August 2010

Coming soon to a
Coffeehouse ... Museum ... Church ... Historic Theatre
near you!

Going to the movies? Think outside the box office!
Alternative venues range from classic restored theaters to coffeehouses.
Story by Lisa Kay Tate

While the local multiplex might offer the newest releases with THX surround sound and even 3-D, and Netflix offers thousands of titles to watch on a smaller screen, moviegoers in the El Paso area can also choose from a wide variety of alternative venues to indulge their cinematic tastes.
Falling between the familiar options of the “big box” multiscreen movie house and Redbox DVD rentals are community-
oriented film festivals and screenings at places ranging from the majestic Plaza Theatre to local coffeehouses.
This month’s Plaza Classic Film Festival alone will offer 70 different films at three different locations. The El Paso region is also home to the Binational Independent Film Festival, White Sands Film Festival and other film events.
Ongoing film programs range from the Fountain Theatre’s CineMatinee Saturday screenings and the El Paso Holocaust Museum’s monthly series to the peace and justice films hosted by Pax Christi and Queer Cinema at Fellini Film Café.
Art and independent film lovers don’t have to wait for a festival or special series showing to catch a highly acclaimed film, with the Mesilla Valley Film Society presenting daily shows at the Fountain Theatre in Mesilla, N.M., and UTEP Cinema Novo offering weekend shows throughout the school year.

The eternal draw of
‘going to the movies’

El Paso film enthusiast Jay Duncan, an internationally recognized film historian, writer and archivist, has hosted several film series at venues ranging from the International Museum of Art to Chamizal National Memorial.
He said that there is a difference between seeing a movie at home and experiencing it with a room full of fellow moviegoers.
“I think there is something very social and communal about going to the movies,” Duncan said. “There’s something about the larger-than-life picture and sound and the crowd.”
Comic scenes that draw a mild laugh at home may provoke a room roaring with laughter in a theater. Suspense films are more exciting when everyone screams or jumps in their seat at the same time.
“Everyone has gotten spoiled to the perfection of the digital age, but there is still something to the old-school movie-going,” Duncan said. “The magic of light passing through celluloid on a big screen is still special. You couldn’t escape that same way even on the best home system.”
A case in point was the crowd that attended the showing of “Gone with the Wind” at last year’s Plaza Classic Film Festival. Duncan said that he met several people who hadn’t been out to see a movie in 25 or 30 years.
“This is a chance to escape to a gentler time when people got dressed up to enjoy a film,” he said. “When there is a chance to go see a real ‘class act’ that has stood the test of time, people treat it better.”
Duncan was the driving force behind the annual silver-age sci-fi film series “IT! Came from the ’50s,” which presented a weekend of science-fiction classics at Chamizal National Memorial. The inclusion of guest actors or directors who were involved in the original productions added to the appeal.
“It wasn’t the rarity of the films, but the opportunity to see them on the big screen with someone from the movie, and hear stories about the making of the film based on their individual experience,” Duncan explained.
This adds a special edge, he said, because even though movies may live “forever,” the people in them won’t.
Duncan said that the “IT” film festival was discontinued after four years because it outgrew the Chamizal but wasn’t quite big enough to expand in a venue like the Plaza. He hopes to see it reborn again as possibly an arm of the Classic Film Festival or on its own.
He concluded that one of the biggest elements, often overlooked, is the ambiance of the space itself.
“At the Plaza, we had old-timers who remember the venue in the past and people who didn’t have a clue what to expect,” he said. “It was always a thrill to see people coming in and looking around with their mouth hanging open in awe.”

Plaze Festival grows

In just its third year, the Plaza Classic Film Festival, set for Aug. 5–15 at The Plaza Theatre, already is the premier movie festival in the region.
Festival Artistic Director Charles Horak, who runs the successful monthly Film Salon classic-film series at Trinity-United Methodist Church, said the concept behind the film festival was to make it large-scale yet affordable.
Though it’s only in its third year, the festival bills itself as “The World’s Largest Classic Film Fest,” as festival promoters have been unable to find any classic-film-centered festival of its magnitude. This year’s event will feature 70 films in a ten-day period.
“We started big, and it’s just gotten bigger,” Horak said.
Held exclusively Downtown, the main events are in The Plaza Theatre’s primary theatre, the Kendle Kidd Performance Hall, and the Philanthropy Theatre in the Plaza annex. The event also features outdoor films in Arts Festival Plaza, film talks at Camino Real Hotel and more.
“We’re evolving in two ways,” Horak said. “Special guests and greater numbers of events. We really want to create a full festival environment, not just in the theater but in the entire area.”
The 2010 festival’s guests include the last surviving cast member of “Sunset Boulevard,” Nancy Olson; celebrated film historian Nick Clooney (father of George Clooney); El Paso–born actress Debbie Reynolds, star of festival feature “Singin’ in the Rain”; director of “The Last Picture Show” Peter Bogdanovich; and El Paso native and filmmaker Ryan Piers Williams.
Eric Pearson, a vice president of the El Paso Community Foundation, which is the festival’s executive producer, said that he looks forward to the local drama “The Sentimental Engine Slayer,” which will be presented with cast and crew present.
“I’m really looking forward to the local talent,” Pearson said. “I love to see that we are able to help these films reach a broader audience.”
One of the highlights about which Horak is most excited is the screening of the restored version of Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent science-fiction masterpiece, “Metropolis,” accompanied by the three-man band Alloy Orchestra.
“An additional 25 minutes of the film were discovered and restored, and people will get to see it on the big screen with music by this crazy three-man group,” Horak said. “It’s remarkable and will blow people’s minds how good it is.”
Buster Keaton’s silent comedy “The General” will also feature live accompaniment, from renowned organist Walt Stoney on the Plaza’s own Mighty Wurlitzer Pipe Organ. The films themselves range from world-premiere restorations of classics, like “African Queen” and “Bridge on the River Kwai,” to anniversary screenings of modern classics, like “Jaws” and art-house favorites such as “Breathless (À bout de souffle).” The border region will also be well-represented with screenings of new films by area filmmakers, such as “The Dry Land” and the Mexican classic “Vámanos con Pancho Villa.”
The low admission prices allow more of the community to attend the films in the elegant setting of the Plaza, which first entranced moviegoers when it opened in 1930 as the largest theater of its kind between Dallas and Los Angeles. Closed for years and nearly demolished, the theater came back to life in 2006 thanks to a massive renovation led by the El Paso Community Foundation and supported by the city of El Paso.
The theater’s awe-inspiring atmosphere carries over to the audience’s behavior. Festival organizers note that very few people try to break the rules or even complain about small matters like not being able to take popcorn into the main theater.
“I think people share a reverence for the venue,” Horak said. “They can feel that they are in a special place.”
Pearson said that the festival is getting attention, literally coast to coast, as is indicated by the hits received on the festival’s website.
“Our heaviest traffic areas, in addition to the local hits, are the Los Angeles and New York City areas,” he said. “I really think there are a lot of people into classic films who have been wanting something like this.”
Horak said that the focus of the festival over the next couple of years will be to bring more of the Hollywood experience to downtown El Paso, with more events and guest appearances, without driving up ticket prices too much.

Other film series

Although it has quickly become the biggest, the Plaza Classic Film Festival isn’t the only high-profile festival in El Paso. The Binational Independent Film Festival, a merging of the former Chamizal Film Festival and UTEP Film Festival, is held each January in both El Paso and Juárez, and features films from the United States and Mexico, as well as special features from other nations. Past venues have included UTEP’s Union Cinema, Centro Cultural Paso del Norte in Juárez and La Fe Clinic. The festival also hosts special guest appearances, receptions and filmmaking competitions. Each year, invited honorees that represent the binational flavor of the festival are chosen.
The Del Corazon Film Festival held in July at Kalavera Studio celebrates local films and filmmakers, and highlights other local performers like live bands and DJs.
Outside of El Paso, festivals like White Sands Film Festival, held in Las Cruces and Alamogordo; May’s Marfa Film Festival, in Marfa, Texas; and RioFest Environmental Film Festival, in Socorro, N.M., continue to grow and gain attention.
Some film series have been visual additions to other fine-arts events.
El Paso Pro-Musica’s music-film series is held each January in conjunction with the annual Chamber Music Festival.
Pro-Musica Executive Director Kathrin Berg Pettit said that the series has “completely taken off” in just three years.
The series started as free screenings with the help of Horak at Trinity Methodist, but has since moved to the Philanthropy in the Plaza Annex, with a nominal fee.
The series includes not only films about the classical-music world and performers, but also films featuring a score with work by a featured chamber musician. One of the 2011 series’ films, James Cameron’s “True Lies,” features cello music by guest Chamber Music Festival artist Armen Ksajikian.
Other annual events include film series in nontraditional settings, including UTEP’s African-American History Month and Women’s History Month events. The 2010 Mexican Revolution Centennial events have included film screenings and series at several venues, including museums in the Downtown museum district.
El Paso Community Foundation returns to the Plaza with a holiday-movie film series held the same weekend as the tree lighting and Christmas parade Downtown.
By including a variety of film genres, Pettit said, people would be able to choose from documentaries, blockbusters, classics and more. “This series ... blends the musical arts with the performing arts and the cinematic arts.”

Stars under the stars

With some series, the best theater may be the night sky, and both the city and private organizations have hosted many movies “on the lawn” and “under the stars.”
El Paso Convention and Visitors Bureau’s Movies in the Canyon is one of their more recent inspirations for utilizing the McKelligon Canyon Amphitheatre. Held each weekend late summer through October, the free event averages around 2,273 patrons per weekend, about 505 people per screening.
According to CVB Event Marketing Manager Ashley Tantimonaco, the movies are offered to appeal to both younger and older audiences.
“With our double feature, we targeted families for the early show and a slightly more mature crowd for the late-night feature,” Tantimonaco said. “Since this is a free event, we want to make sure the programming is inviting for several different demographics, and we believe we accomplished this by mixing animated features, horror movies (and) classic favorites (in) our schedule.”
Other chances to enjoy an outdoor film include the Kern Plaza Association’s monthly movies in the park series at Madeline Park during the summer months, and El Paso Parks and Recreation Department hosts Roll the Film at the Park on selected Wednesdays at various local parks. During the summer, Zin Valle Vineyards offers periodic outdoor movies in an upscale picnic setting.
Smaller can be better

Like The Plaza Theatre, the venue itself can be part of the experience.
Mesilla Valley Film Society board member Jeff Berg said that the Fountain Theatre in the historic Mesilla, N.M., is a world apart from the standard moviegoing experience. The 106-year-old historic movie house offers documentaries, art films, foreign films, and other films that don’t usually make it to El Paso’s mainstream cinemas. It presents an atmosphere absent of what Berg lists as common movie distractions: texters, unruly children (and adults) and dirty conditions.
A society member or special invited guest introduces each film. Patrons can sit either in traditional movie aisles or at one of a few tables in the back and enjoy a more coffeehouse-style experience.
“There is no comparison to what we show and to what every other full-time film venue for over 200 square miles shows,” Berg said. “We are an all-volunteer organization and this is our 21st year of operation.”
Berg said that it can be a challenge to introduce local residents to the theater.
“The Mesilla Valley Film Society more or less requires one to have a change of attitude about movies,” he said. “The films we show are of course, in some sense, about entertainment, but oft-times they are selected to show our patrons that film is a form of art as well as a way to forget your troubles for two hours.”
UTEP’s Union Cinema, home of the Cinema Novo Art and Foreign Film Series that runs through the school year, is the university’s own on-campus source of nonmainstream motion pictures. In addition to its regular showings, the UTEP theater has presented a grab bag of special-interest series, including the annual We Will Rock You music-film series, the French Film Festival, The Sun City Film Fest (local independent-film showcase) and more.
An entirely different movie experience is in the area’s only IMAX movie screen, at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo. The Tombaugh IMAX Dome Theater and Planetarium now offers combo packages allowing museum guests to view selected films with their museum admission.
On a smaller scale, the Fellini Film Café in Kern Place hosts films on selected nights for free with a minimum coffee shop purchase, and the new Travel Mug Coffee café features free movie nights.

Film series with purpose

People with particular opinions, outlooks or lifestyles often want to see films they can enjoy and discuss with others of the same interests. Several organizations in El Paso offer monthly film series or annual film fests that cater to a specific group as well as open the minds of others through the familiar art form of film.
The series range from cultural interests to films that raise social consciousness on current issues, all in settings appealing to the audiences.
In 2008, the El Paso Holocaust Museum and Study Center began a summer film series, Cinema Sundays, screening Holocaust-related films. The series was so popular it was expanded to a year-round series the next year.
Museum Executive Director Mirabel Villalva said that the series has an intimate crowd of about 30 to 40 viewers each month, and the selections often include some well-known films.
“Films range from new releases to older films, all dealing with the Holocaust or themes associated with the Holocaust,” Villalva said. “Recent films have included ‘The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,’ ‘Defiance,’ ‘The Reader,’ ‘Enemies: A Love Story,’ ‘Triumph of the Will’ and ‘Blessed is the Match.’”
Other cultural or ethnic-centered series held locally have included the Jewish Arthouse Film Series at UTEP’s Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center of Fine Arts and French-language films held monthly by L’Alliance Française d’El Paso, and the El Paso Museum of Art and Mexican Consulate have both sponsored some of the best of Spanish-language films.
A recent addition is Rio Grande Adelante Inc.’s semimonthly Queer Cinema and its annual Frontera Pride Film Festival at Fellini Film Café in the Cincinnati entertainment district.
Rio Grande Adelante Program Development Chair Danny Steel said that the films are set to appeal to the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) audience and draw around 15 to 20 viewers each screening.
“All of the films will be with a queer theme, queer following, starring queer actors or directed by an LGBT individual,” he said.
Chamizal National Memorial has featured several topic-specific series, including its First Friday series, featuring films about El Paso or border issues; a nature-film series; and Hot Topic, a current-events series focusing on discussion-provoking themes.
Themes of peace and justice are the focus of the Pax Christi Film Series, sponsored by Pax Christi El Paso and the Peace and Justice Ministry of the El Paso Catholic Diocese. The series is held at the Mother Teresa Center the second Sunday of the month.
Film committee member Wayne Daniel said that the audience averages around 25 people, but certain topics or films draw larger crowds.
“Attendance varies greatly,” he said. “About 60 people came to see ‘Soul Searching: The Journey of Thomas Merton.’ A film about Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker movement, and Al Gore’s film, ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’ also attracted larger-than-usual crowds.”
The series coordinator, Father Ed Carpenter, said that each film is intended to provide “choice” to the audience concerning various issues, such as world peace, black history, women’s history, the environment, labor, war, the judicial system, Hispanic history, domestic violence, respect for life, political responsibility, veterans and more. The August film featured is “Hiroshima: Repentance and Renewal,” with future films this year being “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price” and “Advent Conspiracy.”
The series is offered free, although donations to the ministry are always welcome.
Committee member Sister Ida R. Berresheim said that it is often hard to find films about topics on peace and justice in traditional movie venues, and films or documentaries of these types either spend a very brief time in local theaters or are never even shown.

Filmmakers emerging

The rising interest in film series and festivals continues to be fed by a rising awareness of El Paso’s multifaceted community filmmakers.
Carlos Corral keeps busy with his and his brother, Octavio’s, production company, MindWarp Entertainment, as well as helping other area filmmakers with their own work. He wrote and directed the 2010 award-winning film “Hands of God,” as well as “Santos” and “Torture Corn,” and has served as producer, actor, sound editor, cinematographer and editor for several others.
One of his most recent efforts, “Red Sands,” completed filming in June using all local on-screen talent and film crews.
“All of the actors here in El Paso are ready and willing to be in films,” he said. “I think one of the problems here is people think they have to go somewhere else to find work or talent, but the people are here to make it work.”
Corral, who shot “Hands of God” in El Paso, spent time as both a student and professional filmmaker in Austin, a city with a very visual film community.
Since returning to El Paso, Corral said, the filmmaking scene in El Paso at first seemed kind of dry, but upon networking and asking around about potential crew members, he has found several individuals willing to work and gain experience in all aspects of the moviemaking art form.
“There’s a whole network here,” he said. “You just have to know where to find them.”
One of the best sources he discovered is a film database site, epfilm.com, maintained by filmmaker Gilbert Chavarria. This network of local individuals both looking for cast and crew or for movies to work with has helped Corral and other filmmakers find worthy talent.
“Thanks to that site, I was able to make two movies,” Corral said.
He said that the biggest problem is making people aware of not only the products coming from El Paso’s film community, but also of the amount of talent to be found in the area’s film culture, which often goes unnoticed.
UTEP senior Christopher Velasquez said that he is using an almost exclusive El Paso cast and crew for his current independent film on immigration.
“I am proud to say that the entire cast and crew is comprised of UTEP students with the exception of some actors, such as Jordan Lee ( an El Paso native who played a vampire in the Twilight ‘Eclipse’ movie),” Velasquez said.
Corral said that even the variety of film genres represented locally seems to go unnoticed, as moviegoers tend to think local films primarily revolve around the border culture, including its trials and tribulations, such as drug trafficking or immigration issues. Although he feels there is a time and a place for these issues to be addressed in film, he said, El Paso films don’t have to be exclusively about just a few pet topics.
For example, he recently worked on a science-fiction project, “Maroon,” filmed nearby at White Sands National Monument, as well as the critically lauded short “Breaking Borders,” a lively documentary about the area’s drag-queen and cross-dressing community. The latter film has been making its way around film festivals in the United States and will soon be featured overseas in a festival in Spain.
That’s the thing about film, he stressed — one never knows when some “little project” they become involved in will receive international approval.
“Little by little, we’re getting there,” he said.
Corral himself has participated — and won awards — in film festivals, including Western Connecticut University’s WestConn Film Festival, Austin’s SouthSlam Film Festival and El Paso/Juárez’s binational Chamizal Independent Film Festival.
He has even had his work featured through the Plaza Film Festival, which he said has been very good about spotlighting local films. However, he would like to see a more complete competition-based film festival, and is currently working on planning one himself. He feels that this could draw filmmakers (and filmgoers) from all over to see what’s fresh and new in the motion-picture world.
“There is no real competitive El Paso film festival,” he said. “If filmmakers know there is some competition, they will come. I think if there is a true competitive El Paso film festival, people will contribute to it.”
There are smaller competitive events offered, including the recent GhostLight 48-Hour Film Slam held at The Percolator and the Golden Chile Film Challenge, open to both high school and community filmmakers. Corral said that novice filmmakers get a small taste of the process by participating in these.
“In a guerilla-filmmaking sense, these kinds of events are a good introduction to what the filmmaking experience is like,” he said. “Plus, you can also meet a lot of people and make a lot of films.”
He said that he is always ready to help others with their projects, because he realized the filmmaking community has to help each other out, for the benefit of the community as a whole. If a successful project comes from El Paso, the national and international filmmaking world will continue to keep an eye on the city and its potential.
“If one of us makes it, we all make it,” he said.

Copyright 2010 El Paso Scene