Journal Santa Fe:  Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment

          Front Page  santafe

Wednesday, December 1, 2004

Santa Fe Film Festival Begins Today

By John Arnold
Journal Staff Writer
    The projectors are threaded, and the box office is buzzing in Santa Fe, where the fifth annual Santa Fe Film Festival kicks off today.
    Nearly 200 feature and short films will be screened during the five-day event, which has developed a distinct regional flavor over the past few years.
    Sure, there are the big-name flicks— Kevin Spacey's "Beyond the Sea" and "The Merchant of Venice" starring Al Pacino, for example. There are also a slew of international selections and experimental works set to be screened.
    But the Southwest Showcase, a series of films from New Mexico and the greater Southwest, has become one of the festival's biggest draws, according to festival director Jon Bowman. Documentaries and narrative films cover a wide range of Southwestern subjects, from life on Indian reservations to the culture of high school football in rural Texas.
    In "Power, Passion & Glory: The Story of Texas Football Madness," documentary filmmakers follow a high school football team as it racks up several consecutive state championships and more than 60 straight wins.
    "It really isn't a sports movie as much as a movie about a small town and how you can have collective team values, and how kids deal with defeat," Bowman said.
    Other highlights of the series include the comedy "Baptists at Our Barbecue," based on a novel written by Albuquerque resident Robert Farrell Smith. The story is set in Longwinded, U.S.A., a small, feuding Southwest mountain town inhabited by an equal number of Baptists and Mormons. The story revolves around a 29-year-old single Mormon who moves to the town from Utah and upsets the religious balance. Both scheduled screenings at the Santa Fe Film Festival are already sold out.
    As many as 60 titles, including short films, are part of this year's Southwest series, according to Bowman.
    "Probably, along with the international series, it's the largest," Bowman said. "That's a reflection of audience tastes."
    It's also a reflection of an increase in the number of films being produced in the region, and, in some sense, the state's push to promote the film industry, Bowman said.
    Among films included in this year's Southwest Showcase are winners of the inaugural Governor's Cup Film Challenge, a state effort to encourage New Mexicans, including students, to make 25-minute documentaries and narrative films.
    There are also home-grown filmmakers screening feature-length films for the first time. Española-based filmmaker Dan Otero made his Santa Fe Film Festival debut last year with a short film.
   
WHAT: Fifth annual Santa Fe Film Festival
    WHEN: Dec. 1-5
    WHERE: Venues, include CCA Cinematheque, Cinemacafe, DeVargas Theater, the Lensic Performing Arts Center, James A. Little Theater, El Museo Cultural, The Screen at the College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe Playhouse and Santuario de Guadalupe.
    HOW MUCH: Individual tickets are $9. Ten-film packs are available for $75. Festival passes range from $300-$450.
    INFORMATION: Call or visit the film festival box office, 905 W. Alameda St., 989-1495. More information is available at www.santafefilmfestival.com.