Austin Film Society/BLISS

We became subscribers to AFS shortly after moving here and boy has this been a find!  For a $50 dual membership Abe and I see foreign, independent and obscure films every Tuesday night at the Alamo S. Lamar or Ritz for no charge.  These Alamos are a hoot.  Food and  drinks while you watch and the oldest and silliest pre-movie screen entertainment.  Chale Nafus, Program Director, greets us with his adorable interns and hands out 2-3 pages of background material.  He introduces each film with a brief history and has a wry sense of humor which always includes making light of himself.  His communication director, Agnes, is truly one of the most helpful Austinites I've met and responds to emails and messages immediately!  This year our Essential Cinema Series have included Japanese, Icelandic, Middle Eastern, French films.  We have also seen some amazing documentaries way before they open in NY.  Tonight we saw a Turkish film, BLISS, about honor killings.  The film was visually gorgeous, 3 main actors were extremely talented and everyone left praising Chale for the choice.  Boy, what a great job he has.  Making people happy!  I like that!