To give to the victims and their families, go to epcf.org/victims.
The El Paso Community Foundation is waiving all credit card and administrative fees.
We are working with El Paso County and the City of El Paso.
The El Paso Community Foundation and Plaza Classic Film Festival are saddened and shocked by the tragic events that occurred today in our beloved city of El Paso.
Please keep the victims your thoughts and prayers.
It is important to keep everyone safe. It is important that we start to heal. We are not going to let this destroy our ability to come together as a community.
Most of the Plaza Classic Film Festival events will go on as scheduled. We are working with Destination El Paso, El Paso Live and other partners to present a communal and safe experience for our patrons.
If would like to help the victims and their families, the El Paso Community Foundation has created the El Paso Shooting Victims’ Fund at epcf.org/victims. 100 percent of donations will go to assist those families. EPCF is waiving all fees, including credit card fees.
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.
