An incredible 53 teams of hardworking filmmakers spent the weekend running around Albuquerque feverishly trying to complete their short films for the annual 48 Hour Film Project. It’s all over now but the crying. And the screening. Starting Thursday, July 19, the completed films will premiere at the KiMo Theatre in Downtown Albuquerque. The first group of short films will be shown starting at 6:30 p.m. The second group will be screened at 8:30 p.m. The third and fourth groups bow at 6:30 and 8:30 on Friday, July 20. Each of the filmmaking teams was given a prop, a character name and a line of dialogue to incorporate. Film genres (from black comedy to romance to science fiction) were handed out randomly. Other than that, the groups were cast adrift to write, cast, film, edit and score their very own 10-minute masterpieces. Let’s see what they came up with. Tickets are $10 each screening or $32 for all four blocks.
Reel World: Nuke Night Nuke Night
The New Clear New Mexico Film Festival is a weekly collection of nuclear-centric films followed by group discussions. The screenings, sponsored by the Soka Gakkai Buddhist movement, take place at the SGI-USA Community Center (1911 Sunshine Terrace SE, just south of The Pit) every Friday night at 7 p.m. New Clear New Mexico is a lead-up to the “From a Culture of Violence to a Culture of Peace: Transforming the Human Spirit” exhibit going up at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History in late September. The films being shown are an eclectic mix of documentaries and popular entertainments. On July 20, for example, the festival will screen The River That Harms , a PBS documentary from the ’90s about radioactive pollution in the San Juan River. On July 27, it’s the 1958 Japanese sci-fi film The H-Man , in which a radioactive slime monster kills criminals. Screenings are all free and open to the public.
Reel World: Off The Reservation Off The Reservation
Our local PBS station, KNME, is rightfully proud of the upcoming “POV” episode titled Up Heartbreak Hill . The documentary, shot right here in New Mexico, chronicles the lives of three high school seniors living on the Navajo Nation, struggling to retain their identities as Native Americans, but weighing life and career options away from the reservation. The film will air nationwide on Thursday, July 26. KNME and Native American Public Telecommunications, however, are sponsoring a special sneak preview at the KiMo Theatre on Wednesday, July 25. This free, public screening will include an 82-minute “director’s cut” of the film featuring footage not seen in the broadcast program. A live Q & A with the film’s young stars and its director, Erica Scharf, will follow it. Doors at the KiMo open at 6:30 p.m. Show starts at 7 p.m.
