The Houston Cinema Arts Society celebrates Houston’s diversity through its annual Cinema Arts Festival Houston, which combines innovative cinema, mixed-media performances, new media and installations.
The goal of the festival is to enrich the film and arts environment and foster cross?cultural understanding in Houston.’
‘Eighteen of these organizations, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Menil Collection, Houston Ballet, FotoFest and the Aurora Picture Show, have banded together to develop and present the 40 programs in our festival,’ curator Richard Herskowitz said.
Herskowitz emphasized that this festival is not just for one type of person, but for all.’
‘Music lovers may be attracted to the live Dengue Fever performance,’ Herskowitz said. ‘Dance fans will be drawn to ‘La Danse’ and The Red Shoes. People interested in radical art practices will be enticed by the Ant Farm film at the UH architecture school.’
Herskowitz added that free productions of The Red Shoes and Peter Pan will appeal to families as well as those hit by hard economic times.
To successfully put on this festival and give Houstonians the most opportunities to engage in something special, many locations have been secured.
‘(The festival will include) films about the arts at the Angelika Film Center and Rice Media Center’ (where) there will be special guests like’ Tilda Swinton, Richard Linklater (and) Susan Meiselas,’ Herskowitz said.
Houstonians can also expect new works by Guillermo Arriaga’ at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Herskowitz wants readers to know that the entire program is online, with trailers for many of the shows and tickets for sale at www.cinemartsociety.org.
The festival is an important step in the art world, according to Herskowitz, who explained that this is the only festival in the U.S. devoted exclusively to films about the arts. The’ closest equivalent is the International Festival of Films on Art in Montreal.’
‘Ours is more fun because we have all these concerts and multimedia exhibits, such as the H Box portable video art theater in the Alabama Theater,’ Herskowitz said, referring to the headquarters of the Houston Cinema Arts Society.’
Regular public tickets are $6 for matinee and $10 for the evening. Student tickets are $6 for everything but special events, which include the Tilda Swinton sneak preview, the Dengue Fever concert and the Richard Linklater opening-night screening and reception.
Tickets range from $15 to $25 for special events. There are also numerous events that are free to the public.
Herskowitz hopes that UH students and other locals will be drawn to this festival so the event will come back next year.
‘The festival was created to call attention to Houston’s extraordinary variety of world-class arts organizations,’ Herskowitz said. ‘We are doing so by bringing in exceptional, new and classic films that will inspire local producers by featuring Houston filmmakers ‘hellip; and by staging special workshops and panels on film production with the Southwest Alternate Media (Project).’
