THE CALENDAR

THU/16

ART OPENINGS

KAREN HAMPTON: DOTS IN THE UNIVERSE (OPENING)

Kouri + Corrao Gallery

3213 Calle Marie (505) 820-1888

Folk textiles explore America’s past. (See SFR Picks, page 17)

5-7 pm, free

NORTHERN NM COLLEGE

FACULTY SHOW

Northern New Mexico College

921 N Paseo De Onate, Española (505) 929-0746

Visual art, dance, sound and film exploring perspective.

6-8 pm, free

SFR PHOTO SHOW

Violet Crown Cinema

1606 Alcaldesa St. (505) 216-5678

Bid on prints of our 2023 Photo Contest winners.

6-7:30 pm, free

BOOKS/LECTURES

FOLK SAINTS OF SPANISH

AMERICA

San Miguel Chapel

401 Old Santa Fe Trail

(505) 983-3974

The history of santos populares

4 pm, $10-$15

MAYA K. VAN ROSSUM: THE GREEN AMENDMENT Collected Works Bookstore and Coffeehouse

202 Galisteo St. (505) 988-4226

Author van Rossum discusses legal paths towards environmental protection.

6 pm, free

THIRD THURSDAY: FAST ART

New Mexico Museum of Art

107 W Palace Ave. (505) 476-5072

Bite-sized (we're talking three minutes) art history lectures.

6-7 pm, free

EVENTS

ALL FIERCE COMEDY SHOW

Jean Cocteau Cinema

418 Montezuma Ave. (505) 466-5528

Carlos Medina will have you laugh-crying like El Llorón.

7 pm, $10-$13

CHESS & JAZZ CLUB

No Name Cinema

2013 Pinon St. nonamecinema.org

Chess playing, jazz listening.

6-8 pm, free

OPEN MIC POETRY AND MUSIC

Chile Line Brewery

204 N Guadalupe St. (505) 982-8474

Be a modern-day bard.

8 pm, free

PAJAMA STORYTIME

Santa Fe Public Library Southside

6599 Jaguar Drive (505) 955-2820

This week's story theme is "kids in space."

6:30-7:30 pm, free

CONTINUED ON PAGE 22

After years of the pandemic shuffle, the original Santa Fe Film Festival returns this year from Feb. 17-26 (various times and locations, santafefilmfestival.com) with so many movies, panels, parties, talkbacks, etc. And since we like when there are plenty of movies to see, we caught up with Aaron Leventman, the fest’s head of programming, to see if he might shed some light on how it’s going. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. (Alex De Vore)

OK—the fest is back. How do you feel it stacks up to the before times? It’s a little hard to say because the festival hasn’t happened yet, and I think it’s a little bit of a test to see what kind of audiences we have when people aren’t going to the movies as much as they used to. Their viewing habits, the whole world, has changed; our attitudes have changed.

In the last week I’ve noticed there’s been an uptick in enthusiasm—people are wanting to go back to different cultural experiences they were missing. The thing about festivals…I know one year they did a purely virtual fest...and it’s a different kind of experience, not better or worse, but...the in-person experience, sitting in a theater with people, hearing the reaction, participating with a live talkback and the things you can’t do virtually, it’s just not the same level. I do think nothing’s the same, and I don’t think we can say it’ll be just like it was. I think festivals need to redefine themselves, they need to progress and move forward and find new ways to present the programs anyway, so it’s an opportunity.

Can you tell us about your criteria in the curation process? Are there any films you consider don’t-miss?

The challenge in doing programming is knowing the audience and community you’re programming for. When I’m looking at submissions or recommendations, I’m thinking about whether this is the kind of thing I can see people buying a ticket for and going to see in person. A lot of that takes having lived here for 18 years, so I have a sense of what kinds of films work here. That isn’t to say I don’t take risks...but I think people want good stories, whether it’s a doc, a short, a narrative feature, they want to be involved in the characters and have an emotional attachment.

You can tell right away when you start a movie if there’s some problem with how the film is directed or the acting is off or the writing is stilted. But sometimes they take a while to get going, and there’s a transformation through the film that will surprise you. When I watch a film, a lot of it is about how much it stays with me— even if it’s imperfect.

And there are a lot I consider don’tmiss. There’s a film we’re showing at CCA on Saturday night called Loren & Rose with Jacqueline Bisset—and she’s coming to the screening with her co-star, Kelly Blatz. It’s a movie about a famous actress of a certain age who is trying to find an opportunity for her one last great part, and she meets this young filmmaker who is potentially going to offer that to her. It’s from Russell Brown, whose films we’ve shown before, and the writing, the acting and the directing are so delicious, you’re hanging on to every word. It’s such a beautiful, raw character study with some of the best acting you’ll see. Another we’re showing that Jacqueline Bisset requested we show of hers, The Sleepy Time Gal, has not been shown anywhere in 20 years. It had a limited release in theaters, and Bisset plays a writer and radio host whose birth daughter is trying to track her down; she’s dealing with a health crisis so it’s an impending situation. You can’t find it anywhere. There’s also a documentary called Sam Now that’s a true life story about two brothers whose mother left the family and disappeared when they were very young, and now they’re young men and it’s about their attempts to track her down. It’s a beautiful story about generational trauma, and we’ll have two experts on generational trauma doing a talkback with the director and producer of the film, who is also one of the subjects.

This brings Santa Fe up to two large and enduring film festivals—which sounds like a lot for a tiny town. Do you think the city can and/or will support both? They have both existed for a long time, so I don’t see why that wouldn’t continue. There’s such a huge history of movie production in New Mexico...two isn’t really a lot when you think about the community, which has always been enthusiastic... It’s people who love the movies, it’s an experience you can’t get at home.