AUSTIN, Texas -- We've seen some busy streets turn empty the past few weeks. So do the main characters in a new Austin-made movie, "A Room Full of Nothing."

  • New indie film, "A Room Full of Nothing," eerily prescient about current coronavirus pandemic
  • Shot in Austin and made its way along festival circuit 
  • Now available on iTunes and other platforms

In their case, it's because they're the only two people left in the world.

"A Room Full of Nothing" is the debut feature film from longtime Austinites Duncan Coe and his wife Elena Weinberg. Their film's recent digital release comes with a poetic parallel.

"Having a movie about the streets of Austin being empty and the question of can you survive as an artist without audiences and can you really make it with just your significant other without killing each other is very on brand for how everyone's feeling right now," said co-director Weinberg.

 

 

The characters wish they didn't have to deal with people, and the next day everyone is gone. The filmmakers affectionately call their movie a breakup letter with the city of Austin. They've since moved to Los Angeles.

Some of their favorite places used as locations in the movie no longer exist.

"It's unprecedented growth and with that you get pushed out of art spaces, music venues get shut down all the time, and there's a bit of outcry and that sort of informed the settings of the story," said Coe, who wrote the screenplay, co-directed and stars in the film. 

Other locations span the Central Texas greenbelt and the West Texas desert. A small cast of Texan actors bring the film to life, and the film itself has taken on a life of its own.

"The film that we made, shot two years ago, released in festivals last year, is kind of a different movie than the one you can watch today on steaming," said Coe.

"We went through a few different endings for the movie and finally settled on one that's a little more open to your interpretation which I think lends itself to that kismet feeling that now it is a different movie and that's okay," said Weinberg.

"A Room Full of Nothing" won an award for quality in low-budget film on the festival circuit.

It's now available on-demand though several digital platforms including iTunes.