PREHEAT

PREHEAT returns to the Hyperreal Film Club on Saturday, August 29, for its fourth year. It's an emerging Austin dance film festival that started in an East Austin backyard in 2022, and this edition continues its focus on screendance—the hybrid art form that sits right between choreography and cinematography.

The programming prioritizes BIPOC and queer storytellers, so the films you'll see come from voices that don't always get the spotlight. The night isn't just a screening, either. There's a live halftime performance to break up the films, and a moderated Q&A with the filmmakers afterward, which is a good chance to hear how they actually put these pieces together.

If you're not familiar with the term, screendance is exactly what it sounds like: dance made for the camera rather than for a stage. It's not just filming a performance from the front row; it's choreography that uses the lens, the edit, and the frame as part of the movement. The festival has been growing since those early backyard days, and this year it's back at Hyperreal, located at 301 Chicon Street in East Austin.

Doors open at 7 PM, the screening starts at 7:45 PM, and the live halftime performance comes in at 8:30 PM. The whole thing runs until 10 PM, so you've got the films, the live act, and the Q&A all in one evening.