10-stage Mania

The Insider’s Guide to iFest: Five things you can't miss this weekend, includingfree kids day

On the Bud Light World Music Stage, Saturday’s lineup includes gospelpedal-steel shredder Robert Randolph and the Family Band.
Explore the 23-foot-tall Trojan Horse.
Photo by Kristen Brown
Featured performers include one of the best new rock en espanol bands inHouston, Los Guerreros de la Musica.
Photo via Los Guerreros de la Musica/Facebook

The first weekend of the Houston International Festival is in the books, but there’s still plenty of fun to be had, as the second and final weekend of iFest is about to get underway Saturday in downtown Houston. As you make your take-two iFest plans, here are five options to consider.

1. Take a Musical Journey

From funk and soul to hard-driving roots rock, there are plenty of options for music lovers this weekend at the festival’s 10 performance venues.

On the Bud Light World Music Stage, Saturday’s lineup includes gospel pedal-steel shredder Robert Randolph and the Family Band, followed by the buoyant reggae vibe of rebel rocker Michael Franti and Spearhead.

Sunday’s bill on the World Stage features critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams, and closing out the night will be Texas firebrand Joe Ely with a rocking band that includes guitar ace David Grissom and the Rolling Stones’ long-time sax player Bobby Keys. For a complete schedule, go to ifest.org.

2. Bring Mom (The Kids Are Free!)

In celebration of Mother’s Day, children 12 and under get in free to iFest on Sunday, thanks to a grant from ConocoPhillips.

After you’re done exploring the 23-foot-tall Trojan Horse and 100-foot-long replica of the Great Wall of China in the Chevron Silk Road Living Museum, head to the Kids Zone, where the Creative Kids Corner offers tons of free arts and crafts provided by Houston-area community groups.

Special bonus if your Mom happens to be in another country: You can wish her a happy Mother’s Day free at the Cricket Wireless International Calling Kiosk in the Latin Zone on Sunday!

3. Laissez les bons temps rouler…

Can’t make it to Jazz Fest in New Orleans this year? No need to despair. First, a number of this weekend’s featured artists at Jazz Fest are also performing at iFest (including Michael Franti and Spearhead, Lucinda Williams, and Robert Randolph and the Family Band).

Second, the Houston International Festival offers its very own retooled Louisiana Zone, complete with Jackson Square, the Bacardi Gras Bar, and the Louisiana Stage sponsored by Green Mountain Energy, featuring Jazz Fest favorites like “The Crown Prince of Treme” Glen David Andrews (6 p.m. Saturday) and Buckwheat Zydeco (8:15 p.m. Saturday). Pull up a plate of crawfish and enjoy … you never know when a spontaneous Second Line brass band parade may pop up.

(P.S., don’t forget to say hi at the CultureMap booth at the entrance to the Louisiana Zone — we know where to find a party!)

4. Don’t Miss the Azerbaijan State Dance Ensemble

For a remarkable slice of the rich, vibrant culture of Azerbaijan, be sure to check out the Azerbaijan State Dance Ensemble, which will perform on Asia Society Texas Center Stage at 4:30 p.m. Saturday and at 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

This internationally acclaimed group, known for their beautiful choreography and colorful costumes, will perform traditional Azerbaijani dances in a rare Houston appearance.

5. Celebrate Cinco de Mayo

The Houston International Festival will feature special Cinco de Mayo programming on the RoomStore Latin Stage all weekend. The action gets started with Danza Azteca Teokalli and Mariachi MECA, and featured performers include top Latin ska/cumbia club band Los Skarnales, local legends the Norma Zenteno Band, and one of the best new rock en espanol bands in Houston, Los Guerreros de la Musica. Check out the entire schedule.

The second weekend of the Houston International Festival will take place from noon until 10 p.m. Saturday, and from noon until 8 p.m. Sunday.

Darrow works with the Houston International Festival staff and freely admits she is not exactly impartial. However, she points out she was a fan and dedicated festival-goer long before joining the iFest team.

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Movie Review

Camp Miasma puts a comedic twist on the classic slasher movie

Photo courtesy of MUBI

Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson in Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.

The horror genre really ramped up in the 1970s and ‘80s, bringing the slasher subgenre that gave audiences new visuals of gore, but also a reliance on sexism and homophobia that would come to define the era. The new film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma wrestles with that legacy in ways that are funny, thought-provoking, and downright strange.

Kris (Hannah Einbinder) is a queer filmmaker who has been hired to reboot the moldy IP that is the Camp Miasma franchise, one that was fresh in the 1970s but which numerous shlocky sequels have rendered irrelevant. In an attempt to get to know the property better, Kris has scored a meeting with the reclusive Billy (Gillian Anderson), the star of the original film who has shunned the public eye for decades.

Turns out that Billy lives deep in the woods at Camp Rivoli, which served as the location for the first film. As Kris tries to get to know Billy and convince her to be a part of the new film, she starts to fall under Billy’s spell and the lore of the franchise as a whole. That includes believing that the movie’s villain, Little Death — a transgender person who has an air conditioning vent as a head/mask — may not just be a character created for the movies.

Written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow), the film at first feels like it’s going to go the straight-up comedy route, with comic explosions of blood, a strange fascination with candy brands, and a production design that does nothing to hide that the two main actors are on a movie set with painted backdrops. This is backed up by Kris’ phone conversations with her girlfriend, Mari (Jasmine Savoy Brown) and her agent (Sarah Sherman), as well as numerous other details.

But the film starts to go down the surreal route the longer Kris stays at the camp with Billy, especially when they sit down to watch the original Camp Miasma. An extended sequence shows a good amount of that film-within-the-film, demonstrating why Kris and Billy have a love/hate relationship with the property. For Kris, though, the lines between the film and the real world start to blur, and Schoenbrun uses a variety of out-there elements to drive the point home.

The final act of the film can barely be described as Kris goes deeper down the rabbit hole, with Schoenbrun using her film to comment on the horror genre as a whole, its treatment of women and LGBT people, the movie industry, and more. All the while the “camp” of Camp Miasma maintains a presence, with candy wrappers showing up everywhere and the tongue-in-cheek references to Little Death (the French term La petite mort, which means “the little death,” is a euphemism for orgasm).

Einbinder, an Emmy winner for Hacks, is the perfect person to inhabit her role. Her established real-life and fictional personas color everything she does in the film, with her enthusiasm and curiosity shining through. Anderson leans heavily into another reference — Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard — to create a character that is as mysterious as she is alluring. Supporting actors like Brown, Sherman, Patrick Fischler, Dylan Baker, and Eva Victor keep the movie at the right pitch all the way through.

While other films have made fun of horror movie tropes before, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma finds a wholly unique way of doing so. It’s a funny and daring trip into the psyches of two women who may be victims of their own obsessions, and of the movies that made them that way.

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Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is now playing in select theaters

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Movie Review

Camp Miasma puts a comedic twist on the classic slasher movie