Tag Archives: El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival

Journey down the Gila River with three mothers in search of hope and renewal after the tragic loss of their children in a screening of the work-in-progress documentary Hearts on the Gila.

The El Paso Community Foundation (EPCF) Plaza Classic Film Festival (PCFF) hosts the screening, the first stop of a six-city tour that includes Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, Silver City and Mesilla in New Mexico.

The screening will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, April 26 in the El Paso Community Foundation’s Foundation Room, 333 North Oregon, across from San Jacinto Plaza in downtown El Paso.

The tour is presented by Heart of the Gila, New Mexico Wild , and the Center for Biological Diversity ; nonprofit groups dedicated to protecting and promoting wild and scenic protection for New Mexico’s last wild river.

Hearts on the Gila takes place four years after three mothers lost their teenage children in a tragic plane crash. The women embarked on a 36-mile kayak journey down the Gila River into the Gila Wilderness in southwestern New Mexico.

Their children, passionate environmentalists who were inextricably linked to the Gila, were studying the effects of a devastating forest fire when their plane went down in high wind. The mothers look for hope and solace on the waters of one of America’s last wild rivers and one of America’s great natural treasures.

In Garcia’s film, the women learn about themselves, their children’s legacies, and the importance of wild river systems to the spiritual health of humanity in a world where wild places are rapidly disappearing.

The tour of this work-in-progress version of Hearts on the Gila — which will be submitted to major film festivals around the world when completed this year — is designed to raise awareness of the challenges facing the river, which runs through the nation’s first official wilderness area.

The screenings will be an opportunity for audience members to engage in a direct way with the filmmaking process and to dialogue in person with the filmmaker and some of the film’s subjects.

Albuquerque filmmaker David Garcia and some of the film’s subjects will participate in a Q&A after the screening.

Doors open at 6 p.m. Complimentary hors d’oeuvres will be served. There will be a cash bar (beer and wine). Parking is available nearby at the Chase/Mills Plaza Parking Garage on Oregon Street.

Admission is $10 at the door or online; all proceeds go to Heart of the Gila.

The 12th annual El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival is now accepting submissions for Local Flavor, the region’s largest showcase of locally made and connected films.

The film series, sponsored by the Texas Film Commission, features short and feature-length films of various types, including fiction, documentary, animated, experimental and music video.  Local Flavor entry is free.

More than $1,500 in cash will be handed out in the second annual Local Flavor Awards, sponsored by the Public Relations Association of the Southwest.

Entries selected for the Local Flavor series will be announced in July and screened during the festival. This year’s film festival will be August 1-11, 2019 in and around the Plaza Theatre.

Returning to curate Local Flavor are El Paso filmmakers Zach Passero(The Weird Kidz, The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot, Wicked Lake, Motel, Glimpse), who has been involved with the Plaza Classic Film Festival since it began in 2008, and Lucky McKee (Kindred Spirits, The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot, The Woods, The Woman), who first appeared at PCFF with his All Cheerleaders Die in 2014.

Any type of film may be submitted. No works-in-progress will be accepted. Projects must have been completed January 1, 2018 or after, and must be made locally, locally set or have a connection of some kind to the El Paso-Juarez-Las Cruces area (such as a director originally from El Paso).

Entry deadline is 11:59 p.m. Sunday, June 16, 2019. Submissions may be made via the Plaza Classic website.

Call 915-533-4020 or email us at local@plazaclassic.com for more information.

The El Paso Museum of History is celebrating El Paso and the Borderland’s place in Hollywood with the On Location: Making Movies in the Borderland exhibit.

The public is invited to view the exhibition, presented in conjunction with the Plaza Classic Film Fest, which highlights how Hollywood has turned El Paso’s desert and mountains into movie history.

Visitors can learn about El Pasoans who made their way to Hollywood and explore how filmmakers have used our city and the border as a background when filming. The exhibit spans 100 years of movie-making on the border and features shooting scripts, posters and lobby cards from movies such as Courage Under Fire, Glory Road, Aventurera, The Brave Bulls and other movies made in the El Paso-Juárez area.

“El Paso’s desert vistas have captured the imaginations of filmmakers from the early days of film. We are excited to showcase El Paso’s role in many feature films in this exhibition,” said Director of Museums and Cultural Affairs Tracey Jerome.

The Plaza Classic will be showing several films that feature El Paso including The Getaway, Committed, No Country for Old Men and Glory Road. The movie Amadeus, starring El Paso native and Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham, will also be screened as part of the festival.

The On Location: Making Movies in the Borderland exhibit is free and runs through October 28.

For more information, call the El Paso Museum of History at (915) 212-0320

The El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2017. A Festival Pass is a great way for film lovers to join in the birthday fun.

A Festival Pass includes admission to all ticketed movie events during the Plaza Classic, a jump-the-line express lane, invitations to private events, discounts and other perks. Plus, they are fully transferable — which means you can loan it to friends or family members!

The Plaza Classic Film Festival pass is available for the discounted price of $175 through Saturday, December 31, 2016.

Passes will be available for the regular price of $200 beginning Sunday, January 1, 2017.

Festival passes are available online at plazaclassic.com/tickets and by phone at 915-533-4020. If you have to leave a voicemail, please include your name, your phone number, email address, how many passes you want, and indicate if you would like to make an additional donation.

ilm Festival is a special project of the El Paso Community Foundation. Since its inception in 2008, the Plaza Classic has shown more than 700 movies, featured appearances by Al Pacino, Debbie Reynolds, Rita Moreno and Robert Wagner, and attracted more than 300,000 film lovers since it began in 2008.

The 10th anniversary edition of  the Plaza Classic Film Festival will be August 3-13, 2017 in and around the historic and beautifully restored Plaza Theatre Performing Arts Centre.