Cinco de Marfa: Austinist Hits the Road for the 3rd Annual Marfa Film Festival
It is the simplicity of the festival, much like the lifestyle in deep West Texas, that draws us to Marfa. Now, you may be wondering why Austinist is covering a film festival that transpires eight hours outside of the city limits, and we would reply that, in a way, Marfa is sort of a cosmic sister of Austin, displaying some of the more eccentric traits that our town holds so dear. Sure, it's been written up in the New York Times and W Magazine has held fashion shoots amidst its tumbleweeds, but Marfa is still decidedly a place for Texans and certainly one of the more popular retreat destinations for Austinites. Also, the relative affordability of the Marfa Film Festival puts its program within reach of even the most casual festival-goers. And we were already going, so we figured we'd give everyone a little insight into the experience.
This year, the Marfa Film Festival will screen twenty shorts, seventeen features, and will also host several guest-programmed mixes and live events. The program includes "six world premieres, one international premiere, two North American premieres, four USA premieres and eight Texas premieres." We're not entirely sure what the difference is between a world premiere and an international premiere, but you get the gist. There are several films that piqued our interest right away, including the Lou Reed helmed short doc Red Shirley, the family drama Fanny, Annie & Danny and Echotone, which features Austin musicians Black Joe Lewis, Cari Palazzolo, and Bill Baird. There are many more and we will be highlighting them as the week unfolds.
Everything kicks off tomorrow evening at 5:30pm with a performance by master Mariachis Los Arrieros, a welcome message from festival founder/director Robin Lambaria and, faithfully to the day, a Patron Tequila toast. The first screening of the festival will be the Mexican short film Soy Mi Madre , directed by Phil Collins, which explores societal roles through the guise of a telenovela, dissecting the aesthetics and politics of melodrama, using the very leading Mexican television stars that bring the stories into millions of households every day.
Following that flurry of activity will be Parque Via, another offering from our neighbors to the south, which is the feature directorial debut of Enrique Rivero Huerta. Parque Via follows the story of Beto, a man who lives in a self-imposed solitude, agoraphobic almost, in the middle of bustling Mexico City. His small world is thrown into tumult when he learns that building that he has been a custodian in for 30 years is to be sold and that he'll be forced to change his simple way of life and possibly discover that no man is an island.
Keep checking in with us throughout the rest of the week as we bring you more coverage, interviews, photos and maybe even a video or two of our experience at Cinco de Marfa, five days of film festival fun.
