Eight local and locally connected films will be featured in the El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival’s Local Flavor Showcase and Awards. There are three narrative shorts, three documentary shorts, and two music videos in this year’s program.
They will screen at 3:30 pm Sunday, July 28 in the Plaza Theatre’s Kendle Kidd Performance Hall. Tickets are $6 at the Plaza Theatre Box Office (no service charge) and Ticketmaster.com (includes service charges). The 17th annual Plaza Classic Film Festival runs July 18-28 and features special guests Sissy Spacek and Mira Sorvino. Go to plazaclassic.com/schedule to learn more.
The seventh annual Local Flavor Awards total $3,600 and will be handed out at the end of the program. Awards will be given for First Prize ($1,500), Second Prize ($1,000), Third Prize ($750), College Student Film ($100), and the audience will choose a favorite via text, which is worth $250 to the winner.
An after party will follow from 5:30-7 pm Sunday, July 28 in the Foundation Room, 333 N. Oregon (across from San Jacinto Plaza). It is free and open to the public.
Local Flavor is sponsored by the El Paso Film & Creative Industries Commission, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and the El Paso Community Foundation.
Here are this year’s selections:
• Barbette + Fontaine, documentary, Zak Zeh (14:23 minutes)
• The Cost of Opportunity, narrative, Bryant Valenzuela (16:23)
• Echoes of the Rio, documentary, Jackie Barragan (8:13)
• Haunted Places, narrative, Lia Gonzalez (9:54)
• ‘I Did the Wrong Thing’/The Romancers, music video, Diego Munoz Holguin (3:01)
• ‘Mares de Lagrima’/Papayas con Chile, music video, Ryan Michael Robson (5:33)
• Norma, documentary, Edmund A. Lozano and Romina Alexandria (31:58)
• Three Months in Star City (Ay Ay), narrative, Ulises Córdova (13:20)
This year’s Local Flavor Showcase and Awards are curated by El Paso-based, Emmy Award-winning Producer Javier Gonzalez (Funny Pages, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, In the Summers), whose projects have screened at the Venice, Toronto, Sundance, Cannes, Tribeca and SXSW film festivals; award-winning Las Cruces filmmaker and NMSU Creative Media Institute associate professor Ilana Lapid (Yochi, Red Mesa, La Catrina), whose work has shown at film festivals around the world; and Asia Saucedo, a member of the El Paso Community Foundation staff, film aficionado, and longtime Plaza Classic Film Festival contributor.
The deadline for submissions has passed. Thank you for your interest!
