Plaza Classic Film Festival returns to Downtown El Paso: Here are recommendations, 2024 schedule
The Plaza Classic Film Festival returns to Downtown El Paso for its 17th year, starting Thursday, July 18.
Doug Pullen, program director, says he has aimed to keep the festival successful by being consistent with the formula but also leaving some room for experimentation at times.
In his first year, the 2017 Plaza Classic Film Festival, Pullen started the sponsor appreciation night, the opening night, with a showing of the "Seven Year Itch" with Marilyn Monroe.
"The message I wanted to get across to people is that, like the guy in the movie, I may be tempted to cheat because of Marilyn Monroe, but I'll stay faithful. That's what I was trying to say in terms of programming," he said.
The Plaza Classic Film Festival, sponsored by the El Paso Community Foundation, will be held from July 18 to 28. It will include annual favorites like the free showing of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" at 9 p.m. Saturday, July 20, on Oregon Street.
The film, which can draw from 1,000 to 2,000 fans, is an interactive experience where fans bring props to throw as they come up in scenes.
Since 2020, when the city was on lockdown due to the pandemic, the film festival has been starting to rebuild its annual audience closer to what it was before the pandemic. Last year, the festival drew more than 30,000 people.
Plaza Classic Film Festival tickets, where to buy
Most Plaza Classic Film Festival films are from $6 to $10, located at the Plaza Theatre, 125 Pioneer Plaza. A few are free. Tickets can be purchased at Ticketmaster.com with fees or at the Plaza Theatre Box Office. For a complete schedule of the festival, www.plazaclassic.com.
Plaza Classic Film Festival to feature Film Noir movies
This year, the film festival also carries some different themes. One is film noir, a French term that means black film, and it is used to describe films with dark and moody themes and visual styles made in the United States in the 1940s and 50s.
Pullen said the festival will feature about 10 films in that genre, including "Sunset Boulevard," July 25, "Double Indemnity," Friday, July 19 and "The Breaking Point" July 26. They also will have Alan K. Rode, charter director of the Film Noir Foundation, will host several showings.
"We are also showing four movies that are based off of Stephen King novels or short stories or novelas. The idea there is while we always think of him as a horror author, not everything he wrote was. The biggest example was "Shawshank Redemption," which we are showing Friday, July 26," Pullen said.
Other Stephen King movies will be "Stand by Me," July 23, directed by Rob Reiner, "Misery," July 25, a classic psychological thriller, and "Carrie," July 27, in honor of actress Sissy Spacek's visit to El Paso. She will be the guest for the showing of "Coal Miner's Daughter."
See Plaza Classic Film Festival schedule; top 3 recommendations
Pullen said he has these recommendations this year:
"There Will Be Blood," based on the 1927 novel about the oil industry, was well made by writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson, who was in El Paso recently working on an untitled film dubbed “BC Project,' with famed actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Benicio Del Toro.
More: Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio del Toro spotted in Downtown El Paso amid film buzz
It will be shown at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 23, in the Kendall Kidd Performance Hall — $8. The film was shot on a Marfa ranch owned by Betty MacGuire, the El Paso Community Foundation board chair in 1986, who led the effort to purchase and restore the Plaza Theatre.
"To Kill a Mockingbird" will be shown at 7 p.m. Sunday, July 21, at the Kendle Kidd Performance Hall. The cost is $8.
The film explores racial injustice in the 1930s with Gregory Peck playing lawyer Atticus Finch who defends an African-American man accused of raping a white woman.
"Fantastic Mr. Fox" is an animated family movie that will be shown at 3 p.m. July 25 at the Philanthropy Theatre. It is director Wes Anderson's first animated, stop-motion film and stars George Clooney and Meryl Streep. Clooney's Mr. Fox is trying to stay on the right track for his wife but is tempted by one last big job that will endanger his family and friends.
Plaza Classic Film Festival schedule below:
Plaza Classic Film Festival has feature at La Nube
This year, the Plaza Classic Film Festival will be one of the first to host an event at La Nube, the new children's museum opening Aug. 10.
The film festival will feature "Curious George" at 8 p.m. July 24 on the museum's second floor, 201 Main Drive—$10. The film is a great children's movie that explains how the curious little monkey meets the man in the yellow hat.
Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino to be guest at Plaza Classic Film Festival
Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino will appear at the 17th annual Plaza Classic Film Festival.
Sorvino will appear with Woody Allen's "Mighty Aphrodite," the 1995 movie for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1995. The appearance will be at 7 p.m. Friday, July 19, at the Plaza Theatre.
She also will appear with one of her most popular movies, "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion," at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, July 20. Tickets are $10 for each screening, on sale at the Plaza Theatre Box Office and Ticketmaster.
Sissy Spacek at Plaza Classic Film Festival
Fellow Academy Award winner Sissy Spacek also will appear as a special guest at 7 p.m. Saturday, July 27, in the Plaza Theatre. Spacek will appear with "Coal Miner's Daughter," for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in 1980 — $ 10.
More: Academy Award winners Mira Sorvino, Sissy Spacek to appear at Plaza Classic Film Festival
Tribute to Willie Varela, El Paso filmmaker
Pullen said the festival will be paying tribute to El Paso experimental filmmaker Willie Varela, who they licensed through UCLA. Varela, who passed away in February, had over 100 films, which were shown at the Whitney and archived by UCLA's Chicano Studies Research Center.
The Plaza Classic Film Festival will pay tribute with two programs at the El Paso Museum of Art, which is exhibiting some of his photography through the fall. Several of his films also will be shown.
It will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, July 20, at the El Paso Museum of Art, free admission. The first runs 96 minutes and features 10 films, including silent Super 8mm shorts from the 1970s, primarily experiments with light and images such as "Bent Light," and "Becky’s Eye".
The second one will be at 1 p.m. July 27 at the El Paso Museum of Art. This tribute to Varela features 11 of his films, from 1976 to 2004, and runs nearly 100 minutes. It is free.
More: 'Showgirls' hosted with fun, commentary by El Paso writer at Plaza Classic Film Fest
María Cortés González may be reached at 915-546-6150; [email protected], @EPTMaria on Twitter; eptmariacg on TikTok.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Plaza Classic Film Festival starts July 18: Schedule, tickets
