Cinema in the Sun City: Plaza Classic Film Festival rings in its eighth year of movies, special guests and music
It’s tough work watching countless movies to choose from the Plaza Classic Film Festival—but someone’s gotta do it. “The hard part is trying to fit 300 to 500 ideas into 80 or 90 slots,” said Doug Pullen, the festival’s program director.
Organized by the El Paso Community Foundation, the two-week event amounts up to about 125 movies, if you include film submissions for the Local Flavor series.
“A lot of these movies are being shown the way they were intended to be shown, which is on this large screen in a movie palace,” Pullen said. “One of my favorite memories was seeing Jaws at the film festival a few years ago, and there’s a scene where Richard Dreyfuss is searching for a boat that has been turned over, and this dead body pops up, and the whole crowd screamed.”
Keeping it Classic
From Aug. 5-16, the festival will stay true its name and show a wide variety of classic films— beginning with The Natural, which stars Robert Redford. An idea initiated by Pullen at last year’s festival; this will be the second baseball movie screened at Southwest University Park.
Most of the classic movies will continue show at the theatre’s main spot, the Kendle Kidd Performance Hall. The extensive list includes Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much, A Streetcar Named Desire, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Enter the Dragon and Back to the Future—which turned 30 this year on July 3.
Award-winning organist Walter Strony will return to the festival to play the musical accompaniment for the 1920 silent The Mark of Zorro. Back by popular demand will be another Beatles movie, and this time it’s the 1965 comedy Help!—last year, A Hard Day’s Night was the 2nd best-attended ticketed movie after The Wizard of Oz. Also returning to the festival is the Civil War-themed classic Gone with the Wind, which played at the historic Plaza Theatre 75 years ago.
Blast from the Past
To coincide with the festival, the El Paso Museum of History will feature an exhibit from July 24 through September 6 called “Frankly My Dear: The Art and Impact of Gone with the Wind.” The University of Texas at Austin’s Henry Ransom Center will lend 24 items to the exhibit, including concept art, storyboards and on-set photographs from Gone with the Wind’s producer David O. Selznick’s collection.
The El Paso Museum of Art will continue to be a part of the festival showcasing 8 of Andy Warhol’s 16 millimeter experimental films, at the Energy Auditorium, as part of their exhibit “Warhol’s World: Film Screenings and an Art Installation” running from Aug. 4-16. The exhibit will also include Polaroid photographs and silkscreen prints. On Aug. 7, a Warhol’s Factory-themed shindig at the museum will include printmaking demonstrations, a photo booth and music.
Be Our Guest
Special guests have been another favorite feature at the festival, which has brought in iconic film stars such as Al Pacino, Peter Bogdanovich and Rita Moreno. “[Last year,] a woman came here from Germany because she knew that Robert Wagner was going to do a reception for [festival] pass holders,” Pullen said. “She met up with other fans from North Carolina and California and they all got him to sign their books and took pictures with him, and left very happy.”
This year, Laverne and Shirley star Cindy Williams, will be at the festival to go with the showing of the George Lucas classic American Graffiti. Fans of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest will have the chance to meet Louise Fletcher, who won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as the ice-cold, Nurse Ratched.
The festival will also include some well-known film critics and commentators—such as Turner Classic Movies producer Scott McGee and Laura Emerick— the former arts editor of Chicago Sun-Times who looked over Roger Ebert’s movie reviews.
El Paso native Yvette Yates will also return to the festival to talk about her work in the movie Bloodsucking Bastards. “It’s Office Space meets any vampire movie you can think of,” Pullen said. “She gets to be funny, and it’s nice to see that side of her.”
Going beyond the big screen
The festival also uses the intimate Philanthropy Theatre to showcase children’s movies (Alfonso Cuarón’s A Little Princess, the 1973 animation Charlotte’s Web and Muppets from Space), foreign films (Italian classic Bicycle Thieves, Cantinflas’ hit El Bombero Atómico and Indian black-and-white Pather Panchali) and documentaries including Clark Gable’s war propaganda film Combat America and Kingdom of Shadows, a film that follows the lives of 3 people facing adversities from the U.S.-Mexico drug war.
Dallas VideoFest director Bart Weiss will give a talk about award-winning documentarian Albert Maysles, who died in March, on Aug. 16 at the Foundation Room.
A well-attended tradition carried throughout the years, Plaza Classic will continue to host a free outdoor screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. This time, the intersection of Mills Avenue and Oregon Street will be closed off for the outdoor movies (including Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones and Talking Heads concert movie Stop Making Sense) plus local music; this year’s live performers will include Mariachi Fatigo, Chuco Soul Project and Dan Lambert’s Double Drum Trio.
Those who appreciate tongue-in-cheek comedy can enjoy screenings of sci-fi spoof Spaceballs and Ben Stiller classic There’s Something About Mary at the casual setting of the Mills Plaza parking garage.
While the festival primarily focuses on the classics and other audience favorites, organizers haven’t forgotten about local filmmakers. El Pasoans will have the chance to see some of their community’s talent through made-in-Chuco movies screened at both the Foundation Room and the Philanthropy Theatre.
New to the festival will be the Plaza Classic Film Camp—a two-week series of filmmaking workshops for children ages 9-13. The movies they create will also be featured at the festival on August 16.
A reflection of El Paso’s growing art community
Last year’s successful festival (which brought in about 40,000 attendees) was the result of Pullen’s 1st year of work at the El Paso Community Foundation, where he spends much of his time working through an endless list of logistics to put the event together. But before he became the festival’s program director, Pullen said his view of El Paso changed when he returned to the Sun City in 2008 and became the entertainment reporter for the El Paso Times. “[The Plaza Classic Film Festival] started the year I moved here, and I said to [the organizers,] ‘If there had been stuff like this going on in El Paso when I lived here before, I might have been less inclined to leave,’” Pullen said.
What started off as an ambitious idea of KTEP 88.5 FM’s “On Film” host Charles Horak, and El Paso Community Foundation President Eric Pearson, has flourished into a festival that represents El Paso’s increasing support for the arts. “The arts are sort of what makes us human, if you ask me,” Pearson said when asked why the Foundation finds art to be an important aspect in the community. “Humans are the only species that express themselves because they want to, not out of a physical need, but out of an emotional need, and I think that’s important.”
Whether your preferred form of art is film, illustration or music, there is evidently something for everyone at the Plaza Classic Film Festival. For more information on the festival, visit PlazaClassic.com or call 915-533-4020.
Text: Victoria Guadalupe Molinar