Filmmakers honor the legacy of John Aielli in new documentary

In 2021, filmmakers Sam Douglas and David Hartstein, along with KUTX program director Matt Reilly, had an idea to do a short documentary about the legendary KUTX radio host John Aielli, who for 50 years graced the Austin airwaves with his signature mix of classical and rock music, meandering thoughts and dead air.

They met Aielli at his Cherrywood home, which was covered floor to ceiling with tchotchkes and trinkets and thrift store finds, to do a long interview. 

In talking about the film last month, they described a man who spoke quite similarly to his morning radio broadcast, “Eklektikos.” He was thoughtful but eccentric as he shared about his life and his love of Austin.

“He was so incredibly genuine and generous with us,” said Hartstein, who discovered his love for Aielli while studying radio-television-film at UT Austin. “Sitting in that interview with him, it felt like our own ‘Eklektikos.’ Clearly he was physically diminished, but his voice and his mind was the same.”

In 2022, Aielli died after complications from a stroke.

Douglas and Hartstein’s film, “Faders Up: The John Aielli Experience,” which screens March 10 and 13 at South by Southwest, has since blossomed into an 80-minute documentary that, in addition to sharing Aielli’s story, is a reflection on the growth and evolution of Austin. Visuals of the city over the past five decades  give the film a feeling of the passing of time. 

Both Austinites and people from all over the world who come to the festival will be able to get a glimpse of Aeilli’s life, not only through his own words, but the words of the people who worked with him and loved him. 

“This film is obviously a very regional film and was, in a lot of ways, to preserve John’s legacy and bridge the Austin of the past to the future” Hartstein said. “It also shows the importance of radio to community, which is part of the story we are telling.”

Aielli, who was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and grew up in Killeen, Texas, had wanted to move to New York to be an opera singer but gave up that dream to go to UT in 1966, where he earned his master’s degree in English. He worked part-time as an announcer for the classical music program at KUT and eventually went back to pursuing a voice education.

In 1970, he began his radio broadcast “Eklektikos,” which became the soundtrack for morning commutes in Austin for five decades. 

Despite his shift to radio, Aielli was still known to sing on the UT campus, performing opera songs daily in the stairwell of Communication Building B. In “Faders Up,” Douglas and Hartstein re-created that tradition  by hiring an opera singer to perform in the very same stairwell. 

The film also shows scenes from the massive estate sale that happened at Aielli’s home after he died. People from Austin lined up around the block to get some small treasure from the radio icon. And, of course, you’ll hear snippets from “Eklektikos,” the cornerstone of the movie by far.

“We knew we needed to do this film just for posterity, to have a record of what Aielli did for Austin,” said Reilly, who helped get funding from KUT to finance the film. “He was unlike anyone else in this town, and we are excited to see it released.”