Meet the people behind the programming

By Chris Garcia
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Alongside Alamo visionary Tim League, the genius behind the theater's frenetically eclectic, tonically original programming springs from a quartet of live-and-breathe fanatics of film, music and pop culture. Each of them, at Tim's behest, joined the Alamo over the past few years. They've cut their own speciality niches, but collaborate on several programs.

Kier-La Janisse, 34

Created and curates Music Mondays, books most of the films and special guests. (Her first name is pronounced 'Kay-la.') Started the Cinemuerte International Horror Film Festival in Vancouver, British Columbia. Began current job in August 2003. 'Kier-La has an obsessive love of film with a particularly deep knowledge of horror, science fiction, fantasy, Italian crime and westerns,' League says. 'She's also an encyclopedia of music knowledge. She started Music Monday, was instrumental in getting Fantastic Fest off the ground and has been responsible for some of the most daring and provocative films to play the Alamo in the past four years.'

Zack Carlson, 32

The newest addition to the creative staff programs Terror Thursday, among other events. Began current job in June 2006. 'Zack comes to us from the Northwest Film Forum,' League says. 'I challenge you to find anyone on the planet who knows more about the history of punk rock in the movies.'

Henri Mazza, 30

Created the interactive live game shows, Open Screen Night, Chemistry 101, Videoke and all the Sing-along programs. Puts together trailers for upcoming Alamo shows and the popular 'We will take your (bleep) out' no-talking public service announcement. Began current job in Februrary 2001. 'A non-stop fountain of ideas and the visionary behind numerous interactive show experiences at the Alamo, Henri has done more to change the face of Alamo programming than anyone else,' League says.

Lars Nilsen, 35

Programs Weird Wednesday and creates pre-show clip compilations. Began current job in January 2004. 'Lars was a hard-core regular customer who first asked to just get a job washing dishes at the theater,' League says. 'Before he was hired, he began preparing custom pre-shows for every Weird Wednesday. Then (he) started to program Weird Wednesday and introduce the shows. He became so indispensable that we decided to make it official and brought him into the programming team.'

Signature events

The Alamo has never respected preconceptions about what sort of entertainment belongs inside its walls. Kung fu exhibitions and burlesque shows precede movies; air-guitar dreamers compete for prizes; elaborate feasts accompany appropriately themed features. (If you sat down to watch all the "Rings" movies in a row — the extended versions, that is — you'd want some hobbit bread, too.)

Programmers have reinvented the open-mike concept with "Open Screen" nights that will show any short film, no matter how odd, while local filmmakers with longer movies (like the junior-high kid, Emily Hagins, who made a zombie flick with classmates) can rent the theater for premieres.

"The Alamo is willing to try anything once," says Buzz Moran, who under the moniker Foleyvision plays foreign-film oddities without the soundtrack, recreating dubbing and sound effects live in the theater.

Ask Moran (who had his wedding in the downtown theater) if he had a hard time explaining the concept to the Alamo, and you'll find it was Tim League's idea. Upon seeing Moran do sound effects for the Salvage Vanguard Theater play "Intergalactic Nemesis," League "thought about how bad the dubbing and sound effects were for old kung fu films and realized it would be a great concept to try to perform that dubbing live in the theater."

The same was true of perhaps the Alamo's most famous signature event, Mister Sinus Theater. John Erler, who has formed Master Pancake Theater since the Sinus troupe disbanded, says "Tim League came looking for us, basically," after Alamo fans begged him to screen old episodes of the "Mystery Science Theater 3000" TV show and he thought it would be more fun to do something live.

And one of League's half-serious come-ons led to what became a reliable laugh-getter for Sinus performances — sudden outbursts of near-nudity. "Our very first show," Erler says, "was an old movie called 'Nude on the Moon.' Tim decided to do a special offer, where anybody who showed up nude could get in free. We thought, 'ha ha, maybe one person will do it' — but we had about 20, 25 nudists show up. You couldn't ask for a better weird thing to happen on opening day."

Naked equals funny, the comedians learned — especially for a performer like Erler, an imposing, hairless figure who stands what seems like 9 feet tall.

— John DeFore

Music and the movies

Since 2003, programmer Kier-La Janisse and the staff of the Alamo have delivered a consistent series of music-related movies. Music Mondays feature concert films, documentaries on obscure bands and weird movies with killer soundtracks. And admission is only $2.

Janisse, a rabid fan of eccentric rock of all stripes, says she thinks the programs have created a much-needed link between the Alamo and Austin's live music fans.

"I would see a lot of the same people over and over again at shows, but rarely at the Alamo," she says. "A lot of people who were music people told me they never really looked at the Alamo calendar until the Music Mondays started. It was the kick they needed to get them paying attention to what we do."

That said, there's no guarantee the movies will get bodies in the door. Sometimes, Janisse's taste doesn't jibe with the masses.

In January, Janisse booked "Melody (S.W.A.L.K.)," one of her favorite films. The 1970 cult film stars Jack Wild ("Oliver!") and features music by the early Bee Gees; Janisse thought it would bring in Austin's pop geeks.

"I was so excited," she says. "I pushed this movie like crazy. Nobody came." A collection of vintage clips of the Smiths, on the other hand, sold out.

In recent months, local bands with an aesthetic tie to the featured film have played a set. Garage rockers the Teeners played with "La Brune et moi," a flick about the French punk scene, while popsters the Lovely Sparrows played with a documentary about Tim Buckley.

The bands aren't paid, as Janisse wants to keep the door price low, but the gig comes with free food, a bar tab and Alamo passes. "It's still a little sporadic, but the bands seem to like doing it," she says.

— Joe Gross