Remembering Tobe Hooper
One of the most beautiful things about the Festival in our first few years was the serendipity which often occurred; being in the right place at the right time. One Saturday morning, I was toiling away when the phone rang. This was back in the day when we were called Austin Heart of Film Festival , which was quite a mouthful. When I finally made it through the salutation, a very quiet voice asked me if he had reached the new Writers Festival in Austin that he had heard about. I told him he had. He said he was interested in coming in to speak, so obviously I was curious as to who he was. He identified himself as a filmmaker named Tobe Hooper. My inner voice responded, “Bullsh*t!”, but I think I actually lost the ability to form real words. He continued on. Who else was coming, he wanted to know. What kind of panels would we have? Would he be able to participate on these panels?
Tobe attended a number of times over the years, bringing us some great shows to screen. We were very lucky to have this legend of horror here and we are deeply saddened to hear about his passing. I recently had the chance to cut together one of Tobe’s early panels, THE SCARE TACTIC: THE DYNAMICS OF HORROR WRITING, which he spoke on with fellow horror master Wes Craven in 1996. Next week, you can hear that content on our On Story show and podcast. I hope you will take the time to listen to these legendary writer/directors share their wisdom on the timeless genre. How lucky we have been!
– Barbara Morgan, Executive Director