AGFA Reel One Party

At a secret location in Austin, there's a huge 35mm film archive known as the American Genre Film Archive (AGFA), containing the rarest and wildest exploitation titles in cinema history!

AGFA is a  non-profit film archive that counts among its board members and advisors the Alamo Drafthouse founders Tim and Karrie League and programmers Lars Nilsen, Zack Carlson, Joe Ziemba, and Sam Prime, who oversees the operations and development of the archive. Many of the 35mm film prints contained in the archive are not fully documented, so periodic inspections are conducted at which time we prepare and thread up several "reel ones" -- that is to say the first 15-20 minutes of otherwise unknown or forgotten films, primarily for the purpose of taking note of opening credit information, overall condition of the film, and general plot information. The added bonus of these in-theater inspections is that they're not only informative, but often a great deal of fun, since nobody really knows what to expect, including us. For folks interested in archiving and obscure movies, every AGFA Reel One Party is a truly fascinating experience!

Plus, this time around we are adding an additional mechanic to the Reel One Party format. After we run each reel of our 5 mystery selections, the audience will vote on their favorite. The winning title will be screened later that day, 11 PM, at the Ritz. Tickets for this as-of-yet unknown, but undoubtedly fantastic, feature will be $3, which will directly benefit the archive. 

Past "reel one" screenings have uncovered some true gems -- MIAMI CONNECTION! -- and some real boring doo-doo -- SLAP IN THE FACE, starring Curd Jurgens -- so approach it with a sense of humor, a zeal for adventure, and help us rediscover an afternoon's worth of lost chapters in our movie history, while finding out a bit more about what AGFA does and what you can do to help the cause. All proceeds from ticket sales benefit AGFA in its mission to raise awareness of the importance of genre cinema through collection, conservation, and distribution. (Sam Prime)