The third Plaza Classic Film Festival ran August 5-15, highlighted by the emotional homecoming of El Paso-born Debbie Reynolds, her first visit to the Sun City in nearly 60 years. Debbie regaled host Nick Clooney and a sold-out Plaza Theatre crowd with stories about Gene Kelly and Singin’ in the Rain. Director Peter Bogdanovich introduced Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil and his own The Last Picture Show. Walt Strony accompanied Buster Keaton’s silent classic The General on the Plaza Theatre’s restored Mighty Wyler Wurlitzer organ and Boston’s Alloy Orchestra backed a new restoration of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. Former El Pasoan Ryan Piers Williams and his wife, actress America Ferrera, appeared with his feature debut, The Dry Land. Austin’s Texas of t Festivalhe Moving Image brought its Texas Film Round-Up to the festival for the first time.
Guests
- Actress Debbie Reynolds
- Director Peter Bogdanovich
- Actress Nancy Olson
- Film historian/journalist Nick Clooney
- Filmmaker Ryan Piers Williams
- Actress America Ferrera
- Organist Walt Strony
- The Alloy Orchestra
- Critic Gerald Peary
- Filmmaker Bart Weiss
- Filmmaker Ric Dupont
Events
- Debbie Reynolds public reception
- “Picture Show: A Conversation with Peter Bogdanovich”
- Texas Film Round-Up
- Pecha Kucha Night Vol. 7
Music
- Bash
- Black Coyote
- Frontera Bugalu
- The Lusitania
- Zechs Marquise
Movies
- The Absent-Minded Professor
- The African Queen
- Airplane!
- All About Eve
- Art House for Kids: Amazing Animation
- Art House for Kids: Amazing Shorts
- The Bellboy
- Best of the Dallas Video Festival (with Bart Weiss)
- The Big Lebowski
- Border Shorts
- Breathless (A bout de souffle)
- The Bridge on the River Kwai
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
- Cat People (1942 version)
- Charade
- Chulas Fronteras/Del Mero Corazon
- Citizen Kane
- Cleo From 5 to 7
- Dr. No
- The Dry Land (with Ryan Piers Williams and America Ferreira)
- Easy Rider
- Explorers
- Eyes Without a Face
- A Fistful of Dollars
- Fly Away Home
- For the Love of the Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism (with Gerald Peary)
- Forbidden Planet
- The General (silent, accompanied by Walt Strony)
- The Godfather
- Gold Diggers of 1935
- The Good, The Bad, The Indie, Vol. 6
- Heavy Metal
- Howl’s Moving Castle
- Ilegales (with filmmaker Ric Dupont, two shows)
- Island of Lost Souls
- Jaws
- The Lady From Shanghai
- The Last Picture Show (with Peter Bogdanovich)
- Leave Her to Heaven
- The Magnificent Seven
- Metropolis (silent, accompanied by the Alloy Orchestra)
- Murder, My Sweet
- The NeverEnding Story
- The Nutty Professor
- The Paleface
- Picnic: 2010
- Pillow Talk
- Psycho (with Peter Bogdanovich)
- Que viva Mexico
- Rashomon
- The Red Shoes
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show
- The Rules of the Game
- Saturday Night Fever
- The Sentimental Engine Slayer (two shows)
- Seven Samurai
- The Shining
- Silent Movie
- Singin’ in the Rain (with Debbie Reynolds and Nick Clooney)
- Sleeping Beauty
- Stagecoach
- Sunset Blvd. (with Nancy Olson and Nick Clooney)
- Swiss Family Robinson
- Tarzan and His Mate
- Tarzan and the Ape Man
- The Time Machine
- Touch of Evil (with Peter Bogdanovich)
- Vamanos con Pancho Villa!
- Wild Strawberries
- Yojimbo
- Youth of the Beast
