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Santa Fe Film Festival on the edge — of big time

By J.A. Montalbano
Friday, November 23, 2007

If you go

What: Eighth annual Santa Fe Film Festival

When: Wednesday night through Dec. 2; the state Film Office expo runs today through Monday.

Where: Various venues throughout Santa Fe; the hospitality suite, open to the public, is at Hotel Santa Fe.

How much: $10 per film; packages of 10 tickets (for specific shows) are $75. Festival passes start at $300 for other events like parties and the reception for the Milagro Awards ceremony.

More info: santafefilmfestival.com

See it first

Here are Santa Film Festival Director Stephen Rubin's picks not to miss at this year's gathering:

"Two Tickets to Paradise": D.B. Sweeney financed, wrote, directed and stars in this tale of three men on the verge of 40 who take a road trip. John McGinley (TV's "Scrubs") co-stars. "This is the essence of what independent film means," Rubin said, "in its content and its tone."

"Forgiving the Franklins": Santa Fe actress Aviva, who broke out in the summer comedy "Superbad," stars in this offbeat look at a Southern family roiled by religion.

-"Let Them Chirp Awhile": With Brendon Sexton III, who starred in the previous film fest feature "Love, Ludlow," as well as "Boys Don't Cry" and "Welcome to the Dollhouse." Rubin calls him the male Parker Posey.

"The Sensation of Sight": Another major actor (David Straithairn, "Limbo") in a quiet indie film, this one about an English teacher in a midlife crisis.

"Operation Filmmaker": Director Nina Davenport ("Parallel Lines") crafted this documentary about an Iraqi film student rescued from the war zone to be an intern on Liev Schreiber's film "Everything Is Illuminated."

"Monster Camp": Similar to last year's festival circuit hit "Darkon," this follows the live-action World of Warcraft crowd in Seattle. From Cullen Hoback, whose "Freedom State" charmed at last year's fest.

More mainstream

Major studios have discovered the Santa Fe Film Festival as a place to splash their end-of-the-year Oscar hopefuls.

"That we've doubled our gala screenings this year shows we are a destination festival," festival Director Stephen Rubin said. "The studios are aware of us."

Among the gala screenings at this year's fest:

"Grace Is Gone": John Cusack must explain to his daughters that their mother died in Iraq.

"Juno": A highly anticipated comedy starring Michael Cera ("Superbad").

"Redacted": Brian De Palma's take on the Iraq war.

"4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days": This Romanian drama was a hit at the Cannes Film Festival.

"Persepolis": Sony offers this animated version of a graphic novel about life in Iran after the 1979 revolution.

"The Walker": Woody Harrelson is an escort in Paul Schrader's dark tale.

"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly": Julian Schnabel's touching drama of a magazine editor who is paralyzed and must use one eye to blink out his memoirs.

Stargazing

A major film, "Brothers," is scheduled to begin shooting in Santa Fe this week, and three of the hottest young actors in Hollywood might be kicking around town during the film festival.

"Brothers" stars Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman.

Festival Director Stephen Rubin isn't shying away from the celebrity factor. He says he has put out the word to other actors filming this month in New Mexico, including Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson and Kyra Sedgwick, that they are welcome to hang out.

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The Santa Fe Film Festival, now in its eighth year, continues to grow, and this might be the last time it's tucked into just four full days.

Director Stephen Rubin sees the fest growing next year to nearly a full week of screenings and elbow-rubbing social events. That's closer in scope to the model he and founder Jon Bowman often cite, the Toronto Film Festival.

In addition to the screening of more than 200 features, documentaries and shorts from throughout New Mexico and all over the world, the festival is gaining traction with Hollywood studios and sponsors.

CBS and Heineken will up the corporate ante this year.

"It makes us a festival," Rubin said, drawing the distinction with a simple exposition of film screenings. "By next year we're going to be six or seven days. I think it's time. We're ready to grow."

Since the Santa Fe Film Festival was resurrected at the beginning of the decade, it has always sought to strike a balance between being true to its roots and playing with the big boys like Toronto and Sundance.

This year viewers will still get the basic categories, including the locally flavored Southwest Showcase and Art Matters. Movies screened today through Monday during the state Film Office's expo also will get one showing at the main fest, including such recent pulpy Albuquerque fare as "Necroville," "The Donor Conspiracy" and "Gimme Skelter."

"We've been a regional festival, and that's fine," Rubin said. "But we've really proved with these partnerships that we've become an international festival."

The fest will dovetail for a third year with the All Roads Film Project, global cinema presented by National Geographic. And this year, Santa Fe has added a partnership with the New York Jewish Film Festival, and the film "Making Trouble," about female comedians, will be among the titles screened.

Those partnerships give the fest a broader range, Rubin said.

"We're not curating everything," he said. "So it's not just what Jon and I like, or the jurors."

A longer festival, if that happens next year, would spread out the screenings and free up film fanatics who find there just isn't enough time to catch everything they want to see.

"The biggest complaint we get is there's too much; there's too many films to see," Rubin said. "That's great. You always want to leave people wanting more."

Among this year's highlights:

• Director Alan Cumming will be the buzz of the ball as the Maverick Award winner. The Scottish bundle of energy has been seen of late on TV's "The L Word."

• Cumming's groundbreaking digital indie film, "The Anniversary Party" (2001), will be screened. It was edited by Carol Littleton, another festival tributee. Her wide-ranging work goes back to the classics "E.T.: The Extraterrestrial," "Body Heat" and "The Big Chill."

• Littleton's husband, John Bailey, the director of photography on such films as "Groundhog Day" and "Ordinary People," also will be honored.

• Alex Cox, the '80s bad boy behind "Repo Man" and "Syd and Nancy," will be represented with "Searchers 2.0," a modern comic Western.

• "Cheap Magic Inside" is a documentary about former Santa Fe resident Zach Condon and his band Beirut.

• Longtime documentary stalwarts Alanis Obomsawin, who has chronicled native communities, and Marina Goldovskaya of Russia will be honored.

• The New Mexico Film Expo, which runs today through Tuesday, has grown to include 90 movies, mostly shorts, to go with the workshops and networking opportunities for local filmmakers.

Rubin said the festival is making a push with its educational mission. Industry professionals will attend the fest from Pixar, Lucasfilms, Panavision, Kodak, the University of New Mexico and the new Albuquerque Studios. Poster artist John Alvin will lead a lab.

While comparisons to bigger festivals might be flattering, Rubin says he and Bowman want to retain Santa Fe's identity.

"We don't want to be those other festivals," Rubin said. "We want to be who we are."