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First Annual Durango Independent Film Festival

By Amy Maestas

Found in: | Inside | Art | Festivals |

Durango Independent Film Festival

March 1 - 6, 2005
Durango, Colorado
Venues: Abbey Theatre, Gaslight Theater Duplex, Smiley Building
Tickets: All Festival VIP Pass $199; 10-Punch Pass $75; Individual Programs $8 ($7 for students); 2 for $10, valid for only the first two programs of the day.
Films: Screened daily at various venues and times.
New festival changes: Films will be screened twice throughout the five days; an ambitious school program.
Other offerings: Filmmakers’ lounge, discussion panels. United Airlines is offering travelers to the festival a 7 percent discount off the lowest applicable fare, if purchased 30 days or more before arrival. Any later than 30 days and the discount drops to 2 percent.
Information: durangofilm.org

OTHER AREA FESTIVALS

The newish Durango Independent Film Festival joins the ranks of several other like festivals in the Southwest. Each has its unique offerings, but contributes to the endless cranking of film reels and whetting of art and film buffs’ appetites. Many of these festivals have remained small and grassroots, leaving the glitzier festivals like Sundance and Toronto to their own devices. Here’s a brief look at some regional offerings:

Telluride Film Festival
Screening: September 1 - 4, 2006
Location: Telluride, Colorado
Synopsis: Telluride doesn’t announce its program in advance, it can be hard to get into, and it charges the press for passes. Those are exactly some of the qualities that draw people to it. In spite of it being around for 33 years, the festival hasn’t sold out to glitz and glam. It’s known for being democratic, friendly and spontaneous.
Bonus ending: Celebrity sightings without the paparazzi!
telluridefilmfestival.com

Santa Fe Film Festival
Screening: December (tba) 2006
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico
Synopsis: Santa Fe includes seven mini-festivals, each with a theme of its own that celebrates local New Mexico filmmakers alongside global contemporaries.
Bonus ending: World cinema in the high desert.
santafefilmfestival.com

Taos Mountain Film Festival
Screening: October (tba) 2006
Location: Taos, New Mexico
Synopsis: This is the film festival for “mountaineers, mountain lovers and mountain characters.” In addition to the films, the festival showcases photography exhibits and readings from mountaineering literature.
Bonus ending: Climb a peak without oxygen.
mountainfilm.net

Sedona International Film Festival
Screening: February 23-26, 2006
Location: Sedona, Arizona
Synopsis: MovieMaker Magazine named this little festival as the “Fest to Impress.” The festival is so dedicated to promoting filmmaker that it provides scholarships to aspiring Oliver Stones [or insert your favorite director here]. Sedona also hosts each year a workshop with diverse topics drawing experts from such companies as Disney or Pixar.
Bonus ending: A cast party without the acting.
sedonafilmfestival.com

Filmophiles in the Four Corners can prepare to return to Durango for a sixth year to set their eyes on a host of independent films, even if it is at a first annual festival.

The new Durango Independent Film Festival is stepping up to make sure there isn't a miss in the step of a former annual event, whose screen abruptly went black earlier this year under the strain of finances. Organizers of the new festival, many of whom were extensively involved in the former festival, are promising an event equal in offerings and film quality.

DIFF's first festival will be five days long, March 1-5, and feature 50-60 films spanning genres from documentaries to feature films. It will also incorporate an expanded children's program. The schools program will involve busing some Durango-area students to see films and taking films and filmmakers to school sites.

In the past, the former Durango Film Festival drew crowds of thousands during its 10-day festival featuring hundreds of films. The festival grew rapidly from its inception in 2000. Attendance and films screened nearly doubled some years. But the pace and disorganization caught up with it. Earlier this year, Sofia van Surksum, DFF's executive director, moved to Boulder and then subsequently announced that the festival would need to take a one-year hiatus in order for her to get the festival on a financial track. Van Surksum said the organization was in debt to several local businesses, many of whom were taking or threatening legal action. She said she could no longer inject her own money into the festival, which she had been doing for a few years and to the tune of $150,000.

Since that announcement, about 20 people formerly involved in the first festival worked furiously to put a replacement together. Michele Malach, one festival organizer, says the group realized how important an independent festival is to Durango's arts community and local economy. It's also a shot in the arm for the region, because the Durango festival is among at least 8 other festivals in the Four Corners. The Telluride Film Festival, which has been around for more than three decades, is an institution in its own right. The festival does not announce its program in advance and it has some of the best filmmakers in the world in attendance. It has many other idiosyncrasies, but it has remained small and prestige in spite of it.

Telluride is one of the guiding festivals that organizers of Durango's new festival look up to, says Malach. She says the most important characteristic they want to retain from the old festival is the reputation for being a filmmaker's festival, which Malach says meant that the event concentrated on the craft, not as a vehicle for social advancement or landing distribution deals.

"We're going to make sure that it does not become all about the marketplace or about the hype. We don't want to grow and add on to the festival just for the sake of growth," Malach says.

To help that, DIFF will become a non-profit organization. Malach says most independent festivals operate as that kind of setup, which allows organizers secure various types of funding, including grants, and ensure financial accountability. Until getting that organization status, DIFF is working under the fiscal sponsorship of the Community Foundation Serving Southwest Colorado. Most independent film festivals, Malach adds, operate as non-profits. "We have to maintain this for the filmmakers as much as the audience," she says.

The DIFF organizers are still screening film submissions, which at last count had reached a couple hundred. So far, Malach says the quality is high and the final films selected will match the caliber of past festivals.

"We are already looking at some tough decisions in the (short films program)," she explains. Malach is on the committee to screen these types of films. "I am sure other committees are finding the same thing."

Another new program at the festival will be the outdoor adventure film slot. Given the interests of regional filmgoers, Jane Julian, a festival founding member and film screener, says they hope the film genre will draw into the theatres those who otherwise wouldn't attend a movie. In past years at the DFF, she said screenings of these types of films was always "hit and miss." She says the films, a mix of documentaries and features, will run the gamut of extreme skiing, rock and mountain climbing, mountain biking and ultra-marathon running - and possibly more.

Amy Maestas is a contributing editor of Inside/Outside Southwest Magazine.