Filmmaker & Professor
Andrew Garrison
We are proud to present this month’s guest speaker, award-winning filmmaker & professor Andrew Garrison, on Wednesday, July 11th at Opal Divine’s Austin Grill. Texan & Austinite Andrew is a writer, producer, and director who has also scored numerous credits in sound, cinematography, editing, even acting, and more over his career spanning 5 decades.
Andrew has received fellowships from the American Film Institute (AFI), the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and the Rockefeller and Guggenheim foundations. A couple of his films, Third Ward TX & The Wilgus Stories, aired on PBS, and several others have been selected for screenings at theaters & festivals around the world, including SXSW, Sundance, Locarno International Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, New York Film Festival, and the Berlinale. His films have won multiple awards & nominations for the highly acclaimed feature film Trash Dance and short film Night Ride.
In 1975 Andrew co-founded the Dayton Community Media Workshop that produced community-based documentaries for local and national audiences. Later he was invited to join renowned film collective Appalshop in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky, where for a dozen years he collaborated to produce documentaries for others, as well as his own projects. Now the Audio Area Head of the Department of Radio-Television-Film (RTF) at the University of Texas in Austin (UT), Andrew founded yet another film organization, East Austin Stories, in which UT students work with residents & businesses in East Austin on documentary projects.
Watch these clips & trailers, and find more of Andrew’s works on Vimeo:
☆ Trash Dance, a collaborative documentary project between Austin choreographer, Allison Orr, and employees of Austin Resource Recovery (formerly Solid Waste Services) to make an extraordinary and transforming public dance display on film
☆ Third Ward TX, about a group of artists in inner-city Houston who have successfully revitalized their neighborhood with art as the engine of change
☆ The Wilgus Stories, a narrative triptych of a humorous and poignant perspective on the significant moments of daily life as shown through the eyes of Wilgus Collier set in the 50s & 60s
☆ Because I’m Here, rough-cut clip from a work-in-progress 35 years in the making sponsored in part by the City of Austin’s Cultural Arts Division and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities about a man named Earl Gilmore, an African-American, gay, devout Christian, gospel choir director, blues musician, coal miner, centerfielder for the Clinchco Giants, carnival hoochie-coochie dancer, Ford Fellow, and life-long resident of Clinchco, Virginia, population 500. Shown here, Earl’s friend, Eldora, avoids answering the question, “How would you describe Earl?”
And put our next mixer featuring the multi-talented successful Andrew Garrison on your calendar for Wednesday the 11th at Opal’s!
Get there early to take advantage of Opal Divine’s Happy Hour which lasts until 7, then $3 “Three for Texas” beers the rest of the evening. And don’t cook or go anywhere else for a meal or snacks because Opal’s offers a tasty and largely locally-sourced menu of goodies.
Last Month
We’re so grateful for you, audience members, who came out to bravely step up to our stage and pitch yourselves. New connections abounded upon hearing from one another and what each does, has done, and is up to now, providing a greater opportunity for exchanging contacts & information; networking in a nutshell. There’s a wealth of talent & skills right here in Central Texas, as you sure showed us all!
And thanks so much to our special guest Jennifer Hutchins of Austin Entertainment Business and the Austin Chapter of the Producers Guild of America (PGA), who has diligently dug in to make our local industry ever more vital and recognized worldwide.
See photos here, and more mixer photos here.
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Mixing & Networking @ 6:00PM, Announcements @ 6:30, Speakers @ 6:45
Followed by More Mixing & Mingling and Networking
Really enjoyed Andrew Garrison‘s presentation. Loved his work! Can somebody tell me the name of the photographer that was covering the mixer? I’d like to possibly use him for an upcoming event