Click HERE to submit your favorite John McCall Memory.
October 20, 2021
Rebecca Campbell / CEO
Austin Film Society
John McCall was a longtime friend of the Austin Film Society. A dedicated patron of the arts, John made a tremendous impact on the Texas film community through his direct involvement with filmmakers and his generous support of AFS through the years. If everything’s bigger in Texas, John is as Texan as they come. His vision, integrity, and generosity were oversized, yet much of what he did for the film community was done in secret. In 2018, John was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame at the AFS Cinema; please see the photo.
John and Amy are responsible for establishing the AFS Cinema, a beautiful two-screen theater in Austin, with their transformational gift in 2016 that allowed AFS to renovate an old theater. This was the crown jewel of John’s decades-long support for the Texas film industry.
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To honor and celebrate his legacy and impact on the arts, filmmaker Richard Linklater dedicated AFS’s third annual Doc Days (Oct 2021) to John. Doc Days is AFS’s annual festival featuring new documentaries from around the globe, and spotlights the power of storytelling through film—something John was tirelessly passionate about.
I have also attached a beautiful photo of John, Amy and Richard Linklater at the New York premieres of WHERE'D YOU GO, BERNADETTE. Filmmakers, musicians, architects, and visual artists have lost a friend, but the many creative projects he and Amy made possible will endure.
October 26, 2021
Zo
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I have known John for thirty years, since I was ten years old. I can’t tell you what his favorite color was or what his favorite band was. I can’t even list every kindness he ever showed me or my family because there are far too many. I believe that is at the heart of who John was to so many of us. His generosity of spirit and true concern for others defined him. Almost 20 years ago, after suffering the loss of our parents within a few months of each other, John flew my sister Rach and I out to his beach house so we could take time to grieve in a peaceful and safe environment. We spent a good many days taking walks along the beach, eating sushi and take outs and talking about life and death. And sometimes we all would just sit together on the patio and look out at the ocean and not talk. That time in LaJolla was medicine and John gifted us with that relief.
Knowing John is no longer walking the Earth is painful, but knowing he has gone to his reward brings true comfort. GD knows he deserves to be walking amongst the giants of goodwill and true goodness. To know he found such happiness in his life with his family is also a comfort and I hope Amy and her sons can take some peace in hearing from one more person who’s life was greatly impacted by their John.
Thank you for everything John. You are loved and may your memory be for a blessing.
GD Bless John McCall
Zo
While John was recovering from his third battle with cancer, he received this sweet video message from some of his dearest friends.
October 30, 2021
Rachel Samuelson
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I met John when I was a kid. We became friends when I was 21. A week after my mom died John flew my sister and me to his house in CA to “get away and calm down”. I was barely 26. One day on the beach we were quietly walking, listening to the water, when I started crying. I apologized and John stopped me. I told him that I would never get a call from my mom to check in on me again. And kept crying. He gave me a hug, and we kept walking.
I returned to Austin, returned to “life”. A week later I got a call…from John. He was just checking in. From that week on I got a call. When I started back at Texas State he would call daily, keep me occupied from my thoughts, let me talk about what came up in class, professors that were still there that he remembered, just so I wouldn’t be alone on the long drive home back to Austin. The calls continued for the next decade. John has been my guardian angel for 20 years, my friend. He made me a safe space to grow up when my mom was gone, when my sister moved away. He was honest and protective and will forever be the person whose call I would never “get back to” because I would stop everything to answer. I miss my friend.