ABRAXAS screens on April 9.
The 20th edition of the Arizona International Film Festival takes place from April 1-20 at a variety of locations around Tucson. The festival, which celebrates independent film, will present over 140 films from 22 countries this year. As Arizona’s longest running and largest film festival in the state it’s an event Tucsonans can be proud to call their own.
Festival founder Guilio Scalinger, of the Arizona Center for the Media Arts acknowledges that even after 20 years, the AIFF is a secret to many Tucsonans, while it has a “great reputation around the world in filmmaker circles.” Films are selected via two avenues, according to Scalinger via submittals by filmmakers and through recommendations from filmmakers and festival-goers.
“Films are accepted based on artistic merit as well as based on what audiences have shown an interest in at past festivals,” Scalinger said.
This year the festival will present its usual diverse mix of films, including a few profiled here. For more information on these films, and on the festival in general, go to: FilmFestivalArizona.com.
The festival begins with a bang thanks to a screening at the Fox Tucson Theatre, 17 W. Congress St., on Friday, April 1 at 8pm. The film Journey from Zanskar is presented, which tells the story of two Tibetan monks who take 17 poor children from Zanskar and walk them over the mountains to get them to Tibetan schools in India. The journey takes five days via walking and horseback over arduous terrain. Admission to the screening is $10 per person, and the filmmaker, Frederick Marx will be on site for a post screening Q & A.
Other standout films that will screen include several films from the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. First up is Gun Hill Road, starring Esai Morales as a convict returning to the world after a prison stint to find everything has changed. He must wrestle with marital infidelity, a transgender child and the lure of a return to his old lifestyle. It shows at Crossroads Festival, 4811 E. Grant Rd., April 8 at 7:30pm.
Also from Sundance comes the film ABRAXAS, which examines one man’s crisis in trying to reconcile the spiritual and secular parts of himself. A young monk with a past as a punk rock musician, he must come to terms with his past as he realizes the importance of music in his life, in this film from Japan. It screens at Crossroads Festival April 9 at 7pm.
The Pipe is a documentary telling the story of a small community in Ireland who has taken on not only the Irish State, but also oil conglomerate Shell Oil over their rights to say no to a pipeline that was slated to go over their property. Choosing jail time, five locals have spent 94 days in jail rather than let the pipeline cross their land, as turmoil grips the normally peaceful countryside. A telling story of the conflict between the individual and the State and jobs versus an ancient way of life which is threatened. The Pipe is at The Screening Room, 127 E. Congress St., on April 15 at 7pm.
For full details, visit FilmFestivalArizona.com.
