FILM FEAST AT THE MODERN
LABOR DAY WEEKEND 2017

Join us as we celebrate two of our favorite things – film and food. With guest curators Louis Black and Caroline Frick arriving from the Austin film scene, we’ve cooked up a cinematic feast that will make your mouth water. This event offers a taste of everything – silent film classics, rare archival Texas vignettes, cult favorites, and first-run summer blockbusters.

Café Modern is matching the cinematic offerings day by day with delicious and inventive gourmet foods, specialty cocktails, and wine.

Come savor amazing cinema and celebrate summer’s bounty with us Thursday, August 31, through Sunday, September 3!

Tickets are available beginning at 10 am, Tuesday, August 1, at www.themodern.org/films

or by visiting the Modern’s admission desk during operating hours.

Full Festival Passes (must be over 21 years of age) $225; $215 for Modern members; $210 for Reel People members (includes tickets for all films, 2 evening dinner events, 2 free cocktails at First Friday, a free Modern film cup, and gratuity/tax)

Tickets for Thursday and Saturday evening include both the film and dinner event.

Thursday evening tickets, Kick Off with Café Modern Cocktail Reception in the Grand Lobby

$99; $97 for Modern members; $96 for Reel People members (includes film ticket, six food stations, seven cocktail options, and gratuity/tax)

Saturday evening tickets, Café Modern Paella Party with Spanish Wines

$79; $77 for Modern members; $76 for Reel People members (includes film ticket, three-course dinner with wines, and gratuity/tax)

Single film tickets are $9, $7 for Modern members, $6 for Modern Reel People members, and $5 for children under 12. Single film tickets for Thursday at 8 pm and Saturday at 5 pm are not currently for sale and will be released at a later date if available.

Louis Black is a legendary force in Austin’s film world. As a co-founder of SXSW (which he named after Hitchcock’s North by Northwest), he helped originate the Festival’s film component. His love of film dates to his teens, when he would skip school with friend Leonard Maltin and visit film sets (once meeting Buster Keaton) and watch as many films as possible. While obtaining his master’s degree in film from the University of Texas at Austin in the early 1980s, he helped start CinemaTexas. He was an original board member of the Austin Film Society, led by Richard Linklater. As the editor of the Austin Chronicle, he helped shape the city’s rich culture of both making and appreciating great cinema. In 2000, along with Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith, he launched AFS’s Texas Film Hall of Fame. Most recently he co-directed his first film, the documentary Dream is Destiny about Richard Linklater, which premiered at Sundance and received a standing ovation at the Rome Film Fest. He was the executive producer of Be Here to Love Me: A Film about Townes Van Zandt and was a producer on the Peabody Award-winning The Order of Myths. He has focused recently on reissues of classic Texas films (Eagle Pennell’s The Whole Shootin’ Match and Tobe Hooper’s Eggshells) and is currently working on a number of documentary and narrative films, as well as more reissues of classic Texas independent films. He is finishing a book about filmmaker Jonathan Demme. With his partner, Sandy K. Boone, he has co-created a number of companies designed to promote both new independent filmmaking and preserve Texas’s rich film legacy.

Caroline Frick, PhD, is the founder and executive director of the Texas Archive of the Moving Image, an organization devoted to preserving Texas’s unique history and identity through the power of the moving image. This online library provides thousands of historic films and videos to everyone – teachers, students, laypersons – for free. The Archives’ Texas Film Round-Ups take place all over Texas, offering free digitization for films and video from private individuals to media outlets, made possible by the governor’s Texas Film Commission. Through Teach Texas, the Archives offer online educator and student resources. Go to www.texasarchive.org

. Frick is also an Associate Professor in the Radio-TV-Film Department at the University of Texas at Austin. Here her work focuses on media history, the evolution of the moving image archiving movement, cross-cultural approaches to historical preservation, and online media libraries. Her book, Saving Cinema, was published in 2011 by Oxford University Press. Prior to her work in Texas, Dr. Frick worked in film preservation at Warner Bros., the Library of Congress, and the National Archives in Washington, DC. Dr. Frick also programmed films for the American Movie Classics cable channel in New York and served for four years as the president of the board for the Association of Moving Image Archivists. She is a member of the National Film Preservation Board that advises the Librarian of Congress in the naming of films to the National Film Registry.

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Tickets are $99; $97 for Modern members; $96 for Reel People members (includes film ticket, six food stations, seven cocktail options, and gratuity/tax)

Mixologists and food stations will serve cocktails, wines, and foods representing the different cuisines featured in the festival films. Cocktails are created by seven local star bartenders/mixologists, including Megan McClinton of Thompson’s Bookstore and Lisa Little-Adams of Proper highlighting Absolut Elyx Vodka; Brad Hensarling of The Usual mixing Plymouth Gin; Megan Arrigunaga of Café Modern highlighting Avion Tequila;Amber Davidson of Bird Café creating with Jameson Black Barrel Whisky; Ben Rogersof Cannon Chinese Kitchen highlighting The Glenlivet Founders Reserve Scotch; andCatfish of Republic Street Bar mixing Olmeca Altos Tequila.

Café Modern chefs Denise Shavandy and Scott Kaiser present the film-inspired menu, featuring

Bread with Olive Oil and Roasted Garlic; Louisiana-Style Gumbo with Crawfish, Andouille, Okra, and Steamed Rice; Roast Turkey with Green Pipian Sauce Topped with Toasted Pepitas; French-Style Vegetable Salad with Goat Cheese and Vinaigrette Dressing; Tapas Featuring Spanish Torta with Smoked Paprika Aioli, Toast with Manchego, Membrillo, and Chorizo, Salt Cod-Stuffed Piquillo Peppers, Olives, Boquerones, and Marinated Mushrooms; Timpano, an Italian Layered Casserole of Pasta, Meatballs, Spinach, Cheese, and Eggs Baked in a Crust with Tomato Ragu; and Fresh Fruit.

GARLIC IS AS GOOD AS TEN MOTHERS (1980)

“Garlic Is Good is so good – and funny – that it doesn’t even offend someone who takes a dim view of baked whole garlic and who doesn’t exactly long to munch chocolate-covered garlic cloves. This is a collage of interviews with people who preach garlic-evangelism. They include flamenco singers, beauty-contest queens, mothers, cooks, farmers, restaurateurs, and just plain aficionados, who are promoting garlic not only as a seasoning but also as a food, a medicine, and a way of life.” Vincent Canby, New York Times. In 2004, Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers was selected for preservation in the United States

‘ National Film Registry

by the Library of Congress

as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” It was filmed at the Gilroy Garlic Festival

in Gilroy, California

, as well as in other locations in Northern California

.

YUM, YUM, YUM! A TASTE OF CAJUN AND CREOLE COOKING(1990)
Director Les Blank pays yet another visit to Southwest Louisiana and accordionist Marc Savoy, this time with an even closer focus on the region’s delectable cuisine. Savoy and his family and friends show us how to make good court bouillon, gumbo, étouffée, boudin, and other Cajun and Creole delights, from recipes that have always been passed along by demonstration rather than written down. Interspersing its appetizing cooking scenes with exuberant musical performances by the likes of Queen Ida, Yum, Yum, Yum! A Taste of Cajun and Creole Cooking is another joyful and delicious celebration of a unique way of life.

NR, 31 minutes

LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE (1992)

Happy hour with cash bar featuring special cocktails, live music with Nick Kithas and Friends, and surprise tastings related to the films.

BIG NIGHT (1996)

“As delicately and deliciously prepared as the dishes it features, Big Night is a lyric to the love of food, family, and persuasive acting.”Kenneth Turan

,Los Angeles Times

. Two brothers (Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub) gamble on one special night to try to save their failing Italian restaurant.

R, 109 minutes

RATATOUILLE (2007)

“A lot of animated movies have inspired sequels, notably Shrek

, but Brad Bird

‘sRatatouilleis the first one that made me positively desire one. Remy, the earnest little rat who is its hero, is such a lovable, determined, gifted rodent that I want to know what happens to him next, now that he has conquered the summit of French cuisine.” Roger Ebert.The winner of the 2007 Academy Award for best animated feature, Ratatouille is a feast for children of any age.

Dr. McGettigan is an associate professor in TCU’s Bob Schieffer College of Communication, teaching courses in film history and critical film studies (for Reel People Members only).

THE TRIP TO SPAIN, Preview Screening!

Tickets are $79; $77 for Modern members; $76 for Reel People members (includes film ticket, three-course dinner with wines, and gratuity/tax)

Menu features Salad of Romaine, Chicories, Olives, Artichokes, and Tomatoes, Tossed in Spanish Vinaigrette; Seafood Paella with Clams, Shrimp, Mussels, and Squid; Hunters Paella with Cornish Hen, Pork, and Sausage; and Flan with Fresh Fruit.

EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN (2002)

“Lee’s Eat Drink Man Woman is tender without being mushy, sweet without being syrupy – and surprising in ways that can only make you smile.” Steven Rea

, Philadelphia Inquirer

.

Ang Lee’s generational comedy is a richly layered look at the complex interactions between a widowed chef and his daughters.

Arbuckle’s legacy is profound and multifaceted. In addition to his film work, he mentored Charlie Chaplin and discovered Bob Hope

and Buster Keaton. Considered one of the groundbreaking comedians of the early film era, Buster Keaton made his screen debut inThe Butcher Boy and appeared in a total of 14 Arbuckle shorts before going on to direct and star in a countless number of his own films. Famed film critic Roger Ebert once said that he was “the greatest of the silent clowns . . . not only because of what he did, but because of how he did it. Harold Lloyd made us laugh as much, Charlie Chaplin moved us more deeply, but no one had more courage than Buster. I define courage as Hemingway did: ‘Grace under pressure.’ In films that combined comedy with extraordinary physical risks, Buster Keaton played a brave spirit who took the universe on its own terms, and gave no quarter.”

Robert Edwards has performed as a soloist with orchestras and chamber groups, as well as jazz bands, especially early or “Traditional” jazz. He has accompanied many silent films in performances of his own compositions or arrangements of period music, in addition to composing classically influenced film scores.He has composed and performed music for full-length silent features, such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, Sunrise, and Hitchcock’s Blackmail, as well as comedy films of Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, and many others. He provides what a silent-era audience might have heard when the film was first released by creating a pastiche of popular songs of the period, classical and jazz pieces popular at the time, pianistic sound effects, and original compositions to create a vibrant, authentic experience.

THE BUTCHER BOY (1917)

Customers and clerks frolic in a general store in this silent film classic, starring and directed by Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and featuring the film debut of “The Great Stone Face,” Buster Keaton.

NR, 30 minutes

THE COOK (1918)

One of the finest and funniest of the Arbuckle/Keaton collaborations, The Cook was long considered one of cinema’s lost holy grails until a damaged nitrate print was uncovered in the Norwegian Film Archive in 1998 in an unmarked canister. Another print, with 600 additional feet of footage (about eight minutes), was found in the Netherlands in 2002, and the two were combined, using the synopsis from the Library of Congress as a guide to create the restored version. 90% of silent films no longer exist – this is one of the rare survivors.

In a futile attempt at greater efficiency, the chef (Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle) of a fancy oceanside restaurant and his assistant (Buster Keaton) wreak havoc in the establishment.

NR, 22 minutes

MOSTLY MARTHA (2001)

When a headstrong chef takes charge of her equally stubborn 8-year-old niece, the tensions between them mount, until an Italian sous-chef arrives to lighten the mood.

PG, 109 minutes, German and Italian with English subtitles