Calling all Contracts!– Friday, Oct. 6, is the deadline for submitting your application for the New Visions/New Mexico Contract Awards being handed out by the State Film Office. If you’re a New Mexico filmmaker with a film/video project in the development, production, preproduction or distribution stage and you haven’t sent in your application, you need to get on the ball. Don’t make me tell you three times! Contracts of up to $20,000 are being offered. Application forms are available online at www.nmfilm.com/locals/nm-filmmakers/nv-ca-app.php.
Reel World
Cinema Cubano– The National Hispanic Cultural Center will be sponsoring a monthly series of films in conjunction with the Center’s exhibit “Latin American Posters: Public Aesthetics and Mass Politics.” All films are to be shown on Saturdays in the Wells Fargo Auditorium beginning at 4 p.m. and are free to the public. This Saturday, Oct. 7, will be the 1968 Cuban film Lucía . Directed by Humberto Solas, Lucía is an epic tale of three women named Lucía, each representing a different period in Cuba’s history. The film’s poster by Raúl Martínez González is featured in the Latin American Posters exhibition. For more info, log on to www.nhccnm.org.
Reel World
Mountain High– With the leaves just starting to turn, this weekend seems like the perfect time to take in New Mexico’s mountain scenery. If you need an extra excuse to attain some altitude, please note that Oct. 6-8 are the dates for the Sixth Annual Taos Mountain Film Festival. TMFF is an annual cinematic celebration of mountain sports, culture and general outdoor living. More than 60 documentary films, both feature-length and short, will be presented this year. Topics range from an anti-poaching team patrolling the remote mountains of China to fly-fishing in Colorado’s Black Canyon to a transsexual mountain bike champion from Canada to 94-year-old surf legend Woody Brown. In addition to the incredible selection of global films, the guest list features nearly a dozen writers, filmmakers and adventurers. Climber Simon Yates, whose near-death ascent of the Peruvian Andes was chronicled in Touching The Void, will be there to sign copies of his new book and deliver a Q&A screening of Touching The Void . Pete Athens, who has undertaken 15 expeditions to Mt. Everest, will talk about his work with the Himalayan Cataract Project, the subject of the Michael Brown film Light of the Himalayas . John Bowermaster, an adventure writer for National Geographic for the last 15 years, will present two of his newest documentaries about sea kayaking. Screenings will take place at the Taos Community Auditorium, the Courthouse and other locations. Individual tickets are $10. Seven-movie punch cards are $50. For complete ticket info, log on to www.mountainfilm.net or call (505) 751-3658.
