Photo by Rolling Stone Magazine, courtesy of Birch Public Relations.
This weekend at the Texas Theatre brings the annual JFK Week and the Dallas VideoFest’s Ernie Kovacs Award.
JFK Week honors the anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s fatal trip to Dallas.
The first showing will include the return of the original drummer of The Cramps Miriam Linna to Dallas. Linna will reveal a presentation connecting Jack Ruby, Lee Harvey Oswald and monster movies in “Conspiracy Caravan.”
The Friday, Nov. 21 event starts at 6 p.m. with a DJ spinning rare and obscure hits of 1963 prior to The Giant Gila Monster screening at 7 p.m.
Two screenings will take place during JFK Day on Saturday, Nov. 22 for WAR IS HELL at 1:20 p.m. and CRY OF BATTLE at 2:45 p.m. The movies will screen at the same times as the day Oswald walked into the Texas Theatre and was “removed” by Dallas Police Department a few minutes later.
Also this weekend, Fred Armisen will receive the 2025 Ernie Kovacs Award. Armisen is a comedian, writer, producer and musician known for his 11-seasons of Saturday Night Live, his time as Elliot Birch for the eighth and final season of Big Mouth and his role in season 2 of Netflix’s Wednesday among others.
“Fred Armisen’s unique, off-the-wall comedy is rooted in Ernie Kovacs whacked out characters, snippets of music, bizarre sounds, terminally clueless alter egos and eccentric weirdos,” said Joshua Mills of Ediad Productions, which runs the estate of Ernie Kovacs. “His humor is rooted in cockeyed yet lovable eccentrics, just like the comedy of Ernie Kovacs, which is why he’s so deserving of the 2025 Ernie Kovacs award.”
The weekend celebration kicks off Friday, Nov. 21 with a screening of Buster Keaton’s The Camera Man at 7:30 p.m., followed by Kovac’s silent Baseball Film short.
“The very first program of our festival in 1987 featured Edie Adams (Ernie’s wife and creative partner) talking about the work of Ernie Kovacs,” said Bart Weiss, founder/artistic director of Dallas VideoFest. “Ernie’s innovative spirit has been with us these 38 years. The Ernie Kovacs Award celebrates those who, much like Kovacs, redefine TV and video as an art form. His comedy constantly bends form, defies expectations, and reimagines how we experience performance and television.”
For Saturday, Nov. 22, a VIP experience is available at the Oak Cliff Cultural Center with a Meet and Greet at 6 p.m. prior to the Kovacs Award Ceremony at 7:30 p.m.
