Austin filmmakers heed the call of Cannes

Although "The Tree of Life" from Austin director Terrence Malick wasn't completed in time for its widely rumored premiere as part of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection, three other movies with Austin connections will play at concurrent events along the French Riviera this year.

Producers Booka and Edythe Michel will take their narrative feature "Baghdad Texas" to the Cannes Film Market, with the aim of selling international DVD rights. And two other Austin filmmakers — Jason Marlow and Jason Wehling — will have screenings of their short films. Marlow will show "The Big Bends" in the Short Film Corner, while Wehling's "The GrownUps" will get a special screening as one of this year's winners of the 48 Hour Film Project contest.

All of the hullabaloo at the world's most prestigious film festival begins Wednesday with the premiere of "Robin Hood," starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett, and continues through May 23.

And though big-name stars such as Michael Douglas, Josh Brolin, Naomi Watts and Sean Penn will get most of the attention, tens of thousands of other industry professionals will flock to the festival's market area, which is open to almost any company that's willing to spend money to promote a project or make a distribution deal.

Located behind the glamorous Palais theaters, the market is essentially a sprawling convention hall filled with cubicles and connected to a series of small theaters unaffectionately known as "the Bunker."

The gregarious Booka Michel of "Baghdad Texas" says he plans to spend most of his time outside the Bunker. He has signed a deal with Tony Kandah, president and CEO of Hollywood Wizard, who'll lead efforts to sell the European and Middle Eastern DVD distribution rights to the Texas comedy.

The quirky feature film, which screened at last year's Austin Film Festival, focuses on a Middle Eastern dictator whose small plane crashes in Mexico, near the border. Only one man survives the crash, and he bears an eerie resemblance to Iraq's Saddam Hussein. (The satirical comedy is set before Saddam's capture and eventual execution in 2006.)

Stunned and disoriented, the survivor, played by the late Al No'Mani, stumbles across the border and ends up at a remote Texas ranch run by three bumbling cowboys. They suspect that he's the dictator but can't agree on how to proceed. Meanwhile, their housekeeper tends to the man's injuries and begins to develop a romantic attraction.

Directed by David Hickey, "Baghdad Texas" was co-written by the star, No'Mani, who was once the director of Iraq's national theater until he staged a satire dealing with Saddam. "Saddam didn't like it," Booka Michel says, "so Al had to leave Iraq quickly with his family."

No'Mani ended up teaching at Texas Tech University, Michel says, and Hickey was one of his theater students. Along with Shaneye Ferrell, the three came up with the "Baghdad" script.

The Michels have been involved with independent moviemaking for more than a decade in Austin. In the '90s, Booka Michel was a co-producer on "Ruta Wakening." And the Michels are well-known for founding Loudhouse Records, which has released albums by Mike Kindred, David Olney, R C Banks, Ponty Bone and Paul Metsa.

So it wasn't a stretch for the Michels to team up with Hickey and others to make "Baghdad" outside Kerrville in the late 2000s.

"From start to finish, the movie took about three to four years to make," says Booka Michel. "And it was quite a chore to whittle down all the hours of film that we had to only 90 minutes."

But the Michels say they are happy with the results. The movie won the best script award at the 2009 Strasbourg International Film Festival in France, and the Michels say they are discussing rights for U.S. theatrical and DVD distribution.

Like the Michels, Marlow has been making the festival rounds with his short "The Big Bends."

Set in West Texas, his movie won the best narrative short award last month at the Crossroads Film Festival in Jackson, Miss., and it also played at the South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival in March.