Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to the greatest director come out of Texas, Richard Linklater!

Today’s scene that I love comes from Linklater’s 1991 film, Slacker.  Filmed in Austin, this film not only established Linklater as one of the best indie film directors but it also inspired a countless number of other aspiring filmmakers.  How many other director have attempted to make a Slacker?  None have done it as well as Linklater.  Indeed, the film not only helped to define the modern independent film aesthetic but it also continues to shape the way that people view Texas’s idiosyncratic capital city.

In this opening scene, Linklater himself gets the film started, delivering a monologue as he’s driven around Austin.