about EAS

East Austin Stories is a collaboration between University of Texas film students and community residents, business people, patrons, and passers-by in East Austin. Stories have power when they are shared. The stories are a personal and community resource and a bridge between people locally as well as beyond the city's borders. The University of Texas students look for people and places with stories, craft them into video, and then present them back. There are two major guidelines to the class. The stories must originate or connect to communities in East Austin and the stories will be played back in pubic screenings in East Austin.

At the end of each production semester, we screen that semester’s new documentaries. We have always shown the work in the hall of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, and, since the second round of stories, in the courtyard of a local, independent café, Café Mundi. We set up a screen, borrow a projector, use a guitar amp and speaker for the sound system and we’ve got a show. As we continue to do these screenings our audiences have grown from a couple handfuls of people to an average of 150 attending each screening. We’ve also shown films at the Victory Lounge (an old Austin blues club), the Santa Cruz Cultural Center, and at local film festivals including SXSW, and Cine Las Americas. With the creation of this website, the finished work is also available here or on DVD and VHS at the Carver Library, the Austin History Center, and the Guadalupe Neighborhood Development Corporation.

East Austin is usually defined as the part of the city east of I-35, “la calle ancha.” The original “wide street” was East Avenue, until I-35, an even bigger barrier, was built over it. There is a great diversity of cultural groups and economic levels in East Austin. The vast majority of residents are working people, African-American and Latino. East Austin is an area of historical neighborhoods and it is a starting place for many new immigrants to the city. Like inner city neighborhoods around the country it faces many of the same issues. It is also a place with extensive social networks and a multitude of traditions. The University of Texas campus is an immediate neighbor, being within sight, but far away in almost every other way; historically, culturally, economically, and in the lives of youth in this area.

Thanks for taking a look.

If you have any comments or questions, please contact us at
info@EastAustinStories.org