El Paso, Texas — With its mountain vistas and vast desert landscapes, the El Paso-Ciudad Juarez region has fascinated filmmakers ever since the silent movie era. On Location: Making Movies in the Borderland, a new exhibition opening Friday, July 20 at the El Paso Museum of History, puts that into focus.
On Location, which will be on display through October 28 at the El Paso Museum of History, 501 N. Santa Fe, marks the fourth annual collaboration between the El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival, the world’s largest classic film festival, and the El Paso Museum of History.
On Location spans 100 years of movie-making on the border and features shooting scripts, posters and lobby cards from Courage Under Fire, Glory Road, Aventurera, The Brave Bulls and other movies made in the El Paso-Juarez area. It also includes an Acme Film Projector (pictured) used by silent film exhibitors and filmmakers Felix Padilla and Edmundo Padilla, items from the Juarez/Mexico City-based Calderon family of filmmakers, a copy of a letter Steve McQueen sent to Texas Gov. Preston Smith at the conclusion of filming The Getaway in El Paso, and items from movies based on books by El Paso authors Tom Lea and Cormac McCarthy.
Additionally, University of Texas at El Paso English and theater professor Dr. Mimi Gladstein, a member of the El Paso Community Foundation board of directors, will present a free lecture, Adapting Tom Lea’s ‘The Brave Bulls’ to the Screen, at noon Sunday, August 5 at the museum.
