Film festival to be hosted at Odeon

The Tucumcari Film Festival returns Friday and Saturday, and this time all the entries will be screened at the historic Odeon Theatre in what likely will be a last hurrah for the venue's owners.

Christy Dominguez, general manager of the Odeon and co-owner with her husband Robert Lopez, said last week they have accepted a local buyout offer for the Odeon, though she wasn't sure when the deal would be completed.

Dominguez said they have a second offer awaiting if the contract falls through.

This weekend would be the first time the Odeon, which dates to 1936, has been open to the public since early January. The moviehouse went on the market last summer.

Dominguez said there is a possibility they will screen a film expressly for Tucumcari Public School students in May. Other than that and the festival, no other movie screenings are scheduled.

Lopez and Dominguez have owned the Odeon Theatre since 2013. They made a number of improvements to the venue, including digital projection, sound-system upgrades and a renovation concession stand.

The festival will begin at 6:30 p.m. Friday with a welcome reception at the theater at 123 S. Second St., with screenings to begin at 7 until about 10.

Screenings will resume at the Odeon at 10 a.m. Saturday, with a lunch break or short intermissions sprinkled throughout the day. The awards ceremony is set for 7 p.m. Saturday.

The festival's VIP lounge will be open at the nearby railroad depot from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

Bobby Hockaday, organizer of the festival, said a total of 33 entries will be shown at the event. They range from short films to 79-minute features.

The festival includes several categories, including Western, animation, Stories of the Southwest and New Mexico Made Visions, aka "Homegrown Films."

Hockaday said one of the standouts is the 16-minute film "Border Lords," which was shot in Tucumcari and the surrounding area.

He said he also liked the comedy "Honeymoon in the West," submitted by French filmmaker; "Frey," from a Swiss filmmaker; "Highway," a thriller; a short western, "The Legend of Cactus Canyon"; and the documentary "Indian Rodeo: Voices of the INFR," about Native American rodeo athletes.

Hockaday noted several of the filmmakers are foreign - from Mexico, Italy, United Kingdom, Switzerland and France.

The festival includes two panel discussions.

One is "Filming in New Mexico: Where Imagination Meets Incentive" where representatives form the New Mexico Film Office and the New Mexico Film Foundation will discuss the benefits of producing movies in the Land of Enchantment, including its tax incentives and locations. That panel will be from 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Odeon.

The other will be "Breaking Into Background Class," a presentation on how people can get started in the film industry as extras. That presentation will be from 3:15 to 4:15 p.m. Saturday.

"Background actors a very key to the film industry," Hockaday said. "As much as people think of them as a throwaway item, they are very key, and it's a good starting point for a young person or a retiree."

He added the Background Actors Association of New Mexico is trying to push a so-called "bill of rights" that set expectations between the production crew and such actors.

Tickets for the festival are available from filmfreeway.com/tucumcarifilmfest/tickets or at the theater. More about the festival can be found at https://filmfreeway.com/tucumcarifilmfest.