The 3rd annual International Film Festival, presented by the Sunset Film Society, will raise the curtain on the month-long film extravaganza on Saturday, September 1st with an epic film from Poland.
With a 1 p.m. start time, rather than the regular 2 p.m., the festival leads off with ‘With Fire and Sword,’ a 3-hour Polish historical epic, with a 10-minute Intermission as part of the presentation.
Hosted by film historian, educator, writer, archivist, publisher, and collector Jay Duncan, the films selected for the festival span the globe, and cover a wide swath of both world history and film history.
Via a news release, Duncan shares, “We are honored to be partnering with the General Casimir Pulaski Polish American Society of El Paso (Joanna K. Sikorski), Alliance Francaise d’El Paso (Josette Shaunessay), the Consul Honoraria de España en El Paso (Martha Vera), and Natalia Savchenko for the Mexican and Russian selections.”
“It is only fitting that we begin our French presentation of the 3rd annual International Film Festival with a brief history and presentation of one of Georges Méliès most famous and noteworthy productions, presented in the original hand-colored process. The literary source material was adapted from H.G. Wells’ “First Men in the Moon” and Jules Verne’s “From the Earth to the Moon”. It is with extreme pleasure that the Sunset Film Society pays tribute to this famous French film pioneer–tragically overlooked in America–as the Cinema’s 1st Creative Artist.”
As with all presentations by the Sunset Film Society, freshly popped theater popcorn, beverages, candy and snacks will be available for purchase.
Below is the schedule for the film festival. All films will be shown in the country’s respective language with English subtitles
Sept.. 1, 2018 WITH FIRE AND SWORD (Syrena EG: 1999) -175 minutes- Color POLAND
Sept. 8, 2018 A TRIP TO THE MOON (Star Film: 1902) -15 minutes- Hand-Tinted- FRANCE
Also – THE BELIER FAMILY (Mars Distribution: 1999) -105 minutes- Color FRANCE
Sept. 15, 2018 SPANISH AFFAIR II (LaZona Films: 2015) -99 minutes Color SPAIN
Sept. 22, 2018 THE MALDONADO MIRACLE (Showtime: 2003) in English -99 minutes- Color MEXICO
Sept. 29, 2018 THE BATTLE FOR SEBASTOPOL (20th Century-Fox: 2015) -122 minutes- Color RUSSIA
To view in-depth information on each film, visit the Sunset Film Society’s webpage.
