Lights! Camera! Enter!
Sure, the Plaza Classic Film Festival is the world’s largest classic film festival, but it’s also the area’s premiere showcase of locally made and connected movies.
We’re bringing back New York-based, Hanks High School graduate Ryan Piers Williams on Aug. 16-17.
Ryan will introduce “Kilimanjaro,” a 2013 drama he produced, at 7 p.m. Aug. 16 in the Philanthropy Theatre.
He’ll follow that with the El Paso premiere of his second feature film, “X/Y,” which debuted at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, at 9:30 p.m. Aug. 16 in the Philanthropy.
Tickets for each screening are $4 at the Plaza Theatre box office and www.ticketmaster.com.
Additionally, Ryan will talk film, filmmaking and film gear at a free brunch at 11 a.m. Aug. 17 in the El Paso Community Foundation’s Foundation Room, 333 N. Oregon. Seating is limited.
We’re also bringing in El Paso filmmaker Zach Passero and Oklahoma-based director Lucky McKee to show their latest effort, the zombie horror movie “All Cheerleaders Die,” on which Zach was editor. That’s at 9:30 p.m. Aug. 8 in the Philanthropy ($4).
Coronado High graduate Yvette Yates will appear with producer Shaun Redick for a screening of “In the Blood,” which stars Gina Carano of MMA fame, at 3:30 p.m. Aug. 9 in the Philanthropy ($4). Yvette, who is in Paul Thomas Anderson’s upcoming “Inherent Vice,” and Shaun will talk about her quest to make it in Hollywood.
Las Cruces filmmaker Rajeev Nirmalakhandan will be here to show and discuss his 2013 project “The Odd Way Home,” which stars Chris Marquette and Rumer Willis, and was shot in Cruces and southern New Mexico. It screens at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 15 in the Philanthropy ($4).
Meanwhile, local filmmakers have until Aug. 1 to enter their newest projects. We’re accepting shorts, narratives, documentaries, animation, music videos and more. They have to have been completed after Jan. 1, 2012.
There’s no cost to enter. Go to the Submissions page at www.plazaclassic.com/localflavor to fill out your entry form.
They’ll be rounded up into three Local Flavor programs at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 9 (the 10th anniversary of “The Good, The Bad, The Indie, Vol. 10”), 2 p.m. Aug. 10 and 7:30 p.m. Aug. 16. Selections from this year’s Ghostlight Creative 48-Hour Film Slam will be shown at 2 p.m. Aug. 17.
We’re moving them from the art museum to the El Paso Community Foundation’s Foundation Room, 333 N. Oregon, this year.
Admission is free.
