Dir: Nancy Higgins

October 17, 2006 · 9:00pm - 10:30pm

The year was 1970. Les Amis opened in Austin, Texas -- just one block away from the state university. This sidewalk cafe quickly became a home for hippies, street people, students, and freaks. It was a place where anything could happen, and usually did.

As the years passed and the small college town grew, Les Amis survived as a counter-culture oasis. But when skyrocketing rents forced the cafe to close in 1997, slackers, punks, and revolutionaries found their patio abruptly replaced by a shiny, new Starbuck's coffee shop.

This documentary tour of a unique Austin gathering place is guided by Newman Stribling, longtime cafe manager and now taxi driver. The film weaves together original footage, home movies, scenes from the movie, Slacker, interviews with local celebrities like director Richard Linklater and punk rock singer Gibby Haynes, and classic black and white images taken by photographer Alan Pogue to capture the gone-but-not-forgotten flavor of an Austin landmark.

Viva Les Amis contrasts a corporately run place like Starbucks with a locally owned establishment like Les Amis through interviews with both sides. As a city experiences growth, what is lost? Les Amis was a meeting ground for almost three decades of eclectic characters, and now itÕs gone. The 27-year story of Les Amis Cafe is a parable for the trend of our culture away from the local and the unique, toward the corporate and the mainstream.