Exploitation film-buffs hoard huge collection
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From martial arts remakes to the "Twilight" series, genre films still rule the box office.
The origin of genre movies spread from the 1960s through the 1980s.
A group of Austin movie lovers recently started the American Genre Film Archive to preserve the exploitation era of independent film.
Some would call it a lost art that's found a new home. In the projection booth of the Alamo Drafthouse Village sits a genre wonderland of roughly 1,500 feature films and 3,500 trailers.
"We're the largest genre film print archive in the world and we're right here in Texas, in Austin," AGFA Director Oliver Franklin said. "A lot of these film aren't available on 35 [millimeter] and the only place you're going find them is here."
Franklin describes it as retirement home for horror, action and exploitation films rescued from attics, drive-in’s and old grindhouse theaters around the world.
"The world and the people who saw it were touched by it one way or another, and that's very evocative for a lot of people," said Franklin.
Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League's personal collection is the backbone of this nonprofit enterprise, dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of show business relics.
"Things are going to digital very fast, and 35 millimeter film archives are starting to disappear and be more scarce. I think it's all the more important to realize that there's a chunk of history in that film and it needs to be preserved," League said.
The collection includes a few Texas ties like films that came out of the Dallas production boom of the 1960s and 70s, and movies that inspired some of Austin's most prominent filmmakers.
But the range of this collection is meant to be enjoyed by a global audience.
"We're trying to increase that activity. We're trying to become the go-to place, certainly in the northwestern hemisphere, for this kind of film," Franklin said.
While digital projection may be the wave of the future, this remains a safe haven for cinema that never goes out of style.
"There's a romance to the film going through the projector and all of that crazy, antiquated machinery," Franklin said.
The Alamo Drafthouse regularly uses films from the Genre Archives for its Terror Tuesday and Weird Wednesday programs. Other screenings take place worldwide.
A schedule of events is available at AmericanGenreFilm.com.