New Mexico in Focus; 2026; Taos Talking Pictures Festival

They come from everywhere to see the best independent film that they've ever seen. Everywhere to see the best independent films in the world. The Taos Talking Picture Festival, a major success only after five years. Where does it go from here? Next, on in focus. Hello, and welcome to in focus.

I'm RC Chapa. In less than a week, thousands of people from around the world will make their way to New Mexico to attend the fifth annual Taos Talking Picture Festival. Last year, more than 7,000 made their way to Taos, this year organizers expect even more. They're packing them in because the festival features the very best new independent films and videos from around the world. They're able to attract the cream of the crop because the grand prize is not your ordinary film festival trophy. Five acres of mountaintop land is the coveted prize and it has made the five-year-old event singular among the nation's film festivals. In a moment, the festival's founding director will give us a scoop about this year's activities, but first, a look at last year's festival and why Taos makes such a perfect rendezvous place. It's spring in Taos, the northern New Mexico year-round resort community is thawing out.

As the snow melts, revelers welcome the desert sun with a percussive beat. Here in the heart of Taos, visitors come from all parts of the world to visit the town's famous Don Fernando de Taos Plaza. Nestled in the Taos Valley amid the Sangre de Christo Mountains, Taos is internationally known for its art with more than 80 galleries and its world-class skiing. It's been an art colony since 1898, a Spanish settlement since 1617, an Indian pueblo since the 1300s, and the site of an international film festival since 1995. Last year's programming team had the task of selecting 130 feature films, shorts, and documentaries from more than 1400 entries from 15 countries. It was a monumental task that yielded beautiful results.

We had a long deliberation last night about who to give this award to and what it meant to give an award about cinematography in a film. The 1998 festival attracted more than 7,000 people to the weekend events, which included media forums, panel discussions, seminars, and workshops on topics such as global cinema, 21st century television, and poetry film. It may look like your typical festival, but there is something unique about this one, something no other festival can claim. The art world's most meaningful prize, a five-acre plot near the spectacular Taos Rio Grande Gorge. I started the land grant as a way of me giving back into the Taos community what I was getting out of the land itself, which is the land and Taos has served as a basis for me as a filmmaker. The idea is to plant the artist on this beautiful site so that they can grow in many directions. So that's kind of the ideals.

Let's plant these artists in here and see what happens to their psyches, and that's what happened at the turn of the century with the writers and the painters that came and they just stopped here and they liked whatever you want to call this energy we get up here. Joining me now is Josh Bryant, the founding director of the Taos Film Festival. Thank you so much for joining us today. Earlier in the piece, you talked about how Taos has been a rendezvous place for hundreds of thousands of years. Is that one of the reasons why you decided to have the festival? Yes, it is. From the very beginning, we saw the festival as an agora, which is a Greek word that means a gathering place where things are traded, including ideas and inspiration we hope. And since Taos has been a rendezvous site for so long, I tried rendezvous there even before the mountain men and certainly since that time it's been a rendezvous site once or twice a year. It was a tradition, I think.

We saw it as a way. The festival was always conceived as more than just the screening of a bunch of nifty films. We always wanted to and have always accomplished, I hope, to some degree. We've always wanted to talk about what the moving image means to us in this day and age. In my opinion, in that of the festival in general, what it means to what the moving image means to us is very, very important, very big things. We wanted to, for that, that's discussions on those issues to be the soul, the heart and soul of the festival. So Taos is, as everyone knows, an art community of some note and depth. So the film festival fit right in from that point of view from the point of the film and video is our art forms that include all other art forms. And also, since it is a rendezvous site of longstanding, we thought it was a perfect place as well to talk about important things relating to the moving image. And it's proven to be true. It's worked very well.

Well, the moving image, though, has also been a big part of your life, too. So that's why we're talking film festival instead of something else, whatever other kind of rendezvous that you may have in town. Tell me, you've been in the movie industry for a long time. You were a Mary Tyler's boyfriend. And in the Mary Tyler Moore Show, you were on MASH. Is the moving picture, is the film that important, was it that important to you? Yes, it is important to all of us. It was important to me, my time in the film business was a grand and glorious. And I don't know how grand, but certainly glorious to me. And I enjoyed it very much. I got a lot out of it. But I was always concerned about the power and impact of the moving image and how lightly considered it was, particularly in this country. And so when the idea of doing the festival came up, it seemed to me only right that we concentrate, focus on those issues. The stories people tell each other have always been nothing less than the way people know how to be in the world.

That's always been true. And there has never been a more powerful form of storytelling in the history of humankind than the moving image. Teachers still teach, and creatures still preach, and some parents still talk and read to their children, and some children even still read to themselves. But no messages have the power and impact that the moving image does. There's nothing quite as powerful as an artistically made, a technically brilliant motion picture screened with 40-foot images in a darkened theater with Dolby surround sound and ex-quisitely and expertly made up in people and presented images and so on. And television, of course, which lives in our homes and is considered a friend in the friend of the family. Nothing, nothing, nothing impacts us as much as those things, they are our culture, they are us. And your focus for the film festival is to bring in the best independent producers, is that correct?

From the world, from around the world. We are screening this year over 120 films and videos, including shorts and documentaries and animation, and even some digital pieces. From around the world, the best available. And not talking about particular projects necessarily in the media form, though we do talk about specifically about certain ones. But my point is, we don't invite filmmakers to come to the festival and entourage their work. We're not a media bashing event. We try to come at it from a very positive point of view. The media form, which is, by the way, mostly free for the public, goes on for the entire four days. In fact, there's some media form activity even before the festival starts. We're in which, with some of the most highly informed and interesting and engaging experts in the world, in which we discuss issues of the moving image, where it fails us and where it succeeds and how to make it better and how we can all participate and how we can not just be passive receptors of whatever broadcasters and advertisers, more particularly advertisers, want to throw at us. Now, that's an important component of the Taos Talking Pictures Festival is that you do have these forums and these panel discussions.

Is this where you want the festival to go? I know that we had talked about where we want the festival to go. Do you want it to be a Sundance? Do you want it to be a Tell You Ride? Or do you want it to continue to be a small, affordable, accessible festival for people? Our first order of business has always been, and I hope, certainly as long as I'm connected with it, which I hope will be for the rest of my life. Our first order of business has been and will continue to be to fit and benefit the community, our community. That is particularly the community of Taos, New Mexico and Northern New Mexico in general and more generally the state of New Mexico. And we, a great deal of the success of the festival is due to where it takes place. People love New Mexico and it makes what we're doing easier to have it happen in such a prized and valued location. So we want to serve, always serve the community. Film festivals cost a lot to produce. It's a major undertaking and the price of them has always been a problem.

You mentioned to Sundance and Tell You Ride two marvelous film festivals in this country. Sundance is the primary film market in this country and probably secondary one in all the world. And next to Ken, perhaps in France, and Tell You Ride is a very highly regarded festival that's 25 years old now that takes place in the small community of Tell You Ride, Colorado. And it's one of the most highly prized film festivals in the world. What do you need to go there? You need a lot of money. Yeah, tickets are $15 individually. The festival fast pass is $2,500. Our tickets are $8 and our fast pass is $300. $325. So they're sold out by the way. But there are tickets. There's many ways to come to the festival. Yes, and punch cards and there's something new this year called a TCA pass, a Towel Community Auditorium pass.

We need only call the box office to get the information on these things. But we do want the festival to grow in a certain way. We want it to have as much prestige as possible without damaging what it is, the accessibility of it. You know, as the most filmmaker friendly festival in all the world, I don't know why film festivals don't treat the filmmakers better than they do. But apparently it's true because we don't give filmmakers any special treat and we just treat them. We honor them as the people who made the art that we're featuring at the festival. We want to continue to do that and to serve the community and not price our community out of the festival. Have I answered that? Well, how do you keep it? How do you keep from pricing the people out of the festival? How do you keep it? How do you keep the cost down? It's a good question because cost is everyone knows are going up all the time and the cost of the festival goes up as well. It costs us well over half a million dollars to do the thing.

And the festival itself brings in less than a fifth of that total price. Corporate sponsorship, frankly, all festivals do, ours is a non-profit organization. Corporate sponsorship is very important. Grass-root sponsorship, that is to say supporters, is perhaps the most important thing if we're able to widen that. People can join the Taoist Talking Picture Festival Film Society for $25. There are higher levels of membership as well, but for $25 you can have discounts on festival tickets and you can buy your, when tickets go on sale, they go on sale to film society members. Two days before they go on sale to anybody else. And you can have discounts on, we do a film series on going around the year, year-round. They're discounts to that as well and many other things that are true to film society members. That membership is very important and growing and we need to grow it much more.

And we need to find, and we're always looking, and all festivals are for corporate sponsorship to help us as well. When you started this five years ago, did you envision that it was going to... I think you were telling me that attendees has doubled every year. Yes, attendance has doubled virtually doubled every year. No, we had no idea what was going to happen. None of us who put the thing on really had much of a clue. We hope to do something with a certain amount of grace and not too many hitches. And if anyone showed up, that would be fine. And for a while we were concerned whether anyone would show up or not. But then about a week out, a week from when we were due to begin, we started getting inundated at the office. Lines were coming out the door. Our program was, even the first year was considered a world-class program. We only had two or three submissions. The rest of them we went out and found. But even so our director of programming, Kelly Clemente, did a wonderful job that year and has done so subsequently every year. Our program now is recognized as one of the best in the world.

We chose our program, as I said earlier, I think, over 120 films and videos this year from over 1200 films and videos, which we screened. And it's the best program we've ever had. What do you attribute this success in five years? You've become one of the top ten festivals in this country. We were just named one of the top ten festivals in the world. On the world. In only five years. In only four years, actually, this is our fifth year, but we were named, we got that name. It's in a new book on film festivals. The location is one thing, New Mexico, Northern New Mexico and Towson particular. People love to be here. The power of the moving image is another. Movies are universal, like music. Everyone understands them on some level. Everyone is moved by them or captivated by them, excited by them in some way or another. They are the prevailing literature of our time.

Movies and television, the moving image. It's quite simply that makes them one of them, if not the single most important social influence extent in the world today, I think. And I think you were also telling me that you've got a wonderful group of people there. Yeah, that's another reason. We've run a pretty good show. We put on a darn good show. It's smooth as silk or has been thus far anyway. I'm not going to work and saying that. It's a wonderful ride. It's an awful lot of fun. There are, in addition to the screenings, which go on all the time from morning to night, every day. It's only four days, by the way, the 15th through the 18th of April. And the media form, which goes on as well, all of that time, and most of which is free. In addition to that, we have, there are parties, gallery parties, and there are two or three parties on Saturday, including a big bash late at night at the Old Martinez, Hacienda, which is a kick.

That's a wonderful party. But there's something going on all the time. So it's an immersion, not only in the moving image, but in people who are surrounded with people who love the moving image, people who make movies, people who act in movies and photograph them and edit them, and it's just a celebration of the moving image. And it's surprising that so many people are still making movies despite how difficult it is to put a film together. Yes, it certainly is. Do you find that surprising that every year you get that many? You know what it's like to put together. Sure do. And there are a few independent films each year that get commercial release, and they do pretty well. Smoke signals is one directed from a script, a story by Sherman Alexi, directed by Chris Ayer, and that film in Chris Ayer won the land round award last year, the five acres of land on Taos Mesa.

That's a good example the film has had wide release and has done very well. It's called sling blade is another film that many people are familiar with, it ran commercially a long time. But it's like they say about the professional basketball world, I guess. The odds of people making it are very, very slim. When people do make it, it seems to be worth all the hard work and chance taking. But the chances are very slim. It takes a great deal of work and money, thought, preparation, effort and general to make a film or a video on some levels. Certainly if you're shooting for commercial release. And the chances are you're not going to get your money back in the independent film world. But the land grant is a good incentive. And at the level of many of the movies we screen, I say the chances you're going to get your money back are slim. That's true of many of the movies we screen because many of the movies we screen are made on extremely dope budgets.

So credit card movies if you will. And oft times by first time filmmakers or second or third time filmmakers. But still thousands of people each year have attempted and many of them make marvelous films. And the independent film world in general is very exciting because in spite of what I just said about the chances being slim, most of the movies we see in the Cineplexes today even are independent films in one way or another are made outside the studio system. They may have students, they most often do have studio support of one kind or another, but they are not quote studio films. And as far as those films are made with safe films with a million dollar budget range on above. If they're carefully made and cleverly made and well made and made about interesting things, the chances are pretty good that they may do well. And success for an independent film is what is it mass distribution to get into the big theaters or is it to get into the small theaters like here in Albuquerque, the guild and that kind of thing.

Well I think everyone would like a blockbuster hit. It would like his or her film to be a blockbuster hit. Yes, it's hard to define independent film anymore because it's difficult for instance to get a film released commercially without some sort of studio cooperation. But the definition if we must make one of an independent film is one that's made outside the system to the extent that it's not a studio generated film that you and I may get together for a production company and find a way to make a film. It could be a $3,500 million film and still be an independent film, so they don't have to be cheap films. Well I wanted to ask you, how does the community of Taos feel about this convergence of all these people coming into Taos? I think this year you were telling me you're expecting at least 10,000.

I think so, it looks as though we're going to have about that many people this year. I hope the community feels good about it. We try very, very hard to serve the community and to give the attendees a chance to look around and do some shopping. But economically, it's a boon to the restaurants, the restaurant tours and hoteliers. I hope other people see a benefit as well. I hope people get the chance to do some shopping while they're there. I hope they get a chance to sample the magic of the community and of the state in general. They understand a little bit more about what it is that makes the state and the people of the state taken and why we all love it here. And that they'll have this high regard for it that those of us who put the festival on to.

I think the community has certainly been as far as I can tell receptive to the influx of people. And I think the fact that the community has been such a good host overall is also a big part of what's made the festival successful. So they've helped you bring it on? Oh, yeah. From the point of view, people will come to filmmakers and others who come from out of state to see the films and to attend the form. There are very few experiences that I hear about that aren't positive. Well, I think that one of the positive things about your festival is that you also provide these panel discussions and these media literacy and understand that this year you're going to do a, I guess you're going to go work collaboratively with POV to do a talking back discussion with team, a team forum. We're doing this year, we've always had the students and teachers involved in the media form and this year we're doing a, we've officialized it a bit and we're doing a team media conference. It will go on for six days, the festival is four days, but they'll begin two days early with some some some media literacy training.

The definition of media literacy, by the way, is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and produce all types of media using all forms of technology. So the idea is to give people ownership of the moving image of movies and TV so that they feel like they're able to critically view what they see. They have some, they're able to have some input into it themselves, they can, they can become a part of that world if they want to. They can participate, that's the ownership of it. The media conference this year, as I say goes on for several days, much of which is open to the to the general public, by the way. Just show up and go to the box office and book things that 90% of the media form is free, but it tends to fill up as well. So take care of things early.

We should give phone numbers eventually. Right. But so, and we're screening a film called Corpus, what is it? Corpus, a home movie. A home movie for Salina. Thank you, that's right. I'm a journalist, Portio, who is our sitting-ass day award recipient this year, and who's been at the festival before. And it's about, it's a movie about the community of Corpus Christi, Texas, and Salina, and what she meant to the people there and to the to-hano community in general, and to the world community in general. And, and following the screening of that, different, some of the teens there will be interviewed, and their opinions will be on the talk back website. And also, perhaps on POV, on the program, when the film is screened on POV later in the year. Well, we are out of time, and I wanted to, maybe you can sum it up in terms of what you hope the future for, the, the Tell Snow Festival, and your goal for keeping it accessible. I hope we continue to learn and disseminate more information about the importance of the moving image of the festival.

It's better, though, not necessarily bigger. And, let me say that people can call the festival box office, which is 505, 751, 1605, or tickets and information. 751, 1605, and they can tell you everything in each know I hope. And please join us, and have a wonderful time. Josh, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you, Marcy. And that's our program for this week. Next week, join us for a very special one-hour call-in program about telemarketing fraud. Our live program, which will begin at 9 o'clock, will feature experts, including New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid, an AARP State Director, Stan Cooper. AARP volunteers will also be on hand to answer your questions. Join us and learn the tools you need to be able to recognize fraudulent telemarketing practices. Until then, from all of us at K&Mee, I'm Marcy Choppa. Goodnight. If you would like to contact us here at InFocus, you can reach us on our website at www.pbs.org

at K&Mee, or at our email address, at InFocus, at K&Mee1.um.edu. Thank you.