Alamo City Comic Con documentary opens tonight

31 AUGUST 2015

Do you live in Austin or San Antonio? If so, you might want to clear your schedule tonight and head to the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema to see Syfytonians, a documentary about San Antonio's comic book/nerd culture and the swift rise of Alamo City Comic Con.

ACCC (11-13 September) does not get a lot of attention in the larger Con world. So here are a few facts about this Comic Con:

• Born in 2013, it welcomed 35,000 attendees its first year and 73,000 last year. That loosely puts it in the same ballpark as more high-profile Cons like ECCC and Phoenix Comicon.
• It has Hollywood guests (like Michael Rooker, Kristian Nairn, Ming Wa Nen, Stan Lee and Jon Bernthal) along with wrestlers and cosplayers.
• That said, founder Alfredo "Apple" De La Fuente, who's worked for DC Comics, keeps a strong focus on comic books. In fact, every VIP package contains a piece of artwork.

In other words, it's not surprising that someone made a documentary about ACCC. That someone is Alejandro Cabrera, an ACCC attendee who looks at both the local comic book subculture and how Alamo City Comic Con has fostered a community.

Is this interesting to non-Texas nerds? I'd say yes. Not to get all Jane Goodall, but the rise of Comic Con popularity - not just SDCC and New York but the general global spread - says a lot about our social and emotional direction in the 21st century. Comic Cons are booming in Moscow, Brisbane, New Delhi, Shanghai. It's not just the mainstreaming of superheroes and nerd life, it's not just a few thousand superfans dressing up. A persistent and widespread hunger is driving the growth of Cons, which means people are finding something in them that they're not getting anywhere else.  So any film or book that examines that phenomenon should impart at least a few insights.

This particular documentary premieres tonight - but if you aren't anywhere near Texas, you'll be able to catch it online in September.

I'll be attending ACCC weekend after next, so stay tuned for more coverage and interviews. And if you're thinking of going yourself, tickets are on sale online until 4 September.

Roger Corman documentary will premiere at SDCC

21 MAY 2015

 

Do you love low-budget creature features? Movies like "She Gods of Shark Reef" and "Night of the Blood Beast" and "Attack of the Giant Leeches"?  If so, you have excellent taste in cinema - and you may have occasionally wondered whatever happened to B-movie god Roger Corman's lost "Fantastic Four" film.

Well, now you can find out. A highly anticipated documentary called "DOOMED: The Untold Story of Roger Corman's The Fantastic Four" will premiere at Comic-Con to "shed light on the mysterious circumstances surrounding the legendary cult classic." Shiver.

It will screen as part of the SDCC International Independent Film Festival, not as its own panel. That schedule hasn't been released yet but we do know that Executive Producer Mark Sikes and editor/director Marty Langford will be present to introduce the film.

For people who only know Roger Corman from his recent Syfy movies like "Sharktopus" or "Dinocroc Vs. Supergator," this should be a fascinating look at both obscure Marvel lore and Roger's colorful Hollywood history. No, it probably won't tantalize as many people as the Back to the Future documentary - but for a certain segment of attendees, it's the movie equivalent of being handed a basket of kittens.

 

Back to the Future documentary coming to SDCC

23 APRIL 2015

2015 has been a savory year for nostalgic cinephiles. We'll have a fresh Star Wars movie in theatres (despite Star Wars Celebration, this still doesn't seem real to me) and a gaudy new Jurassic Park movie and even a Mad Max flick. TV shows like X-Files, Twin Peaks and Tales from the Dark Side are also coming back from the grave. But there's another highly anticipated movie date this year: October 2015 is the era visited in the movie Back to the Future.

This is such a big deal that there's going to be a 5-day party in LA this October celebrating the entire movie trilogy - and there's even a Kickstarter-financed documentary, which will be coming to San Diego Comic-Con.

Having never seen the movie, I was a bit surprised to realize it had such a passionate following. Call it a pop culture blind spot. But this article is a fairly interesting read about not only the documentary itself, but the filmmakers' adventures in the process of making it. Maybe once fandom was seen as a passive appreciation of a book or film universe, but today people recognize it as a community and an experience worth chronicling. The documentary has over 50 hours of interviews and footage so far, exploring both the fan and the production side of the film. That's devotion.

The actual quote in terms of SDCC is "We're hoping to hit the film festival circuit. So we'll be doing more appearances like San Diego Comic-Con, New York Comic-Con." That suggests the documentary will be screened there as part of the film fest, but it's possible it will have a panel too. Stay tuned.

Comic Con: Episode IV is out today

6 APRIL 2012


Today is the limited release of Morgan Spurlock's documentary on San Diego Comic Con. Reviews are mixed but it seems like the film's worst crime is being one-dimensional and unchallenging, while still a pleasant watch. In other words, the trailer is probably an accurate representation of the movie.

Comic Con: Episode IV - a Fan's Hope (am I the only one who hates this title?) follows a few people around the Con and examines what they get out of it. Cosplayers preen, Stan Lee struts, nerds sputter with excitement, and everyone stands in a really long line. Actually, I'm guessing that last part won't be included, beyond a few obligatory shots of the Hall H and badge pick-up lines. The film does examine the shift from comic books to Hollywood that so many of us have bemoaned, interviewing the owner of Mile High Comics (awesome must-see booth if you're new) and other dealers. But overall, my bet is that the film makes the Con look so fun and glamorous that it inspires another fifty thousand people to try to attend next year. Just what we all need.

San Diego Comic Con Documentary releases April 6

6 MARCH 2012

Morgan Spurlock's documentary Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope will be in limited theaters April 6.

As you can see in the above trailer, the film follows several attendees around - The Geek, The Designer, The Collector - and looks at the Con through their experience. Unfortunately the trailer relies heavily on the "geeks in costumes" stereotype of Comic Con, but hopefully the film delivers a bit more depth. Spurlock is the guy who did Super Size Me, so he should be able to convey the magic of the Con and why fans go to such lengths to attend.