Cinema Arts Festival Houston to Feature Tilda Swinton, Tommy Lee Jones, Richard LinklaterOctober 19, 2009
Contact Information: Houston Cinema Arts Festival, the only U.S. festival devoted to films by and about artists of all stripes, announced a stellar lineup of actors, directors, and other artists participating in the event scheduled November 11-15, 2009. Guests presenting new and classic films include actors Tommy Lee Jones and Tilda Swinton, Texas filmmaker and director Richard Linklater and Mexican screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga. The arts-oriented festival will also host photographer Susan Meiselas, rock band Dengue Fever, and members of The Yes Men and Ant Farm media collective, among many other notable presenters. The Festival program involves collaboration among many of Houston's extraordinary film and arts institutions, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Menil Collection; Houston Ballet; FotoFest; Aurora Picture Show; and many others. "How appropriate for a city with so many first-class arts institutions to host a festival devoted to films by and about visual, performing and literary artists," said Houston Mayor Bill White. "I am especially pleased to see that director Tommy Lee Jones and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga will be here to explore the elements that combined to produce a masterwork from our own state, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. Emerging filmmakers will, I expect, be inspired and future Texas-filmed classics may grow out of this inspiration." SPECIAL SERIES AND GUESTS Three special series, or "mini-festivals," bring celebrity guests and incomparable work to the Festival: "The Worlds of Tilda Swinton;" "Guillermo Arriaga, Escritor" and "The Films of Richard P. Rogers and Susan Meiselas." "The Worlds of Tilda Swinton" celebrates the Academy Award winner's many artistic achievements in producing, writing and acting, as well as her passionate commitment to the cinematic arts. It includes a sneak preview of her latest independent feature film, to be presented on Saturday, November 14 at 6:45pm in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's Brown Auditorium Theater. On Sunday, November 15, Swinton will discuss her close collaborations with two avant-garde artists, Derek Jarman and Lynn Hershman Leeson. She will present the documentary on Jarman she wrote and narrated, Derek at 1pm, followed by a showing of the cult feminist sci-fi film, Teknolust, where she will be joined by director Hershman. The weekend culminates on Sunday, November 15 at 6 pm with "The Ballerina Cinema of Dreams," a celebration at Discovery Green Park co-presented by HCAS and Swinton's 8½ Foundation, featuring a free outdoor screening of The Red Shoes and preceded by a performance of three short pieces by Houston Ballet II. Swinton will be on hand at each of the screenings to introduce the films and, in many cases, engage in conversation with the audience. "Guillermo Arriaga, Escritor" is devoted to the work of Arriaga, the extraordinary artist who wrote the trilogy of films directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel). On Thursday, November 12 at 9:45 pm, Arriaga will introduce Amores Perros, the film that first brought him worldwide acclaim, at the Angelika Film Center. The next day, on Friday, November 13 at 3 pm at the Alabama Theatre, Nuestra Palabra will host a reading by Arriaga from his novels as well as a discussion about his approaches to writing across media. That night at 6:45 pm at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Arriaga will be joined by actor and director Tommy Lee Jones for a screening and discussion of Arriaga's screenplay, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, a classic story of friendship, revenge and redemption, grounded in the contemporary environment of the Texas-Mexico border. The Three Burials will also be the subject of the Festival's "Setting the Scene" workshop on November 14, featuring crew members exploring the production of a Texas-filmed classic. "The Films of Richard P. Rogers and Susan Meiselas" includes several screenings and events exploring the fruitful partnership of filmmaker Richard P. Rogers and photographer Susan Meiselas, including the Houston premiere of one of the year's most original and important documentaries, The Windmill Movie, at the Angelika Film Center at 6:45 pm on Saturday, November 14. Directed by Alexander Olch and produced by Pulitzer Prize--winning photographer Susan Meiselas, The Windmill Movie is imaginatively composed from footage collected over many years for an unfinished autobiography by legendary art documentarian, experimental filmmaker and film professor Richard P. Rogers. Meiselas, who was Rogers's life partner for many years (they married near the end of Rogers' life), collaborated with him on two classic documentary films made in the 1980s in support of the Nicaraguan people and revolution, Living at Risk and Pictures from a Revolution. Meiselas will be present for a discussion of Pictures from a Revolution after it shows Friday, November 13 at 4 pm at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's Brown Auditorium. Living At Risk will play Saturday, November 14 at 4 pm at the Rice Media Center. Alfred Guzzetti, who co-directed Pictures from a Revolution and Living at Risk with Rogers and Meiselas, will also attend these screenings. Finally, thanks to Meiselas's efforts, some of Rogers's key works have been gathered for "Remembering Dick Rogers," which played to great acclaim at the Walter Reade Theater in New York this past June. The program consists of three short films: Elephants: Fragments of an Argument; Moving Pictures: The Art of Jan Lenica; and 226-1690. The series of three films, with each film being less than thirty minutes, which will be shown Sunday, November 15 at 1 pm at the Rice Media Center. OPENING NIGHT FESTIVITIES The Festival's Opening Night will kick off on Wednesday, November 11 with two highly anticipated films and a very special guest. Richard Linklater, who was born in Houston and is the maker of such seminal films as Slacker, Dazed and Confused, A Scanner Darkly, School of Rock and Before Sunset, will be at the screening of his latest theatrical release, Me and Orson Welles at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston at 8 pm. Meanwhile, the acclaimed Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire will be playing downtown at the Angelika Film Center, beginning at 7 pm. Me and Orson Welles is Linklater's tribute to the ultimate maverick director, Welles, as filtered through Robert Kaplow's novel of the same name. Zac Efron graduates from teen heartthrob to serious actor and displays impressive range as Richard Samuels, a young actor drawn into Welles's theater troupe and orbit. There he is enraptured by Welles's Girl Friday, Sonja (Claire Danes). Sonja, however, is enthralled with the great director, played by Christian McKay, whose impersonation and interpretation of Welles is nothing short of uncanny. Me and Orson Welles will be shown and Linklater will speak at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in the Brown Auditorium Theater on Wednesday, November 11 at 8 pm. Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire, passionately directed by Lee Daniels, written with elegant economy by Geoffrey Fletcher and brilliantly performed by a fearless ensemble cast, is the story of Claireece "Precious" Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), a sixteen-year-old African-American girl born into a life no one would want. Since its world premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, where it won three awards (including the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award), Precious has been moving people of all backgrounds with its dramatic, vividly realized story of a Harlem teenager who discovers her own worth, beauty and potential. Precious will be shown at the Angelika Film Center in Downtown Houston on Wednesday, November 11 at 7 pm. ADMISSION/HOTEL PACKAGES Although several Festival programs and components are free, including H BOX at the Alabama Theatre, Kid Pan Alley at Miller Outdoor Theatre, The Red Shoes at Discovery Green and many of the educational panels and sessions, buying Festival Passes, Badges and/or tickets is the most cost-effective way to explore all that the Festival has to offer. Several different types of ticketing options are available: • $50 Festival Wristbands grant access to all regular Festival screenings • $250 Festival Badges provide access for all screenings, educational panels and performances • $500 Patron Passes / All Access Badges provide access for the screenings, education panels, performances, and opening/closing receptions • Individual tickets for regular public screenings and educational panels are available at $6 for Matinees and $10 for evenings; premium screenings are $15 • A student/senior price of $6 is available for all regular public screenings (excluding opening night) • Special event tickets range from $15 -- $25 Tickets are now on sale on the Festival Web site, www.cinemartsociety.org. Tickets and Festival merchandise also can be purchased at the Festival's official headquarters, located at the historic Alabama Theatre, 2922 South Shepherd, Houston, TX 77098, beginning October 21. Two downtown hotels are offering special rates during the Cinema Arts Festival. To book the special rate, simply call the hotel directly and ask for the Cinema Arts Festival rate: Hilton Americas-Houston Hotel - $129/night (713) 577-6110 Hyatt Regency Houston - $109/night (888) 421-1442 ### About Houston Cinema Arts Society and Cinema Arts Festival Houston Houston Cinema Arts Society (HCAS) is a non-profit organization created in 2008 under the direction of a dedicated task force with the support of Houston Mayor Bill White and the leadership of Franci Crane to organize and host Cinema Arts Festival Houston, a ground-breaking and innovative film and multimedia arts festival featuring art by and about artists and celebrating the vitality and diversity of the arts in Houston and enriching the city's film and arts community. HCAS is funded in part by grants from the Crane Foundation, City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance and the City of Houston Convention and Entertainment Facilities Department. Cinema Arts Festival Houston debuts in Houston November 11 -- 15, 2009. Festival headquarters are located at the historic Alabama Theatre, 2922 South Shepherd, Houston, TX 77098. Online tickets sales began October 14 at www.cinemartsociety.org. In person tickets sales begin at Festival headquarters on October 21. |
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