*On-campus center offers variety of little-known films *
Chris Quintana
The Guild is often sold as the only place to see “Indie” films around town, while other theaters just play blockbuster fodder for an easy buck.
Well, those people have never heard of the Southwest Film Center.
Located in the basement of the SUB, the film center, headed by student Alexander Payne, strives to bring quality cinema to UNM that would otherwise go unwatched.
“I want to take this education I have gotten at UNM and try to give it back to the film community as whole,” Payne said. “This is a really excellent place to see films you won’t see anywhere else and just for fun. Film should be fun.”
And the student group does its best to reach that goal.
Recently, Payne screened “The 400 Blows,” a defining entry in the French New Wave Movement. Later this year, Payne and assistant manager Carly Weiner plan to show “Nicotine Bees,” a documentary about nicotine-based pesticides and their effects on bees; “The Audio Visual Show,” which features live music interlaced with the film; and “Bride and Prejudice,” a Bollywood favorite.
The aim is simple, Weiner said: Offer as much as variety as possible.
“We usually show at least one documentary,” she said. “We show at least one current foreign film, a classic, a cartoon — just whatever we can get hold of. We’re pretty eclectic, and I think some people wished we showed more one genre than another. … But I feel like everybody can look at the schedule and find a movie they want to see.”
Of course, that desire to spread film lore comes with a cost. The group is often mistaken for the Mid Week Movies crowd, a different entity.
Payne, who has been going to the center since he was a child, said the process between the two is radically different and based on the appeal of blockbuster films.
“Most of their work is already done for them,” he said. “We have to advertise for a lot of unknown films. We really want to define a separate identity from Mid Week.”
Weiner said the center’s biggest goal is to establish trust with its clientele.
“I feel people are like that with the Guild. Maybe someday people will be like, ‘I want to go see what’s playing at the Southwest Film Center. I don’t know what the movie is about, but I trust these guys,’” she said.
Weiner said most of their “regulars” are not a part of the UNM community.
“We have been working really hard to get more of the student body interested,” she said. “We have found most people just don’t know about us. Once they find out us they are like, ‘Wow, that’s really cool. I had no idea that there was something like that on campus.’”
That’s not to say the center isn’t growing.
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Payne said for the first time local producers and national filmmakers are contacting the center asking it to play their films, as was the case with “Nicotine bees.” Before, Payne and Weiner relied on calling producers who were difficult to get a hold of.
“That hasn’t really been something that’s happened with the film center,” Payne said. “We are becoming more and more well-known.”
Plus, the center has plenty of other amenities such as a reel-to-reel projector that allows for screening of vintage films that other theaters can’t compete with it. And the cost-conscious should note the $3 student tickets.
“You can get out of here with popcorn, candy, soda and a ticket for less than the price of a ticket at Century (Theatres),” Weiner said.
Restored 1920s animation low-tech, but beautiful
Andrew Beale
Matt Groening once said the mark of a good animated character design is that it’s easily identifiable by its silhouette.
This is true of the Simpson family, the Planet Express crew and every character in “The Adventures of Prince Achmed.”
“Achmed,” widely regarded as the first full-length animated feature in film history, tells the story of an Arabic prince who must fight an evil sorcerer to save his sister, the woman he loves and his father’s Caliphate.
The action commences when the wizard creates a magic, flying horse and presents it to the emperor for his birthday celebration. The emperor offers the wizard gold in exchange, but the wizard declines. The emperor then offers him any treasure in his kingdom. When the wizard pushes the king to assure him that any treasure can be his, the emperor swears “by the Prophet’s beard” that any treasure is available. The wizard, of course, chooses the emperor’s daughter, and when her brother Prince Achmed steps in to save her, the wizard puts him on the flying horse, which carries him off to mystical lands, and the adventure is on, carrying the prince to battle with demons and an encounter with Aladdin and his genie.
First released in 1923, “Achmed” does not showcase Pixar-level animation. The film was technologically impressive for its day, however, and the animation is frequently beautiful. All characters are shown only in silhouette on sparse or non-existent backgrounds.
The silhouettes are artfully rendered. Director Lotte Reiniger designed a cohesive world with characters that come to life.
The animation style may remind some of a less-colorful version of early South Park. The characters were cut from paper and attached to strings, which the director pulled to animate them. This style could come off as crude (and may, in fact, come off this way to some viewers spoiled by the wonders of modern animation) but is saved by rich character designs. The king, the prince, the princess, a witch, the wizard, Aladdin and various monsters are instantly recognizable and each has a distinct style. A short scene where a court musician plays a flute is especially incredible — the way his fingers dance over the flute will impress even the most jaded modern animation fan.
One drawback of the old-school animation is that the frequent fight scenes are unintentionally funny. This is easily forgivable, however, given the age of the film and the beauty of the character designs.
Animation fans are actually lucky to be able to see this movie at all. The original print of the film was destroyed during WWII, but a secondary print was recovered, missing the title cards. The recovered print was also in black and white, which meant during the restoration, the slides had to be re-colored and the title cards re-drawn, following instructions found alongside the print.
The restoration is skillfully done, with interesting colors (one per scene, plus black for the characters, trees, etc.) lending a unique feel to each location the film takes place in. This film is rarely screened anywhere and is presented here by the Southwest Film Center in the SUB.
The dialogue is sparse, of course — this being a silent film, it’s only expounded in title cards. The plot is basic, but that’s not really the point. The animation and the character designs are more than enough to carry the movie.
“Achmed” points toward a bright future for the Southwest Film Center and is a worthy opening animated feature to its season.
