Spamarama the Movie (1997)

Spamarama: The Movie (1996) -- written/directed/produced by Cressandra Thibodeaux for her graduate thesis at Columbia University -- is a quirky film which blends truth and fiction in a quasi-documentary style, following an aspiring chef named Bird (Joe Stevens) who has been accepted into the world's top culinary school (despite the fact that he only cooks with Spam) decides to throw his own Austin cookoff to raise the money for his tuition. His accomplice, David (Uranium Savages lead singer Arnsberger), is motivated by concurrent desires to impress his girlfriend and revive his band's stranded-in-the-Seventies career. Cameo and extra appearances by local icons such as Kinky Friedman, Alvin Crow, Sammy Allred, Guy Juke, Molly Ivins, and Jim Franklin offer viewers of a certain age a chance to test their powers of observation and wax nostalgic. All this is sure to have some appeal for old-timers who live in an eternal Austin of the mind where weed is prix-fixed at $10 an ounce, Salvation Sandwiches are the foodstuff of choice, and Hutto farmboys still make weekend pilgrimages to Barton Springs to ogle topless hippie chicks.