The White Sands International Film Festival returns to sunny Las Cruces on Wednesday, Sept. 4, with another four days’ worth of cinematic discoveries. This year’s highlights include: a lifetime achievement award for guest of honor Lou Diamond Phillips, the world premiere of the locally shot comedy Roswell FM and one of those increasingly popular “48-hour film” competitions. Noted character actor Christopher McDonald (Happy Gilmore) will be teaching an acting workshop. There will be a panel discussion on “Writing For Film” featuring C.M. Bratton, Kerry Valderama, David Spence, Amy Lanasa and Mark Medoff. To top it all off, dozens of features, shorts, and documentaries will be shown Wednesday through Sunday at the Cineport 10 theater.
Reel World: Showcase Seeks Filmmakers Showcase Seeks Filmmakers
The New Mexico Filmmakers Showcase is an annual “open sheet” screening sponsored by the New Mexico Film Office. Any New Mexico-based filmmaker wishing to get his or her work screened in front of the public is encouraged to submit features, shorts, documentaries, animation, experimental films, whatever. From Oct. 25 to Oct. 27, the Film Office will provide three days’ worth of free screening opportunities at Albuquerque’s Guild Cinema. A panel of local film professionals will critique the films in various categories, and the winning films will be included in a touring showcase that will be sent all around the state. If you’ve got a visual work you’d like to submit, entry forms and further details can be found on the State Film Office website. Space is limited, and screening slots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. There is no fee to enter. This year’s final deadline is Friday, Sept. 20, at 5pm. So get on the ball, filmmakers.
Reel World: Architects Of Cinema Architects Of Cinema
The American Institute of Architects is sponsoring another free movie night at Guild Cinema. On Thursday, Sept. 5, the theater will screen two documentaries: Diller Scofidio + Renfro Reimagining the Lincoln Center and the High Line and From Nothing, Something: A Documentary on the Creative Process. The first film starts at 7pm and shows how the famed architecture firm of DS+R renovated two major New York landmarks. The second film starts at 8pm and examines the habits, traits and neuroses all creative people have in common. Seating is limited. Tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis from 6 to 6:30pm at the Guild box office (3405 Central NE).
Reel World: Kimo Classics Kimo Classics
The historic KiMo Theatre in Downtown Albuquerque packs in another full weekend of classic cinema starting on Thursday, Aug. 29, at 7pm with the next Retrospective of Mexican Cinema offering—the 1983 Frida Kahlo biopic Frida Naturaleza Viva (Frida Still Life). On Friday, the Early Hitch series continues with Alfred Hitchcock’s 1945 thriller Spellbound (8pm). The Stanley Kubrick Retrospective rolls on thanks to Saturday’s screening of the master director’s final film, 1999’s Eyes Wide Shut (7pm). Sunday keeps up the Summer Sunday Musicals with 2005’s La Boheme redux Rent (2pm). Tickets are between $5 and $7—the bargain of the summer if you ask me.
