Santa Fe Film Festival February 17th-26th, 2023

features Karen Allen in-person, “Genizaro Experience”, “Clancy Sigal”, “Cormac McCarthy” and Many Great New Movies

By Bill Nevins, freelance reporter

The annual Santa Fe Film Festival (SFF6F) which happens this year February 16 to 26, celebrates all facets of cinematic arts – here in New Mexico, regionally and globally. The Santa Fe Film Festival is a cultural, not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) organization.

Here are just some of the many SFFF 2023 highlights:

Karen Allen, star of “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “Starman” and “The Glass Menagerie”, will present her latest film “A Stage of Twilight” as the closing night film on Saturday, February 25th at 7:30 PM at the Scottish Rite Temple. She will also be honored at the awards ceremony on Sunday, February 26th.

New Mexico-made historical documentary film “Genizaro Experience—Shadows in Light” will screen Sunday February 19, 2 pm and 5 pm at NM Museum of History. Written, Directed, Filmed, and Edited by Gary Medina Cook, this film features music from Multi-Grammy award winning Native American artists Rita Coolidge, Bill Miller, Buffy Saint Marie and Taos Pueblo artist Robert Mirabal. The film will be followed by an in-person discussion with Director Gary Medina Cook, Rob Martinez – New Mexico State Historian, Enrique La Madrid – UNM Professor/Literary Folklorist/Author Nacion Genizara, Moises Gonzales – Genizaro Carnuel/Activist/Author Nacion Genizara, Bill Piatt – Law Professor at St. Mary’s University/Author – Slavery in the Southwest, Miguel Torrez – Genetic Genealogist New Mexico Genealogy Society, Francisco Gonzales – Los Comanches de la Serna, Virgil Trujillo – Pueblo de Abiquiu and a performance by the Los Comanches de la Serna dancers.

This one-hour documentary film explores the origins of Indigenous slavery, Genízaros in New Mexico, and a variety of related themes including cultural hybridity, equality, genetic genealogy, and tribal recognition.

After the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, a new group of mixed blood people were born. They were called Genízaros. (pronounced: Heh-nee-sar-o). Originally deemed “children of war” because they were captured and trained to serve as militia to protect Spanish communities during the 1700s (modeled after the Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire), women and children were also captured, bought, and sold at slave markets in Taos, Pecos, and Abiquiu Pueblos. By 1776, one-third of New Mexicans identified as Genízaro. The multi-cultural Genízaros have continued to evolve and forge a new path in New Mexico ever since then.

“Clancy Sigal, Lord of the Gadflies” is a documentary made by Kurt Jacobsen and Warren Lemming which will screen Tuesday February 21, 7 pm at Jean Cocteau Cinema.

The American radical author Clancy Sigal ventured everywhere and accomplished almost everything: street-smart city kid, precinct worker, union organizer, soldier, UCLA graduate, Hollywood agent, blacklisted target of McCarthyism, European emigre, Fleet Street journalist, novelist, staunch leftist disdainful of party lines, enemy of cant of any kind, psychedelic journeyer, skeptical devotee of psychiatrist R. D. Laing, National Book Award nominee, USC journalism teacher, and screenwriter of “Frida” and other films. Featuring interviews with Sigal and his literary and screen-writing associates, this documentary offers an intriguing alternative view of recent US and UK history. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Director Kurt Jacobsen and screen-writer Janice Tidwell.

Also screening at Jean Cocteau on Feb. 21, 7 pm is the short documentary "Cormac McCarthy's Veer". New Mexico author Cormac McCarthy has spent the last 25 years writing his novels at the mountain top retreat of the Santa Fe Institute (SFI). In this documentary filmed at the library at SFI (and in the desert), McCarthy is shown in conversation with his colleague David Krakauer, reflecting on isolation, mathematics, character, and the nature of the unconscious.

The Santa Fe Film Festival also presents film-makers panels and parties! Don’t miss it. Get your tickets now, before they sell out! nformation on schedule and tickets for the SFFF 2023 is at https://addmi.com/b/santa-fe-film-festival.-LFxn2h6xdc0zQkNotSP