The historic KiMo Theatre (423 Central NW) returns to its Sci-Fi Friday screenings with ’50s Favorites. The series will start out this Friday, April 14, with the 1956 classic Forbidden Planet. The film, a Space Age adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, follows the adventures of a spaceship crew stranded on a dangerous alien planet with a mad scientist and his lovely daughter. The film will screen at 6 and 8:30pm. Tickets are $8 adults or $6 students/seniors. Sci-Fi Fridays continue on April 21 with 1954’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. For more info go to kimotickets.com.
Reel World: Lead By Example Lead By Example
The Valencia Leading Edge Film Festival returns to the UNM-Valencia campus in Los Lunas this coming Wednesday and Thursday, April 19 and 20. This year’s 6th annual festival spotlights the art of documentary filmmaking, while “showcasing the unique diversity of filmmakers and dynamic creativity of UNM-Valencia students in the Digital Media Arts and Film Technology programs.” In addition to various shorts and features, the festival will include in-person discussions with industry experts and guests. On Wednesday, April 19, at 2:30pm, for example, there will be a panel discussion featuring actor/filmmaker Ricky Lee, screenwriter and board president of the New Mexico Film Foundation Harry Musselwhite, UNM-Valencia instructor and filmmaker Justin Romine, filmmakers Glenn Silber and Dyanna Taylor, and UNM-Valencia faculty member Alexa Wheeler. Among the films being shown this year are The War at Home (which depicts resistance to the Vietnam War during the period) and Annapurna: A Woman’s Place (the dramatic story of the first American ascent of the world’s 10th highest peak by a team of 13 women in 1978). “Midnight Shanghai,” the pilot episode for a locally produced martial arts Western will also be screened. Other titles include The Byrd Who Flew Alone: Gene Clark, Fanatic Heart: The Story So Far of Black 47, They Will Just Have to Kill Us First: Music and Resistance in Mali and Bernadette Devlin: Notes on a Political Journey. The festival will run from 9am to 6pm both days in the Student Community Center on the south side of UNM-Valencia campus (280 La Entrada) This event is free and open to the public. For more info call 925-8600.
Reel World: Experi-Mental Experi-Mental
Experiments in Cinema, Basement Films’ annual celebration of “un-dependent” cinematic art, returns to town this coming week. This year’s six-day festival will concentrate on scholars and experimental films from Cuba. In addition to highlighting Cuban works, films from the USA and 36 other countries will be represented. UNM’s Department of Cinematic Arts will also host several hands-on workshops over the course of the festival. Experiments in Cinema v12.3 will get underway at Guild Cinema (3405 Central NE) on Tuesday, April 18, at 3pm with “Experiment 1,” which will feature short film/video works by Peter Volkart, Müge Yildiz, Kiera Faber, Shubhangi SIngh, Yanyu Dong and others. That’s followed by the Regional Youth Program, featuring homegrown works by students at Albuquerque Academy, Amy Biehl Charter High School, Del Note High School, Public Academy for Performing Arts, Working Classroom and others. Tickets are $10 per day, general admission or $8 per day for students. Workshops are free. For a complete schedule of all EIC v12.3 events, go to experimentsincinema.org. And check out next week’s Alibi for more info.
