Archive for March, 2009

Who: White Sands International Film Festival
What: 2009 Festival Program
When: April 23-26, 2009
Where: Las Cruces, New Mexico
Contact: kierstin@wsiff.com, www.wsiff.com

Selections were announced today for the Fifth Annual White Sands International Film Festival, which runs Thursday April 23rd through Sunday April 26th and features local talent. WSIFF will screen over 45 independent documentary and narrative films at the new Cineport 10 and will conduct a series of informative and exciting panels led by industry experts. Weekend events will comprise of an opening night bash hosted by Risottos and after parties by the Azul Nightclub at Hotel Encanto on Friday and Saturday night.

New Mexico film highlights include The Land of Space and Time, by award winning filmmakers Michael Lennick and Shirley Guilliford. This is a sophisticated and compelling story of the development of the United States Space Program and features Holloman Air Force Base and the White Sands Missile Range. Also included in the program is How the West Was Lost, a documentary about the locking up of 300,000 acres of New Mexican land, written and directed by Las Crucesan Erik Ness.
In addition, WSIFF will screen animations by NMSU’s Creative Media Institute.

WSIFF will also conduct panels by industry experts such as actor Jamison Jones (24, He Was A Quiet Man) who will teach the “Business and Art of Acting”, as well as Casting Directors Donn Finn (Titanic, L.A. Confidential) and New Mexico’s own Jo Edna Boldin, who will host “Auditioning for T.V. and Film”. Finally, WSIFF will offer a “Conversation With Mark Medoff”, an Oscar Nominated and Tony Award winning writer (Children of A Lesser God, 100 MPG), which discusses screenwriting and
directing, followed by a Q&A with Mr. Medoff.

Other participants in the festival include screenwriters Kathy Gori & Alan Berger (I Love You Phillip Morris), author and professor, Dr. Sam Smiley (Playwriting, The Structure of Action), Jon Hendry, IATSE Local #480 Union Leader, and Bill Hanson from Apple Computers.

Guests can view the full schedule and purchase passes and tickets at WWW.WSIFF.COM. Tickets are also available at www.whitemusicbox.com. (Day Passes sold day of festival at Allen Theatres Cineport 10; Rush tickets available if seating is available).

Who: Institute of American Indian Arts
What: American Indian writers Heid Erdrich and Eric Gansworth
When: Tuesday, April 14, 4:00 p.m., and Thursday, April 16, 7:00 p.m.
Where: Lucky Bean Coffee Shop (55 Canada del Rancho in the Rancho Viejo neighborhood) and a poetry reading Thursday, April 16, 7:00 p.m. in the Library and Technology Center Auditorium on the IAIA Campus (83 Avan Nu Po Road) in Santa Fe.
Contact: (505) 424-2365, www.iaia.edu

acclaimed American Indian writers Heid Erdrich and Eric Gansworth will be coming to IAIA in April. The public is invited to a question and answer session with both writers on Tuesday, April 14, 4:00 p.m. at the Lucky Bean Coffee Shop (55 Canada del Rancho in the Rancho Viejo neighborhood) and a poetry reading Thursday, April 16, 7:00 p.m. in the Library and Technology Center Auditorium on the IAIA Campus (83 Avan Nu Po Road). Both events are free of charge.

Heid Erdrich has authored three poetry collections including National Monuments (Michigan State University Press) and the recently re-issued Fishing for Myth from New Rivers Press. She also authored The Mother’s Tongue (Salt Publishing’s Earthworks series) and co-edited Sister Nations: Native American Women on Community (Minnesota Historical Society Press). Erdrich has been the recipient of numerous awards from the Minnesota State Arts Board, The Loft Literary Center and the Archibald Bush Foundation. She is a three-time nominee for the Minnesota Book Award. A member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibway, Erdrich grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota. She earned degrees from Dartmouth College and Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars. She and her sister, Louise Erdrich, recently co-founded Birchbark House, a non-profit clearinghouse for Indigenous language-centered literature.

Eric Gansworth, an enrolled member of the Onondaga Nation, was born and raised at the Tuscarora Indian Nation in western New York. He is a Professor of English and Lowery Writer-in-Residence at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York and received both a bachelor and a master of arts degree in English from Buffalo State College. Gansworth began his creative work as a visual artist, eventually expanding to narrative as a way of furthering the storytelling he had already developed as a painter. His books, including Indian Summers (Michigan State University Press), Smoke Dancing (MSUP), Mending Skins (University of Nebraska Press), Nickel Eclipse (MSUP), Iroquois Moon (MSUP), A Half-Life of Cardio-Pulmonary Function (Syracuse University Press) and Breathing the Monster Alive (Bright Hill) all feature paintings as integral parts of their story lines. Gansworth has received many awards including a PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles National Literary Award in 2006 for his novel, Mending Skins.

For more information about this reading, please contact IAIA creative writing faculty, Jon Davis at (505) 424-2365. For more information about the Institute of American Indian Arts, please visit www.iaia.edu.

Who: Peterson-Cody Gallery
What: An exhibit of more than 25 new landscapes, figurative and still-life paintings
When: April 3 - 24, 2009
Where: 130 West Palace Ave., Santa Fe, New Mexico
Contact: (505) 820-0010, www.PetersonCodyGallery.com

The Peterson-Cody Gallery, LLC will present an exhibit of more than 25 new landscapes, figurative and still-life paintings by Gallery artists from April 3rd through April 24th, 2009. An opening night reception will be held on Friday, April 3rd from 5:00pm – 7:30pm in conjunction with the West Palace Arts District First Friday Artwalk.

David P. Knowlton, David Foley, David Mayer, Bruce Cody, Gordon Inyard and Stephen Day will present new landscape paintings. Annie Dover, Michael Downs and Elizabeth Rickert will offer new figurative and still-life works. Also included among the works in this exhibit are 3 oil on canvas, still- life paintings by Sherry Loehr. Loehr, a California artist, is represented in Santa Fe by the Peterson-Cody Gallery as of April 1.

The Peterson-Cody Gallery, LLC is located at 130 West Palace Ave, Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Gallery specializes in contemporary realism and continuously exhibits the work of approximately 20 established artists from across the United States and Canada. The phone number is 505-820-0010. The Peterson-Cody Gallery, LLC is open daily. Its website is www.PetersonCodyGallery.com.

For more New Mexico information visit www.new-mexico-visitor.com