Marfa Film Festival
The Marfa Film Fesival is a Film festival held in Marfa, Texas, celebrating contemporary and classic film, as well as hosting musical events, tours of the area, and various other art related activities. The first annual was held May 1–5, 2008. The second annual was held April 29 - May 3, 2009. The third was held May 5–9, 2010.
The fourth Marfa Film Festival is scheduled for June 26 - 30, 2013. After a two-year hiatus, the festival returns with new dates and exciting developments. More information can be found at the festival site. Marfa Film Festival Official Site
History
The Marfa Film Festival was founded in 2007 by festival director Robin Lambaria and filmmaker Cory Van Dyke.
A unique experience far away from the traditional festival circuit, Marfa Film Festival is a celebration of both contemporary and classic filims set five thousand feet high on the great Marfa Plateau, a deeply remote land with a fascinating history as an art and film mecca.
Marfa has the interesting position of being the epic location of the films There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men, 2007's main Oscar magnets, and Giant, the Texas ranch classic. 2008's festival was sponsored by the Texas Association of Film Commissions, Patrón and Paul Mitchell Notably, John Paul and Eloise Dejoria, owners of both Patrón and Paul Mitchell, were the festival's first patrons.
2008
The most notable event of the 2008 festival was the opening of the festival screening of There Will Be Blood on the set of Little Boston. 400 attendees (many crew members and extras who had yet to see the film) were shuttled to the shooting location on a ranch 20 miles outside of Marfa. Other movies included Night of the Hunter, True Stories, The Innocents, Man On Wire, and two music videos directed by Heath Ledger.
Many of the movies were screened at the Goode-Crowley Building, and some were put on by the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema's Rolling Roadshow. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes traveled to Marfa play their first-ever show with an opening performance by artist Mia Doi Todd and Antony Langdon with his band Victoria.
The festival proceeds without awards, and screens an eclectic mix of international and regional offerings, including cinema classics outdoors on 35mm.[1][2] and in its second year was named one of the "25 Festivals Worth the Entry Fee" by MovieMaker Magazine [2].
2009
The second annual Marfa Film Festival had a mix of accessible, eclectic and classical films. Most notably, Larry McMurtry [3] made a rare appearance to accept the first "Texas Screen Legend Award" presented by Marfa Film Festival in Association with the Texas Association of Film Commissions.
There was a steak dinner and award presentation, and then a screening of "The Last Picture Show" outdoors under the stars. Polly Platt and Dianna Ossana were also in attendance. Other outdoor screenings (facilitated again by the Alamo Drafthouse Rolling Roadshow) were "The Red Shoes" and the 40th anniversary of "Midnight Cowboy."
The Swedish band Life on Earth (a side project of the band Dungen) flew from Stockholm to play a special Friday night show at the Crowley Warehouse.
2010
The third annual Marfa film Festival was held May 5–9. The festival in only its third year was hailed for attracting a strong lineup of films and their makers, such as Omar Rodríguez-López's feature film The Sentimental Engine Slayer, entirely shot in El Paso, Texas. The iconic artist Lou Reed attended the festival for the North American premiere of his first film Red Shirley.
The event hosted outdoor screenings at the eclectic El Cosmico (a multi-faceted space that includes vintage Airstream trailers, a teepee and fire-heated hot tubs). The films exhibited were The Athlete or Atletu, directed by Davey Frankel and Rasselas Lakew, the 1972 classsic The Harder They Come by Perry Henzell, and The Sun Ship Game, a rediscovered gem shot in 1969 in Marfa by Robert Drew the American documentary filmmaker known as the father of cinema verite, or direct cinema.
Musical guests included Roberto Carlos Lange of Asthmatic Kitty records, interactive sound artist Lazaro Valiente of Mexico City, and Gift Horse Project featuring members of Spacehog and Rain Phoenix. Amalia Castro, Mexicans At Night and Frontera Bugalu all from El Paso and Ciudad Juarez also played throughout.
For a full line up of the 2010 program: http://marfafilmfestival.org/2010/films/
2011
The festival co-founders split up and the festival was put on temporary hiatus.
2012
On October 4, 2012, festival director Robin Lambaria announced the return of Marfa Film Festival in 2013. The news was celebrated in a lounge in downtown Marfa, serving guests Patron cocktails and information in a chic environment during Marfa's annual Chinati Weekend. The dates are set for June 26 - 30, 2013. This is a new time of year for the festival and MFF hopes to attract visitors to Far West Texas in late June - when the high desert mountain temperatures are far more temperate than the rest of the state's.
References
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