Featuring films from 25 countries, more than a dozen world and U.S. premieres and special guests such as Susan Sarandon, the 8th Annual Taos Talking Picture Festival is no mere smalltown movie night.
It's a full-blown international film festival with 46 programs of film and video, and enough entertainment and art to satisfy even the most demanding movie junkies.
The annual event is held in Taos, partly in the already existing theaters, such as the multiplex and the Taos Community Center, and partly in venues specifically built each year for the festival.
"Last year we figured that about 8,000 people were here for the festival," said Kelly Clement, Director of Programming, the only one of the original four founding members of the festival who still helps to organize it annually. "This year we're expecting it to get up to 10,000, just from the response that we've gotten already from the ticket sales."
The festival will begin with the U.S. premiere of "Rare Birds," a comedy by Oscar-nominated director Sturla Gunnarson. Through the course of the festival, 29 feature films will be shown.
The festival also includes short films in categories such as "Animation 2002" and "Rages and Rhymes," which is a program of work by young producers from around the country. A special showcase of exclusively New Mexican shorts will also be shown.
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Along with feature films and shorts, the festival offers documentaries such as "American Standoff," about the teamsters' union; "Blue Vinyl," tracing the intrigues of the plastics industry; and "Much Ado About Something," which tackles the debate about whether Shakespeare is actually the author of the works credited to him.
The festival welcomes more than 100 filmmakers, who will be present at the programs and will be speaking to the public. Some of the award-winning guests featured will be Sarandon, John Sayles and Maggie Renzi, Haskell Wexler and Barbara Kopple. Appearances by guests such as William Hurt, Peter Fonda, and Sarah Polley are not confirmed, but anticipated.
Special event parties will be offered each night, beginning with the much-awaited Opening Night Fiesta.
The fiesta will feature Grammy award-winning band Brave Combo. The festival also includes receptions and an awards ceremony, in which the Festival will honor achievements in film.
Organizers will hand out two awards - the Taos Land Grant and the MÇliäs Award. The Land Grant awards five acres on the Taos Mesa to a filmmaker, while the MÇliäs Awards recognizes short-form filmmakers.
The festival was founded in 1994 and has been steadily growing ever since.
"We began with four of us, and none of us had done a film festival before," said Clement. "If we had known what we were getting into, we wouldn't have tackled it. Somehow, we managed to pull off that first year, and we were in awe of how the town encouraged us."
The festival runs April 11-14, and tickets can be purchased at www.ttpix.org or by calling 1-800-267-0104.
