Two Movies, Today/Tonight: Girl’s Rock + Ground Noise

Again, lots of good stuff going on this weekend. And since I mentioned the microcinema thing, two of H-town’s indie-est theaters, the Rice Media Center and the Aurora Picture Show, both have intriguing-sounding films this afternoon & evening. (Damn, I love that picture…)

The Aurora (800 Aurora in the Heights, if you didn’t know) is showing the documentary Girl’s Rock, which is apparently about a bunch of young girls who go to a “rock camp” that’s strictly for girls and have to work through their various problems (a death metal obsession, meth addiction, etc. — y’know, the usual…gah!) while learning how to unleash their inner rocker from folks like the ever-awesome Carrie Brownstein. They all have to form a band, learn instruments, and write songs, then play those songs live at the end of the camp to a real-live audience. All of which would intimidate the fuck out of me, much less a pre-teen girl. Wow. (Although, for the chance to hang with Ms. Brownstein…)

Anyway, it sounds very cool, and hey, it’s an early screening, running from 3-4PM today (as in, um, less than an hr. from now…run!). $6 to get in, it looks like.

Film number two, put on by the hard-charging Houston IndyMedia crew at the Rice Media Center, is Ground Noise and Static: Free Speech Under Attack at the RNC. It’s another documentary, this time on the protests, activism, and general mayhem surrounding the most recent Republican National Convention (y’know, the one where they picked the crazy lady and pretty much sank the GOP ship?); the idea was to cover all the stuff going on outside the convention itself, the stuff that barely got lip service from the mainstream “liberal” media. The title apparently comes from McCain’s attempt to brush off protestors inside as “ground noise and static” (glad to know that worked out so well for him). Oh, and a whole bunch of activists got arrested for doing nothing beyond exercising their right to free speech and were later exonerated by the courts, but I dunno how much of that the film will go into.

The details on that one: Rice University, Entrance #8 (University & Stockton), 7PM, no idea how much it is (the film site just says “donations appreciated”). If you’d like some added entertainment value, btw, look out for people writing down license plate nos. — I swear to God, an elderly couple “walking” near the track when the wife and I went to see some environmental-activism films at the Media Center a few years ago stopped behind each car in the parking lot and surreptitiously took down the plates. Just remember, folks — there ain’t nothing illegal ’bout watching a movie.

Get yer film on, y’all. Hell, you can still easily attend both films and still catch the many, many cool-ass shows going on tonight. Do it!