A diverse mix of horror, comedy, drama and experimental short films make up this year’s Local Flavor showcase at the 12th annual El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival. A total of 13 projects were selected from a field of 36 locally connected submissions. Local Flavor is the area’s largest local film showcase.
“One thing became apparent in this year’s Local Flavor submissions – the borderland is evolving in its cinematic dialogue – technically and artistically,” co-curator Zach Passero said. “There is a breadth and growth shown in this years’ pool of shorts. It is something that one hopes to see in a flourishing film community - a variety of stories, genres, voices, and perspectives; each with a unique tilt that feels of this region.”
“This year’s submissions to the Plaza Classic shorts program have been absolutely stellar. There is a much more eclectic variety of genres, tones and styles which is a clear indicator that the El Paso film scene is beginning to bloom into a full on movement,” said co-curator Lucky McKee. “The Plaza Classic is a crucial ally in this movement, giving these artists a wonderful platform to share their fresh and exciting cinematic voices.”
The films will be split into two programs in the Philanthropy Theatre. Filmmaker Q&As will conclude each program. The series culminates with the second Local Flavor Awards on August 11 in the Foundation Room, 333 N. Oregon. Local Flavor is sponsored by the Texas Film Commission. The Local Flavor Awards are sponsored by the Public Relations Association of the Southwest.
Click here to see what films were selected and when they will be shown.
The El Paso Community Foundation’s Plaza Classic Film Festival is pleased to announce Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee Kathleen Quinlan will be a special guest of the 12th annual film festival in August.
Ms. Quinlan will appear for on-stage interviews with Apollo 13 at 7 p.m. Friday, August 9, and the drama Clara’s Heart at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, August 10. Both will be in the Plaza Theatre.
Kathleen Quinlan received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for best supporting actress for her nuanced portrayal of Marilyn Lovell (opposite Tom Hanks’ astronaut Jim Lovell) in Ron Howard’s thrilling Apollo 13, about the NASA crew that narrowly escaped death on an aborted mission to the moon. She plays the aggrieved mother of a 12-year-old Neil Patrick Harris in Clara’s Heart, which features a screenplay (and cameo) by Mark Medoff, the Tony Award-winning Las Cruces, N.M., playwright and longtime New Mexico State University professor who died April 23.
Ms. Quinlan’s appearance is part of the Plaza Classic’s tribute, Mark Medoff: A Brilliant Mind. It includes screenings of his Oscar-nominated Children of a Lesser God and City of Joy. Ms. Quinlan stars in the forthcoming Walking With Herb, Medoff’s final screenplay.
Both on-stage interviews will be conducted by NMSU film professor and Walking With Herb director Ross Marks, Mark Medoff’s son-in-law.
Kathleen Quinlan made her screen debut in George Lucas’ American Graffiti. Her numerous film credits include I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (for which she received a Golden Globe nomination), Independence Day, Oliver Stone’s The Doors and Twilight Zone: The Movie. Quinlan, who is married to actor/designer Bruce Abbott, has had starring roles on TV’s Family Law and Prison Break. Her stage credits include Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles and a Theater World Award-winning performance in Joseph Papp’s Public Theater production of Taken In Marriage.
Tickets for Apollo 13 are $10. Tickets for Clara’s Heart are $8. They go on sale, along with the rest of this year’s Plaza Classic movies, at 9 a.m. Tuesday, July 2 at the Plaza Theatre Box Office (no service charges apply) and Ticketmaster.com (service charges apply).
Ms. Quinlan joins a guest roster that includes husband-and-wife Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross, and author Victoria Riskin, the daughter of Hollywood legends Fay Wray and Robert Riskin.
Among the more than 90 announced titles this year are Some Like It Hot, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Mary Poppins, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Star Is Born (the Judy Garland version), King Kong, The Right Stuff, Steel Magnolias, The Wizard of Oz and La La Land.
Festival Passes are available at plazaclassic.com/tickets or by calling 915-533-4020.
The El Paso Community Foundation’s Plaza Classic Film Festival is proud to announce that it will debut El Paso filmmaker Chris Hanna’s new documentary, Now or Never: A Tony Romo Story.
The 90-minute film will be shown at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, August 4 in the Philanthropy Theatre, which is inside the Plaza Theater Performing Arts Centre annex.
Steve Kaplowitz of ESPN Radio 600 will conduct a Q&A with Hanna after the screening.
Now or Never: A Tony Romo Story examines Romo’s development as an unassuming, multiple sports star of Mexican heritage in Burlington, Wisconsin, to his emergence as the quarterback and on-field leader of the Dallas Cowboys. Now retired, Romo is a star football analyst for CBS Sports.
Hanna is a veteran of the Plaza Classic Film Festival’s Local Flavor series (the deadline for entering this year’s Local Flavor is June 23). He interviewed Romo as well as family members, and former players and coaches from his high school and college days. He is hosting a private screening for Romo and his family and friends later this month in Burlington, with another screening later in Dallas.
“As a lifelong fan of sports and the Cowboys, I always wanted to combine this passion with my love for film,” Hanna said. “After reading an article on Tony Romo and his perceived failures, I was inspired to make a film which would give his life and career justice. It has been a long journey, and a true honor to tell Tony Romo’s story through his family and community. As a product of both Mexico and the USA, it has been a privilege to tell a story which has ties to both countries. I am excited to show our documentary in my hometown of El Paso, as well as in Tony Romo’s communities of Burlington, Wisconsin, and Dallas.”
Festival passes are on sale now at plazaclassic.com/tickets or by phone, 915-533-4020.
Individual tickets go on sale July 2 at the Plaza Theatre Box Office.
Go to plazaclassic.com/schedule to see what’s showing this year. The list is almost complete.
Writer Victoria Riskin will appear at the El Paso Community Foundation’s 12th annual Plaza Classic Film Festival in August to talk about some of her parents’ movies and sign copies of her acclaimed new biography, Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir.
Ms. Riskin, the daughter of actress Fay Wray (King Kong, The Most Dangerous Game) and the great screenwriter Robert Riskin (It Happened One Night, Meet John Doe), will discuss her mother’s work as Ann Darrow in an onstage interview before a screening of the 1933 masterpiece King Kong at 7 p.m. Tuesday, August 6 in the Plaza Theatre.
She also will introduce one of her mother’s favorite movies, the 1928 Eric von Stroheim silent classic The Wedding March at 1 p.m. Tuesday, August 6, and one of her father’s most popular films, the 1938 romantic comedy You Can’t Take It With You, at 1 p.m. Wednesday, August 7. Both will be in the Plaza Theatre.
She will follow the You Can’t Take It With You screening with a book signing at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, August 7 in the Plaza Theatre.
Victoria Riskin is an award-winning television writer-producer (The Last Best Year, My Antonia, The Member of the Wedding), former president of the Writers Guild of America, West, and an activist who served on the board of Human Rights Watch.
Her mother starred in more than 120 movies and successfully transitioned from silent movies to talkies. Fay Wray met Robert Riskin — “Hollywood’s most eligible bachelor,” known for his nine films directed by Frank Capra — at a party in 1940. Their fairytale marriage ended with Riskin’s tragic death in 1955.
Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir has received rave reviews. The Associated Press wrote: “If there was an Academy Award for movie books, Victoria Riskin would be making room beside the Oscar her father won for writing the romantic comedy classic It Happened One Night.”
This year’s Plaza Classic Film Festival will feature more than 90 movies from August 1-11, 2019 in and around the historic Plaza Theatre.
In addition to Ms. Riskin, the Plaza Classic’s guests include husband-and-wife acting couple Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid at 7 p.m. Friday, August 2 and the 1978 cult classic The Legacy at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, August 3, both in the Plaza Theatre.
Among the titles announced so far are an 80th anniversary screening of The Wizard of Oz, the Plaza Classic debut of My Fair Lady, a new 4K restoration of 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1939’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame and the 11th annual free outdoor showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Individual tickets go on sale in early July. Festival passes are on sale now at plazaclassic.com/tickets. Call 915-533-4020 for more information.
Academy Award nominees Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross will be special guests of the El Paso Community Foundation’s 12th annual Plaza Classic Film Festival this August.
The couple will appear for on-stage interviews before a 50th anniversary screening of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid at 7 p.m. Friday, August 2, and the 1978 cult horror classic The Legacy at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, August 3, both in the Plaza Theatre. The Plaza Classic Film Festival also will honor Katharine Ross with its Plaza Classic Award for lifetime achievement.
The festival will be August 1-11, 2019 in and around the historic Plaza Theatre.
Katharine Ross co-starred in Butch Cassidy with Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Sam Elliott played a bit part as Card Player Number Two. The couple began dating while making The Legacy, which was directed by Richard Marquand (Return of the Jedi), and married in 1984.
Sam Elliott, whose parents were from El Paso, was a big hit at last year’s PCFF, appearing for the U.S. premiere of The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot. He was nominated this year for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Bradley Cooper’s remake of A Star Is Born, for which he also won a Best Supporting Actor award from the National Board of Review. Sam received the Plaza Classic Award last year for his more than 50-year career, including movies and TV shows such as Mask, Lifeguard, Conagher, Tombstone, and The Big Lebowski.
Katharine Ross appeared on various television shows in the early 1960s before receiving an Academy Award nomination for her performance as Elaine Robinson in 1967’s The Graduate. She won Britain’s BAFTA Award for Best Actress for her work as Etta Place in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and again for Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here. She also received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for Voyage of the Damned.
In addition to the couple’s appearances, PCFF previously announced an 80th anniversary screening of The Wizard of Oz, the Plaza Classic debut of My Fair Lady, a new 4K restoration of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the 1939 version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. More titles will be announced soon. The Plaza Classic shows more than 90 movies each year.
Individual tickets go on sale in early July. Festival passes are on sale now at plazaclassic.com/tickets. Call 915-533-4020 for more information.
