Reel Entropy

The Texas Theatre was built in 1931, and was nearly demolished three times in the ‘90s. It reopened under current management in the fall of 2010, and the Oak Cliff Film Festival has always been part of its identity under Aviation Cinemas’ management – they’ve been running the theater for almost 13 years, and this is officially the 12th Oak Cliff Film Festival, so the math is pretty easy.

Given the historic nature of the place, it makes sense that restorations and 35mm prints are an enormous part of the theater’s programming, and an enormous part of these film festivals. On day 3 of the 2023 Oak Cliff Film Festival, my whole day is committed to movies I’ve either seen or could have seen before – Fuzzy Head, which I’ve seen early prints of after meeting the director at a prior Oak Cliff Film Festival, a 35mm print of Alex Cox’ 1987 film Walker starring Ed Harris with Cox on-hand to take questions, and a screening of 1925’s The Lost World with a live score performed by the Anvil Orchestra.

The festival highlight is Quantum Cowboys tonight at 7, followed by A24 property Problemista. It’s a good thing I needed to put in an extra hour of work yesterday, because if I weren’t able to take off an hour early today, I probably wouldn’t make that curtain. Part of the reason I moved to Dallas was to be closer to the Texas Theatre – I was going out in Oak Cliff as often as I was in Denton at that point, but 40 miles and 20 miles are the same distance if you’re trying to cross them at rush hour in Dallas. If I’m going to Oak Cliff, I still need to plan out a full day to make the trip worthwhile, and unless I fully move down there, I still need a machete to make a 7 p.m. Friday night curtain.

I’m planning on film festival coverage becoming a big part of what I do here, but it’s a few years down the line. I want to finish expanding my languages and see Europe first, but I’m still going to be accruing cash and vacation time once I’ve seen the places I want to see, and this is the obvious way to spend those things.

My focus is on the U.S. box office, so I want to stick to major international festivals with entrants that are actually likely to get distribution deals and be seen, but especially now when I don’t really know how to do it, it’s weird that I’ve been inclined to ignore the biggest festival in my Dallas backyard, the Oak Cliff Film Festival put on every June in my favorite place in the world, the Texas Theatre.

What else is out this weekend, anyway? You really think I’m writing about No Hard Feelings? Fuck you!