The 20th annual Santa Fe Film Festival (quite appropriate for 2020) runs this Wednesday, Feb. 12 though Sunday, Feb. 16 at a variety of venues throughout the City Different. Wednesday starts off with the Opening Night film, Chilean director Pablo Larraín’s Ema, about a reggaeton dancer on an odyssey of personal liberation (6:30pm at the Jean Cocteau Cinema). That’s followed by the Kick-Off Party at Thunderbird Bar & Grill (50 Lincoln Ave.) at 9pm. Thursday launches four full days of features, documentaries and shorts from right here in New Mexico as well as from around the globe. The Poetry & Film Experience 2X2X (Sat, 1pm at the Scottish Rite Temple), for example, features screenings of top-shelf poetry films mixed with live performances by New Mexico Poet Laureate Levi Romero, State Senator Bill O’Neill, singer-songwriter Jenny Bird and local rhyming superstars including Don McIver, Nate Maxson, Bill Nevins, Mary Oishi, Gigi Bella and Ebony Isis Booth. The Native Cinema Program (Saturday 5:30pm at the Center for Contemporary Arts Cinematheque) is an annual favorite, showing off the best in Native American short films. Spotlight on New Mexico Shorts (Sunday, 1:30pm at Scottish Rite Temple) is a day-long collection of locally made short films. Feature offerings run the gamut from cult Japanese animation (Eiichi Yamamoto’s psychedelic 1973 film Belladonna of Sadness, screening Friday at 6pm at the Jean Cocteau) to a documentary about celebrated Argentine football player Diego Maradona (Sunday, 11pm at CCA). Among the local films on display is Caffeine and Gasoline: Evolution of the American Rocker, writer-director Steven Maes’ documentary about café racer motorcycle culture (Sunday 4pm at CCA). Plenty of people involved in the film industry will be on hand for the screenings. This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award winner is actor Matthew Modine (Birdy, Vision Quest, Short Cuts, Full Metal Jacket, “Stranger Things”), who will claim the honor at the festival’s Awards Ceremony (Saturday 7:30pm at the Scottish Rite Temple). A full schedule of films, parties, award ceremonies and other events—as well as directions to the various venues—is available online at santafefilmfestival.com. Individual tickets for the majority of events are $10 and can be purchased in advance though the website.
Reel World: Blondell Crazy Blondell Crazy
Movies in the Mountains returns to the East Mountain Public Library in Tijeras (487 NM-333) this Saturday, Feb. 15, for “A Day Late Valentine” screening. Be there to check out the 1931 romantic crime comedy Blonde Crazy starring James Cagney as an egotistical con man and Joan Blondell as his distracting accomplice. The film begins at 2pm. It’s free and open to the public.
