SPONSORED BY SOUTHWEST ALTERNATE MEDIA PROJECT (SWAMP)

It takes the talents and skills of many creative artists to make the movies seem so magical. In order to provide aspiring filmmakers and curious viewers the opportunity to peek behind the scenes of filmmaking at its most creative, Cinema Arts Festival Houston presents this series of in-depth discussions with our featured artists and professionals. An important highlight is Setting the Scene, a workshop in which the CAFH selects a film with Texas connections and invites cast and crew to discuss their roles in depth.

All programs will be held at Festival Headquarters, the Alabama Theatre, (2922 South Shepherd, Houston, 77098). Conversations and panels are free, with seating on a first-come, first-seated basis. Setting the Scene, a 3-hour workshop, costs $20 for the general public and $15 to students, seniors, and WIFT-Houston and SWAMP members. Workshop tickets are available online at www.cinemartsociety.org and at the door.

First of its kind in Texas and one of the first in the USA, Southwest Alternate Media Project (www.swamp.org and www.theterritory.tv) is a 32-year-old, Houston-based nonprofit media arts organization. SWAMP promotes the creation and appreciation of film, video and new media by providing independent makers with opportunities for professional development education, screenings, Texas PBS television broadcast, and a variety of other programs.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1 3

Experimental Film and the Visual Arts

Moderator: Andrea Grover

Description: The moving image, as manipulated in striking, painterly ways by experimental filmmakers Jennifer Reeves and Holly Fisher, will be explored in relation to painting, sculpture and photography

Panel: Experimental Film and Visual Arts
1:00 PM  |  Alabama Theater, Houston TX

Holly Fisher has been active since the mid-‘60s as independent filmmaker, teacher, and editor of feature documentaries, including 1989 Academy Award© nominee Who Killed Vincent Chin? Her experimental work, including her collage feature Bullets for Breakfast, has inspired her to produce large photographic prints, several of which will be on display in the Alabama Theatre. In 1995, her work was celebrated in a Museum of Modern Art retrospective and her most recent feature, Everywhere at Once, will screen on November 12 at the Angelika.

Jennifer Reeves is a New York-based filmmaker whose subjective and personal films push the boundaries of film through optical-printing, film stock "mis-use", and direct-on-film techniques (including hand-painting and sewing 16mm film). At CAFH, she will present her live dual-projector film, When It Was Blue, with live musical accompaniment as well as her experimental narrative, The Time We Killed at Rice Media Center on November 13-14.

Andrea Grover is an independent curator, artist, and writer. In 1998, she founded Aurora Picture Show, Houston’s celebrated microcinema, now an internationally recognized center for filmic art.

This conversation is a presentation of Nuestra Palabra
Writing for the Page and Screen:
A Conversation with Guillermo Arriaga

Moderators: Margarta De la Vega-Hurtado and Tony Diaz

Description : Guillermo Arriaga will read from his novels and engage in a conversation about his writing methods and the similarities and differences in writing for the page and for the screen.

Panel: Writing for the Page and Screen with Guillermo Arriaga
3:00 PM  |  Alabama Theater, Houston TX

Guillermo Arriaga is an acclaimed Mexican author, screenwriter, director, and producer. He received the 2005 Cannes Film Festival award for Best Screenplay for The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. His novels, translated from Spanish, include Night Buffalo, A Sweet Scent of Death, and The Guillotine Squad.

Margarita De la Vega-Hurtado is a film scholar, critic, and programmer in Latin American, Latino, and independent documentary and experimental film. Before coming to Houston, she was the executive director of the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar in New York.

Tony Diaz is the founder and director of Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say. He also hosts the weekly Nuestra Palabra radio show Tuesday nights on KPFT (90.1) in Houston and nationwide on www.kpft.org.

Founded in 1998, Nuestra Palabra (www.nuestrapalabra.org) showcases the best Latino literature and writers in monthly forums and presents the annual Edward James Olmos Book and Family Festival in Houston.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14

This wor kshop is a co-presentation of Women in Film and Television,
Houston and the Houston Film Co mmission
Tickets $20/$15 for students, seniors, and WIF T- Houston and SWAMP members
Setting the Scene: The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

Moderator : Trish Rigdon
Panelists: Merideth Boswell , Kathleen Kiatta (tentative), Jeff Knipp (tentative), Eric Williams, and Rick Ferguson

Description: A finished film is the product of more than a director, actors, and a script. It takes the artistry of many creative professionals to "set the scene" with art direction, scenery, set decoration, and costume design.

Filmmaking Workshop: Setting the Scene Workshop
1:00 PM  |  Alabama Theater, Houston TX

Three Burials For Melquiades Estrada (2005): Creative Talent
Merideth Boswell, Production Designer (credits include Apollo 13 and Natural Born Killers)
Kathleen Kiatta, Costume Designer (credits include There Will Be Blood, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and Friday Night Lights)
Jeff Knipp, Art Director (credits include Spider Man 2 and Sex In The City)
Eric A. Williams, Line Producer (credits include The Alamo, Spy Kids, and Lonesome Dove)

Rick Ferguson is the executive director of the Houston Film Commission.

Trish Rigdon is a producer, director, and designer in theatre and film and is currently teaching in the Graduate Design Program at University of Houston School of Theatre & Dance.

The Houston Film Commission provides filmmakers and production companies with the resources and professional local crews to shoot stills, music videos, commercial, or feature films. The Film Commission selects and presents the annual Texas Filmmakers Showcase in Texas and LA and produces the invaluable industry resource, The Houston Production Guide.

Women in Film & Television Houston (www.wift-houston.org) was chartered in 1995, as a nonprofit membership organization with its primary purpose to help women reach the highest level of achievement in film, television, and other moving-image media. Membership includes women and men who work in the industry, interested individuals, and corporate members .

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15

H BOX: A Conversation with Benjamin Weil

Moderators: Toby Kamps and Mary Magsamen

Description: The artistic director of H BOX, an innovative, mobile screening room presenting work by ten international artists, talks about commissioning original works of art and exhibiting them in this exciting new venue, on display in the Alabama Theatre through November 15.

Panel: Discussion with Benjamin Weil
1:00 PM  |   Alabama Theater, Houston TX

Benjamin Weil, the artistic director of H BOX, was the executive director of Artists Space in New York and currently Chief Curator of the LABoral Art and Industrial Creation Centre in Spain. The H BOX project, produced by the fashion house Hermes, was first unveiled in 2007 at the Pompidou Center in Paris and has been exhibited at the Tate Modern in London and art museums in Europe and Asia.

Toby Kamps, senior curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, has organized solo exhibitions by artists such as Claes Oldenburg, Ellsworth Kelly, Vanessa Beecroft, and Martin Kersels. A graduate of the Williams College Graduate Program, he has written extensively on contemporary art and artists for exhibition catalogues and magazines.

Mary Magsamen is the curator at the Aurora Picture Show. She is a video artist who often collaborates with her husband, Stephan Hillerbrand. Their work, solo and together, has been exhibited internationally at museums, art galleries, and at many festivals including LA Freewaves and the Ann Arbor Film Festival.

The State of the Arts on Video

Moderator: Mary M. Lampe
Panelists: Fredericka Hunter, Patrick Kwiatkowski, Marian Luntz, and Kelly Sanders

Description: An in depth discussion about the distribution possibilities for films by and about visual and performance artists to collectors, institutions, and the general public.

The State of the Arts on Video
3:00 PM  |   Alabama Theater, Houston TX

Fredericka Hunter is the owner of Texas Gallery (1971), Houston and the co-founder of ARTPIX (1996), a nonprofit publisher of DVDs on art and performance. She serves as a board member of the Chinati Foundation, Marfa; Trisha Brown Dance Co., New York; Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, New York; and the Academy of Tango-Texas, Austin.

Patrick Kwiatkowski is the co-founder of Microcinema International, a leading distributor of films and videos about and by artists.

Marian Luntz, film and video curator at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, has been involved with the exhibition and distribution of independent film for over 30 years. In addition to her curatorial duties, she oversees the Museum’s circulating collections of films and videos by the internationally renowned artist Robert Frank.

Kelly Sanders is the Executive Director for Truly Indie and is based in the company’s Austin offices. She reviews all submissions to the program, and oversees the distribution, exhibition, advertising and marketing of all releases in the United States.

Mary M. Lampe is the executive director of Southwest Alternate Media Project (SWAMP) and co-executive producer of THE TERRITORY, the Texas PBS short film broadcast series.