Honoring Her Tejano Heritage

Turbulence on a Texas ranch is at the center of the real-life 1875 events that inspired the independent historical drama Atanasia, screening tonight at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi. Turbulence on a Texas ranch was also the starting point for a long and involved production process guided by writer, director, producer and star Alicia Villarreal, the great-great-granddaughter of the title character, a Mexican landowner in Texas who tries to hold her family together during violent times.

Revving Up Some Vampire Noir

Typically, the word "fang" when used in a vampire movie context means only one thing: chompers that the human protagonists want to keep as far away as possible from their necks. But in the case of FANG, a Michigan indie shot over the summer and scheduled to be through post-production by the end of the year, it also stands for Fast and Nasty Gear.

From Kimmel to Kicker

By day, Los Angeles actor-writer Ian Michaels operates Padded Envelopes, a Hollywood marketing firm that helps fellow performers submit their materials to local casting directors and producers. And as he himself can attest, when given the chance to audition for a part, it is sometimes what comes right after the tryout or callback that is as important as the audition itself.

Zeroing In on a Glendale CREEP!

Although Plan 9 from Outer Space has long been celebrated as the worst movie ever made, the progenitors of the Razzie movement, brothers Michael and Harry Medved, will tell you privately that this is actually not quite right. For reasons too intricate to detail here, the 1959 Ed Wood entry was able to unfairly steal the stink spotlight from 1964's The Creeping Terror, an even worse science-fiction yarn about a man-eating carpet creation from outer space.

Storyboarding the Land of Enchantment

Even though the mountain community of Hillsboro, New Mexico has but a few hundred residents, it is a locale of central importance to Becoming Eduardo, an independent drama screening Thursday, September 16th at the Burbank International Film Festival. Resident writer-director Rod McCall shot the film there in 2008 with the help of students from the New Mexico institute where he teaches and came to the source material years earlier in the unlikeliest of Hillsboro fashions.