Local filmmakers take note: Thursday, March 15 is the deadline to submit your work for consideration in this year’s New Mexico Filmmakers Showcase, sponsored by the New Mexico Film Office. Films (60 minutes or less, please) will be screened online from April 1 through April 30, with viewers voting on the best films. Categories open for submission include Comedy, Drama, Documentary, Horror, Fantasy, Music Video, Sci-Fi and Student Film. The finalists in each category will be notified at the end of April, with everyone invited to a special networking event and award ceremony at the National Hispanic Cultural Center on May 19. The highest scoring film in all categories will win “Best of Show” along with a special $250 cash prize. This fall, all the winning films will be screened at the New Mexico Film & Media Industry Conference. To fill out an application and submit your work, go to nmfilm.com/nm-filmmakers-showcase.aspx.
Reel World: See The Light See The Light
If you’re a young New Mexico filmmaker looking for even more opportunities to show off your work, you should be aware of the Desert Light Film Festival. This year’s 15th annual event, taking place at New Mexico State University Alamogordo on Friday, April 27, is a competition aimed at high school and middle school students. (Public, private, charter and home schooled students are welcome.) Selected filmmakers are invited to screen their short works at the festival and to participate in various workshops and seminars. Organizers are looking for films in the categories of Animation, Music Video, Drama/Comedy, Documentary, Experimental and 30-Second Commercial. Submissions must be no more than 7 minutes in length (with the exception of commercials). Submissions can be sent via Vimeo. Deadline is Friday, March 16. For more information go to facebook.com/events/181092439165680 or contact Otero County Film Liaison K. Jan Wafful at jwafful@ci.alamogordo.nm.us.
Reel World: Indie Director Stops By Indie Director Stops By
Illinois-based director Kyle Henry visits Albuquerque’s Guild Cinema (3405 Central Ave. NE) this Friday and Saturday, March 16 and 17 to show off his newest independent film, the ensemble comedy-drama Rogers Park. Richard Roeper in the Chicago Sun-Times praised the film as having “such an authentic vibe you’ll feel as if you’re eavesdropping on the complicated and messy and sometimes heartbreaking and occasionally mildly absurd lives of the deeply flawed but mostly sympathetic early middle-aged characters at the center of the story.” The story centers on two Chicago couples struggling to keep their love alive as secrets and long-simmering resentments rise to the surface. Henry’s work has been compared to the kitchen sink drama of John Cassavetes and Mike Leigh. The director introduces the film each day at 4:30pm and participates in a post-film Q&A. Tickets are $8 general admission, $5 students/seniors. For more info go to guildcinema.com.
