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Film Festival brings international film lineup to Gallup

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Three features focus on violence against women, children

Lights! Camera! Action!

One of the signature annual events of downtown Gallup is set to unfold September 12 with a selection of movies spanning 13 categories including narrative short, narrative feature, student film, New Mexico film, and documentary feature.

One new category is language preservation, first featured in 2017 with the award-winning Then, Now, and Forever: Zuni in the Grand Canyon.

Knifewing Segura, Gallup Film Festival director says there is a distinct theme in a number of the features being screened at the 2019 festival. “This year, we’re joining a national occurrence that affects Native American women and children. We have three films that focus on violence against women and children.”

All three films are narrative features, Segura added.

A film set for release in 2020, Foster Boy, is being shown Sept. 13. The executive producers include Shaquille O’Neal and Max Adler, and the film features actors Matthew Modine, Louis Gossett, Jr., Ann Brenneman, and Lex Scott Davis. The film will be shown Sept. 13.

Once Upon A River, written and directed by Haroula Rose, features actor Kenadi DelaCerna. Rose and DelaCerna will be special guests at the Gallup Film Festival at the showing of the film Sept. 14. They will lead a question and answer session with the audience following the film.

John Tsosie, founder of Walking the Healing Path, will be conducting a workshop during the film festival in downtown Gallup. Tsosie works closely with organizations around the state and region on violence against women and children.

Love Cecy, by Jay Francisco Lopez of the Mission District in San Francisco, tells the story of 15-year-old Cecilia Rios, who went from a promising childhood to a tragic end in 1994.

THE REST OF THE SCHEDULE

Opening day, Sept. 12, will introduce Over Her Dead Body, originally released as Enid Is Sleeping in 1990 with Judge Reinhold, who is this year’s special film festival host.

The movie, melding comedy and crime tropes, was filmed and produced in Gallup and other parts of New Mexico.

A special meet-and-greet with Reinhold is set for Sept. 12 at 8 pm at the Gallup Downtown Conference Center, 204 W. Coal Ave. Tickets are available for $20 at https://filmfreeway.com/GallupFilmFestival/tickets.

In all, there were 43 submissions and 37 selections will be screened over the three-day event, which ends Sept. 14.

A documentary feature at this year’s film festival is Now or Never: A Tony Romo Story, directed by Chris Hanna of El Paso, Tex. features Tony Romo, of Burlington, Wis., a prolific quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys.

The Navajo Nation Museum, whose staff produced Star Wars: A New Hope and Finding Nemo with a Navajo cast playing characters in the film with a Navajo voiceover, will have a panel discussion at this year’s Gallup Film Festival.

Their new project, A Fistful of Dollars, starring Clint Eastwood, is slated to be their next movie project with Navajo characters and voiceovers.

Also at the Gallup Film Festival for their third appearance will be the Native Kings of Comedy, featuring comedians Ernest David Tsosie, III, Drew Lacapa, and Josh Fournier. This event is scheduled for the evening of Sept. 14, in downtown Gallup.

For a full list of film submissions, ticketing information, and to volunteer, visit gallupfilmfestival.com

By Cody Begaye
Sun Correspondent