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Short-Film Screening: New Mexico Filmmakers Intensive
NMFI celebrates end of successful first year
College of Santa Fe For Immediate Release: September 28, 2007
Contact: Jennifer Levin
(505) 473-6502/jlevin@csf.edu
SANTA FE, NM - An assimilated immigrant forgets his roots - with dire consequences. Two girls shake off the American beauty ideal by embracing mythic women of their heritage. A terrorist attack forces a man to choose between his wife and his lover. These are just some of the themes of the films created by participants during the first year of the New Mexico Filmmakers Intensive at the College of Santa Fe. Screenwriting students triumphed over the blank page to pen feature length scripts tackling diverse subject matter including white collar immigrants, a supernatural detective story, and opinionated frog princes.
Directing and producing students partnered to shoot six short films during the summer session, which culminates in a public screening on Monday, October 8, at 5:30 p.m. at the Screen. (See below for information on the films and filmmakers.)
Diane Schneier Perrin, the director of NMFI, says the success of the new two-semester post-baccalaureate intensive is measured in part by the extraordinary and diverse community of students, primarily New Mexicans, who participated in the program. "The degree of collaboration among them," Schneier Perrin says, "enriched the distinct creative voices that emerged in the screenplays and short films produced in the program this year. Adding to this, is the extension of the program's reach to the local filmmaking community by bringing together production crews made up of CSF's undergraduate students and alumni, community college FTTP students, IA 480 mentors and union members, and local actors all donating their time and expertise in service of realizing the NMFI filmmakers' visions. The achievements of the 2007 NMFI exceeded our expectations for a fledgling program."
NMFI is a program of the College of Santa Fe's Moving Image Arts Department, which is chaired by Professor Jonathan Wacks. Wacks, who directed Powwow Highway among other films, and produced the cult classic Repo Man, served as the NMFI's directing faculty. (For more information on NMFI faculty, visit www.newmexicofilmmakersintensive.com.) Because NMFI strives to educate students on the aesthetic and technical aspects of filmmaking as well as the industry/business angle, guest professionals were brought in for the Visiting Hollywood Filmmakers series of lectures, screenings and workshops. Presenters for 2007 included producer Bill Teitler (Polar Express, Jumanji), cinematographer Amy Vincent (Black Snake Moan, Hustle & Flow), writer/director Keith Gordon (Waking the Dead, The Singing Detective, The Chocolate War), actor/director/producer Fisher Stevens (Crazy Love, A Prairie Home Companion), writer producer Kirk Ellis (John Adams, Me & My Shadow, The Judy Garland Story), and composer Dave Grusin (The Firm, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Havana).
Since the program's completion in August, the students have launched their professional pursuits: Three NMFI films have been submitted to the Sundance Film Festival; eight students from across the three tracks have submitted new projects to the state-sponsored New Visions/New Mexico contract awards; two screenwriters have applied for the Disney / ABC Latino Writers Internship; one screenwriter has applied for membership in the Writers Guild of America's Independent Writers Caucus; and Faith Strongheart, a CSF graduate and past recipient of a Women in Film scholarship, has applied for a 2007 Acceleration Grant for Emerging Filmmakers from the Women in Film/General Motors Alliance. Several recent NMFI graduates are currently working on professional film productions shooting here in New Mexico including Ed Harris' Appaloosa, Kevin Costner starring in Swing Vote, and Five Dollars A Day starring Christopher Walken and Sharon Stone.
For more information about NMFI, visit www.filmmmakersintensive.com. Admission to the screening is free. Seating is first-come, first-served. For more information call (505) 473-6400.
Films and Filmmakers
NMFI 2007
Bump In The Night
A comic horror tale of a self-involved player confronted with unresolved childhood trauma when his beloved sock monkey shows up on his doorstep.
Tantri Wija (Writer/Director) was raised in Denpasar, Bali, and Santa Fe, NM. She holds a BA in international politics and relations from Wesleyan University. She currently works for the Santa Fe Film Festival and writes a food column for the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Smallbear Free (Producer) holds a BA in theater studies from the University of California Santa Cruz. Originally from Southern California, Free attended Santa Fe High School and has worked as a video assist-technician on a number of Hollywood films shot in New Mexico.
In The Wake
After losing everything in Hurricane Katrina, Noe, a middle-aged African American baker, is evacuated to Albuquerque where he finds redemption through baking a traditional Louisiana king cake.
Craig Strong (Director) has worked in theater for 25 years, recently as an event producer for the Santa Fe Opera and producing director for Santa Fe Stages, as well as festivals in Los Angeles. He has served as a resident artist in the Iowa Playwrights Workshop at the University of Iowa and spent 1983-84 as a producer for the Groundlings. He holds a BFA in acting from the North Carolina School of the Arts.
Shannon Rotheneder (Writer) holds a BA in secondary education from the University of New Mexico. Formerly a contract administrator with the Sun Healthcare Group, Rotheneder entered NMFI intent upon changing her career.
Rorie Hanrahan (Producer) left her job with the State of New Mexico to complete and produce her screenplay, Biting Through Grace, for which she is pursuing funding through the New Mexico Film Office.
10/11
His life spared by an early morning tryst, the events of 9 /11 lead a World Trade Center stock broker to a choice between his wife and his lover.
Ali Silverstein (Writer/Director) holds a BA in fine art and religion from Columbia University and an MA from the Slade School of Fine Arts. Originally from La Jolla, CA, she lives in London, where she has had success as a painter represented by the Bischoff Weiss Gallery. In 2006, Ali produced the short film Last Night, starring Rosamund Pike.
Ginny Galtney (Producer) holds a BA in English from the University of Mississippi at Oxford. Currently a non-profit fundraiser, she has also raised funds for a large-market PBS affiliate. Her lifelong love of film led to work on the sets of Terms of Endearment and Silkwood.
Banshee
Two teenage girls bond over their shared unrequited love for the prom king and by embracing mythic women from their respective cultures (La Uorona, an Irish Banshee) and break free of their Barbie doll bondage.
Gabriel Flores (Writer/Director) grew up in Las Cruces, NM. He earned a BA in cultural anthropology from Occidental College in California before working as a freelance production assistant and stagehand. He returned to New Mexico to become involved in the state's burgeoning film industry.
Jennifer Buntjer (Producer) holds a BA in comparative and medieval literature from the University of New Mexico. She is a former air traffic controller, a career she left to pursue creative goals. She is currently working on a photographic essay and animated film, SubUrban Nomad. In 2001, Buntjer received a Canon Emerging Photographer Scholarship from the Santa Fe Workshops.
American Dream
This film brings to light the human cost of today's controversial immigration debate when an assimilated illegal immigrant loses touch with his roots and pays the ultimate price (or with tragic consequences).
James Bustamante (Director) holds a BA in moving image arts from the College of Santa Fe. Bustamante's student film, Tres Genraciones, was screened at the 2005 Santa Fe Film Festival. He is a native of Las Vegas, NM.
Raquel Troyce (Writer) is originally from Guadalajara, Mexico. She is the author of several fiction and non-fiction books and articles in Spanish and English. In 2005, she entered one of her books, Ruth, in a national contest and received third prize. She is currently at work on the screenplay Deportation Order, based on an article she wrote that received an award at the 2005 Southwest Writers Conference.
Michael L. Miller (Producer) is a producer, director and announcer. A native of Santa Fe, NM, he holds a degree in business from the University of New Mexico. Miller produced the short film Shibubu for the 2002 Duke City Shootout and received the Audience Award as well as awards for Best Film, Best Cinematographer and Best Titles. In 2005, he produced another short film, The Disappeared.
Linda, As In Beautiful
A young woman, carrying both physical and emotional scars from childhood, breaks through to the freedom of independence.
Faith Strongheart (Writer/Director) holds a BA in moving image arts from the College of Santa Fe. Originally from Ribera, NM, she has worked as an assistant director and production assistant on film productions in New Mexico. After several years working on big budget Hollywood features starring Billy Bob Thornton, Charlize Theron, Richard Gere and Russell Crowe, Strongheart wants to return to developing her own projects as an up-and-coming writer-director.
Georgiana Lee (Producer) has a BA in journalism from Creighton University. A resident of Kirtland, NM, her interest in film began with a competition in high school for which she and three friends created a documentary, called The Underground Killer, about the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act and its impact on the Navajo Nation. The film placed first in the district and state and went on to win a fifth-place award nationally.
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