Festival Overview
Cinema Arts Festival Houston (CAFH) fills a unique role in Houston and among film festivals in the United States with programming devoted to films and new media about the visual, performing and literary arts. The Festival exhibits narrative, documentary and experimental films and digital media of the highest quality curated by Artistic Director Richard Herskowitz in association with the HCAS Programming Committee. HCAS board members who work with many of the film and arts organizations in Houston serve on the committee. Chosen selections are from the best of award-winning works from around the globe and represent a wide array of artists and art forms.
Programming also includes “Meet the Makers,” a free educational series of workshops and panels on a variety of topics related to the art of filmmaking. HCAS collaborates with its arts partner groups to present this exclusive educational component of the festival.
CAFH is more than a traditional film festival; it is a vibrant multimedia arts festival that breaks out of the confines of the movie theater with live performances, outdoor projections, and interactive video installations, allowing the public to become active participants in the artistic experience. Through a wide range of programming, venues, and collaborations the Festival engages audiences, elevates the understanding of moving image media and its connection to art and the human experience, and contributes to a greater understanding of and between the different communities that make up the city of Houston.
Programming Highlights 2009 – 2010
Cinema Arts Festival Houston 2009 focused on the art of writing, with literary adaptations for the screen including “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” and “Me and Orson Welles” directed by Austin, Texas–based filmmaker Richard Linklater.
Novelist and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga was on hand for screening of two of his finest screenplays, “Amores Perros” and “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.” “Meet the Maker” workshop highlights included “Writing for the Page and Screen: A Conversation with Guillermo Arriaga,” and “Setting the Scene” featuring the production design team of “Three Burials,” which was filmed in Texas and directed by Tommy Lee Jones.
Guest artist Tilda Swinton’s career as an actress, writer, and passionate promoter of independent film was represented by screenings of “Derek,” written by Swinton, “Teknolust” with director Lynn Hershman Leeson, and a preview look at “I Am Love.”
The 2009 Festival also included the H Box video installation at the Alabama Theatre, live music and film performances by Jennifer Reeves, Dengue Fever, and Kid Pan Alley, and inflatable sculptures made by University of Houston students to accompany “What if, Why Not: Underground Adventures with Ant Farm.” A free screening of “The Red Shoes” introduced by Tilda Swinton, took place outdoors at Discovery Green.
The 2010 Festival focused on the transformative power of the arts. Films about arts education included the documentary “Thunder Soul,” based on Houston’s Kashmere High School Stage Band, and “Louder Than a Bomb,” about the Chicago area high school slam poetry contest. Both the Kashmere Reunion Stage band and the winning slam poetry team, the Steinmenauts, performed live.
Other outstanding films about transformation included “Waste Land,” about photographer Vik Muniz’ experience of making art with the catadores – pickers of recyclable materials from the world’s largest garbage landfill in Brazil – and the hand-drawn animated narrative “Idiots and Angels” by Oscar nominated animator Bill Plympton. Additional international films about the arts included “The Woman With the 5 Elephants” and “The New Rijksmuseum.”
Notable guest artists included director John Tuturro with “Passione,” a musical adventure through the streets of Naples, Italy, Isabella Rossellini, who enthralled audiences with a look at her work as an actress and emerging director, and Shirley MacLaine, who kept audiences laughing after a tribute screening of “Terms of Endearment.” Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney and Bill Plympton were also on hand for the “Meet the Makers” series.
