. One of its biggest contributions is the now-seven-year-old Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund (TFPF), which will award $65,000 in grants to maverick film artists this year, and has given funding to many who are now winning awards, PBS commissions and festival slots.

Also, as a co-sponsor of the Texas Documentary Tour, AFS has helped put Austin on the map as a place that appreciates documentary film, on the whole.

Says Paul Stekler, "Visiting Documentary Tour filmmakers-and actually, documentary makers who show at SXSW and Cinemaker Texas-are knocked out by the audience sizes and responses here. And by how friendly and easy it is down here in general." Stekler says he's been gratified by the reception of his own films. "We got a great response at Sundance with the George Wallace film, but here we filled the Paramount Theatre with more than a thousand people. To have that many people come to see a three-hour film about a really bad guy is a sign of what we have here."

Laura Dunn, twenty-seven, echoes the sentiment. "When I premiered Green in Austin to a sold-out crowd at the Alamo on a Sunday afternoon, I was overwhelmed-in a good way-with the community interest and response to my work. And this community support has endured. This is truly a unique city in every way." Dunn adds, "I've lived all over the place, often felt rootless, and I imagined I would always feel that way. But Austin has rooted me, at times against my will, and I feel at home here, finally."

Dunn's current film, backed by Terence Malick and Robert Redford, is very much linked to Austin's roots. Using the highly charged controversy over Barton Springs as a metaphor for growth and development on a larger scale, the film is about the complex relationships between industry, man and nature, and the question of whether growth is inevitable.

Typical of many Austin documentary projects, Dunn's film, yet unnamed and still in its early stages, involves a number of other filmmakers and A-team crew from the area. Lee Daniel is shooting, documentary maker David Layton is on assistant camera, Dennis Meehan is recording, Don Howard has advised and will likely help with editing. A couple of years ago, Dunn and Henry joined forces for the Michael Moore-sponsored McCollege Tour, which took their respective films University Inc. and Subtext for a Yale Education to sixty universities around the country. The overlap of crew and colleagues continues with Margaret Brown's Townes Van Zandt project, which has Daniel, Layton, Howard and producer Dawn Cooper on board, the same basic crew, plus a few more, who worked on Howard's Nuclear Family. That sort of intermingling is common, and many other young documentary makers in town have been influenced by, or have worked on projects with, Paul Stekler, Hector Galan, Ellen Spiro and Nancy Schiesari.

As thirty-one-year-old Brown notes: "People here help out but they don't want credit…and since it's not a very large community, people pool their things." When one person needs a certain type of camera or a particular piece of equipment, it's not uncommon to contact another filmmaker in town and borrow the gear.

"It can be an incestuous little group in that way-and that's a good thing," says Amy Grappell, thirty-eight, who is currently completing a rough cut for her Soviet Meditations, with the editing help of Kyle Henry and another local filmmaker, Christian Moore, who filmed in the Ukraine with Grappell.

But all is not gravy in Austin. Far from it. There are definite drawbacks and challenges to making independent documentary films in the Southwestern heartlands.

"While there are a lot of talented documentary filmmakers working here," Ellen Spiro says, "we are a destitute state regarding funding support for the arts in all forms. All the documentary filmmakers here (except Galan, she says) hold other jobs to support their work." Herself included.

Margaret Brown talks about the fact that living in Austin is not cheap. While the town's easy-living economics may have drawn grassroots filmmakers to town a few years ago, Brown wonders how long they can afford to stay. "It's changing. It definitely is getting harder to live here, and I don't know if it will always attract those people. We might be at the end times for that. People might have to move where it's cheaper."

And as Marcy Garriott so succinctly explains, "This kind of work is really driven by inspiration and passion. People aren't in it for the money, because there is no money in documentary work. You have to have other ways to make a living."

Don Howard gives a larger perspective on why it's so difficult to survive as a documentary maker. "Most people are not aware of documentary in general. Most people don't ever see them, and I don't mean to be insulting, but most don't really know about Erroll Morris (Thin Blue Line, Gates of Heaven) or P.A. Pennebaker (Don't Look Back, Moon Over Broadway), the Maysles brothers (pioneers in direct cinema, using handheld cameras for immediacy and spontaneity), or Les Blank (Always for Pleasure, Innocents Abroad, The Blues According to Lightning Hopkins and Burden of Dreams) or Ricky Leacock (whose short films span a career of sixty years). It's just not considered a serious form to most people in the United States, and that's why it's death to your distribution to be considered a 'documentary.' I'd bet there were no more than five or ten documentary films last year, in all the country, that made money in theatrical distribution." No one in Austin, for example, has approached the commercial success of Michael Moore's screeds, Roger & Me and Bowling for Columbine.

But Howard, along with Laura Dunn, Ellen Spiro, Marcy Garriott and others who've had large turnouts for their local screenings, says that's the thing about Austin. It's a film-savvy city and, fortunately, the city's arts lovers "get it." They like documentary. They pay to see it. They go to film festivals and grassroots screenings-and when they do, they clap and ask questions.

As a former New Yorker, Spiro says she's impressed with filmmakers' abilities to make it here, although she'd stop short of calling Austin a mecca for documentary makers. For now, at least.

"We have a strong documentary community but I am not sure we have earned the title 'mecca.' Only Manhattan can be honestly called a documentary 'mecca.'" Maybe, she adds, "we're a mecca-in-progress…I think there is a lot of interest in documentaries here. There is an enthusiasm and curiosity for noncommercial media that permeates Austin."

Diane Zander, maker of Girl Wrestler, agrees. "I have no clue if people outside of Austin know what's going on here," she says, "but every once in a while you'll run into people who say, 'Oh, you're from Austin. I hear there's a lot going on down there.' So I can't say that there's a huge respect or a lack of it…But beyond UT, there is a community at large that's supportive of filmmaking and independent spirits…They're not mainstream; they're very much going against the grain of traditional media making."

Zander's colleague, UT alum Heather Courtney, believes Austin remains an ideal base for documentary makers for several reasons. Her Los Trabajadores: The Workers, which followed two immigrant workers during the controversial relocation of Austin's day-labor pick-up site in 2001, aired last month on PBS' national Independent Lens program, and she is in Mexico now on a Fulbright Fellowship researching her next film. Nonetheless, she'll keep her Austin address.

"I think the UT film department has definitely had an influence in attracting 'new' documentary filmmakers to Austin. I know several of us who have stayed on since graduating from the graduate film program," says Courtney, thirty-five. "But there are also some transplants that moved here for various reasons, and I would think that one factor is that it is a lot easier to live in a place like Austin and have the time and some money to work on your own projects-and I'm not just talking about documentary projects, but narrative and experimental and hybrids of all three-versus a more expensive place like New York or San Francisco…Austin might be small, but there is a real sense of community that can be a big help when you're tackling new projects."

Kyle Henry, thirty-two, believes that when it comes to educating and cultivating the filmgoing audience, the AFS has been a key resource.

"The Austin Film Society is kind of ground zero for cinema education and support. They have Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund grants and that's been Richard Linklater's gift. Thank god for Richard Linklater," Henry says, making the connection between Austin-based documentary circles and Linklater and feature film. Often, people outside the film community don't recognize the role Linklater has played in supporting documentary work, Henry says.

"So many people in Hollywood know him, and by bringing directors and raising the money for the fund, he's made a huge difference. All it took was one person who made it big to stay here, and it's helped hundreds of people. He brings in the celebrities for the fund-raisers that make the money that goes to the grants that go to the documentary filmmakers. He brings in Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction) and Steven Soderbergh (Sex, Lies and Videotape and Traffic). Again, thank god for Richard Linklater."

Another fundamental ingredient is the relatively large number of film festivals held each year in Austin, a not-so-large city. With SXSW Film Conference (March), Cine Las Americas Film Festival (April), the Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival (August), CinemaTexas International Short Film Festival (September), and the Austin Film Festival (formerly Heart of Texas Screenwriting Conference; held in October), the combined festivals draw thousands of film aficionados, auteurs and critics to town.

Of CinemaTexas, Kyle Henry says, "It's one of the best short-film festivals in the world. It brings people in from the Guggenheim, MOMA (The Museum of Modern Art in New York), from Rotterdam and Berlin. We've had three students that I know of whose work was found specifically because a scout saw it in that festival, so Austin's literally got the attention of the world at that time." Henry asserts that, with all the different festivals in Austin annually, "I'd say that between the two coasts this city gets more international visitors for film festivals than any city in middle America, or definitely in the Southwest."

With all the film activity, then-with filmmakers both narrative and documentary visiting Austin, plus a kick-ass faculty at UT-the university should have one of the nation's best documentary programs in the country. In many ways, it does.

Diane Zander moved to Austin specifically because of UT. She'd gotten her undergraduate degree at Northwestern University and decided Stekler and company had the most to offer for grad school.

"I realized what a huge documentary program was here, and I didn't want to be the token documentary maker at some other program-like I would have been at almost every other university in the country. There's NYU and UCLA, but those are all based on feature film, and if you talk to anyone around those programs, there's going to be (like) one documentary filmmaker admitted each year…Here, it's like an incubation space that the department has created. It's got nice warmth-they've got the heat lamps, you know, things like that," Zander says. She adds that Stanford has a renowned documentary program but it's only a master of arts degree, not a master of fine arts. And it's extremely expensive.

UT's on the other hand, is affordable-and it's one of the best. Indeed, some say that about a year or so ago, it came very close to perhaps becoming academia's highest ranked graduate documentary program. At the time, Paul Stekler and company had been pushing for the creation of a Texas Center for Documentary, something along the lines of the James Michener-endowed Texas Center for Writers. In the late nineties and early 2000, local press ran stories about the campus buzz and an imminent center. But by early 2001, as the economy faltered and then cratered, UT's School of Communication's hopes were dashed.

Stekler is understandably vague on the subject, but he remains hopeful. "It's still in development. It's a difficult time for fund-raising in this country, but I'm sure it'll work out eventually. We've got to find our own Michener. Know anyone with $30 million?"

Don Howard says if the center ever does come to fruition, it could make UT, and Austin, a national documentary hub overnight.

"I'm really disappointed it hasn't worked out yet. To me, that's the one thing that could put the UT film school into the premiere echelons," Howard says. "I don't know if we'll ever be there with feature film, because there are so many other universities that do that. But with documentary, we could just grab it. I mean, the only university that's doing it really seriously, that I know of, is Stanford. We could be the best documentary film place anywhere-immediately-if that could ever work out."

But Paul Stekler believes Austin is poised to take that step and, in fact, is in mid-stride as locals continue to rake in the national awards and credits.

"In a sense we already have a documentary center here. We've been able to create a great documentary film community in a lot of different ways," he says. "With the Texas Documentary Tour screenings once a month, we've been able to build an audience, and we've gotten a lot of support from the press and the Austin Film Society. SXSW is internationally known for its documentary, and the CinemaTexas festival has a great reputation." Though Stekler admits he doesn't know what will happen next in local documentary making-anything's just as likely as anything else in this town-he knows this: "Everything's just kind of clicking right now in Austin, and what's happening is just going to get more exciting."

Shermakaye Bass discovered while working on this story why Austin, a hotbed of filmmaking, has long been called the Third Coast. You may e-mail Shermakaye via editor@goodlifemag.com.

Cinema City Sampler
A roster of some of Austin's notable documentary filmmakers

Austin's a hotbed of documentary filmmaking, with great achievements from both veterans and relative newcomers. This relatively brief listing should give you a taste of what's going on and a sense of some of the leading filmmakers.

Among those who were already successful filmmakers when they got to Austin are:

Paul Stekler-His George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire, Vote for Me: Politics in America and other works have aired on PBS' American Experience. Stekler's work has garnered both Emmy and Peabody awards. www.utexas.edu/coc/rtf/fs/stekler.

Ellen Spiro-She is renowned for her boundary-exploding experimental works, including Roam Sweet Roam and Atomic Ed and the Black Hole. www.utexas.edu/coc/rtf/fs/spiro.

Nancy Schiesari-She was director of photography for the 1999 Academy-Award nominated Regret to Inform and her Hansel Mieth: Vagabond Photographer airs on PBS' Independent Lens on May 27. www.utexas.edu/coc/rtf/fs/schiesari/index.html.

Karen Bernstein-She won Grammy and Emmy Awards for her bio-documentary works on such cultural icons as Ella Fitzgerald, Clint Eastwood and Lou Reed, and is now teamed with Ellen Spiro on several films. www.mobilusmedia.com.

Ramona Diaz-Rising Spirits, about Corazon Aquino, former president of the Philippines, has received international attention. She was a co-producer of the 1997 PBS' multi-part series Cadillac Desert and is now working on Imelda, about former Philippines first lady Imelda Marcos. www.naatanet.org/apatv/archives/SpiritsRising.html.

Mitko Panov-His Comrades, a film "about the nature of friendship from the perspective of the recent Yugoslav war," aired on European television last year and was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and Soros Open Society Documentary Film Fund. www.utexas.edu/coc/rtf/fs/panov/index.html

Andy Garrison-He's a dramatic and documentary filmmaker who is working on a project about Houston's Project Row Houses. Garrison has received J. Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the American Film Institute's Independent Filmmaker Program Fellowship and an NEA Individual Media Artist Award. www.utexas.edu/coc/rtf/fs/garrison/index.html.

Long-time Austin filmmakers

Hector Galan-A Texas native with scores of nationally broadcast documentaries to his credit, including Accordion Dreams, Go Back to Mexico!, The Hunt for Pancho Villa and other major PBS programs, he's often called Austin's godfather of documentary. Galan returned to Texas in 1984 after working as a producer for WGBH in Boston's Frontline. www.galaninc.com.

Stephen Mims-He's a former lecturer at UT's RTF Department and the founder of Austin FilmWorks, which offers independent film courses. Mims' documentary work includes Lizards Times 20: The Austin Lounge Lizards Live at Antones, which screened last month at SXSW, and Live For Ever: The Life and Songs of Billy Joe Shaver. Other works include The Perfect Specimen and numerous music videos. www.jksinc.com/damico/sites/afwweb/afw.htm.

Don Howard-His Letter From Waco, a cult hit circa 1997, aired nationally on PBS. He's now wrapping up Nuclear Family, which promises more eccentricity from the Texas heartlands. www.utexas.edu/coc/rtf/fs/howard.

Newcomers whose success came in Austin

Laura Dunn-Her Subtext of a Yale Education, Green and Become the Sky have elicited national kudos and awards. She's now shooting a documentary in Austin backed by Terence Malick and Robert Redford. www.twobirdsfilm.com.

Heather Courtney-Her 2001 film Los Trabajadores: The Workers has nabbed a substantial international following, just aired nationally on PBS and is frequently shown by immigrant-worker organizations. www.daylabormovie.com.

Diane Zander-Her Girl Wrestler premiered at South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival last month and will compete at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina, this month. A former RTF student, she is now a lecturer for the department. www.public-humanities.org/NewsletterSpring2002/girlwrestler.html.

Jenn Garrison-Her 2001 PrizeWhores explores the netherworld of radio groupies who vie for giveaways and promotional prizes where radio stations broadcast from remote relocations. She's now working on Greg, about an autistic man in Austin whose life revolves around the women's music scene. Garrison is a part-time DJ at KGSR-FM 107.1 and also teaches at UT's RTF Department. www.utexas.edu/coc/rtf/fs/garrison_jenn, www.ginjar.com.

Kyle Henry-His 1997 American Cowboy, about the gay rodeo circuit, won a Student Academy Award and his 1999 University Inc. went on Michael Moore's McCollege Tour 1999-2001, traveling with Dunn's Subtext of a Yale Education to sixty American universities. www.microcinema.com/filmmakerResults.php?director_id=455.

Margaret Brown-She's completing a film on the late, great musician Townes Van Zandt. Brown relocated from New York, after living in Austin several years ago. E-mail rakefilms@earthlink.net.

Amy Grappell-She's completing Soviet Meditations, a symbolic film about the rise and fall of Soviet power.

Brad Beesley-His Hill Stomp Hollar was Runner Up in SXSW's 1999 documentary competition, and his Okie Noodling, about catching catfish with one's bare hands, won the Audience Award at the 2001 SXSW competition. www.okienoodling.com.

Marcy Garriott-Her 2001 film Split Decision about Mexican-American boxer Jesus Chavez aired nationally on PBS and at festivals around the country. She's now filming freestyle street dancing among Austin's Latino hip-hop culture. www.sonrisa.com.

Maggie Carey-Her directorial debut Sun River Homestead aired nationally last May on PBS, and is currently airing throughout the year. www.pbs.org/sunriverhomestead.

Richard Lewis-His Snow Monkeys of Texas, Chimp Rescue and other works were commissioned by National Geographic Channel. www.utexas.edu/coc/rtf/fs/lewis.

Tom Spencer-He has been with KLRU-TV more than twenty years and has made a dozen documentary films that have aired on PBS. His first of six that aired nationally was an hour-long piece in 1989 on writer James Michener. His latest, The Painted Churches of Texas, was a moneymaker not only for KLRU but for other Central Texas public television stations, which aired it during pledge drives to ring up strong support. www.klru.org/paintedchurches/documentary.html.

Laura Barton and Judy Wilder-The Good Life's photographers are also filmmakers, whose award-winning Dildo Diaries examines the absurdities of the Texas penal system. www.dildodiaries.com.

Ted Gesing-This UT student's film Nutria won a SXSW award for best short documentary this year.

Amy Maner-Her Lubbock Lights showed at last month's SXSW festival and her previous credits include work on feature films Spy Kids and Leap of Faith.

David Layton-He is currently wrapping up his documentary The Hot Shoe about card-counters in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Layton has worked on many local films including Mims' The Perfect Specimen.

Karen Kocher-She did a lyrical short in 1999 called Springs Symphony: A Celebration of Austin's Barton Springs. www.utexas.edu/coc/rtf/fs/kocher.

Susan Kirr and Rusty Martin-Their Bike Like U Mean It airs on NYC's Trio TV this month. E-mail them at runsarisk@aol.com.

-Shermakaye Bass