REEL Las Vegas Presents:
A celebration of herencia y querencia through film, literature, story, song y comida
Revolution
Resistance
Reality
Rural New Mexico, the Border & Beyond
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The
Welcome!
to the First Annual Celebration of Film & Literature Festival
As the virus stalked our streets, closed our schools, struck down our indigenous, crippled our jobs, and gripped us with fear and uncertainty, we dug in.
From the culture of our rural community comes “El Alma de la Tierra”, a festival about our connection to the land. Dedicated to Senora de los Dolores de Las Vegas Grandes, “El Alma” is a celebration of our resilience. If life brings us pain, “dolores” make us stronger. It brings out the stories and songs that sustain and inspire us through harsh and often, unspeakable times. Here, at the root lies our reflection: our revolution, our resistance, our reality.
We’ll start our journey in Northern New Mexico. Relive Po' Pay's ingenious revolt and experience the U.S. invasion through "cuentos" (stories) passed from one generation to the next. See the landscape and traditions of Santa Fe, Mora and Taos through the eyes of tourists from 1917. Celebrate the story of partera Jesuscita “Tita” Aragon, San Miguel County's last living midwife in the folkloric tradition and see the healing performed by "The Providers" today. Revisit the trials and tribulations of the legendary Reies Tijerina Lopez and hear the lively corrido that immortalized his fight to reclaim historic New Mexico land grants. Sample delicious foods among friends and neighbors at the Tri-County Farmer’s Market. And courtesy of our one-and-only Fort Union Drive-in, watch inspiring, true-to-life struggles in "Salt of the Earth" and “The Milagro Beanfield War”.
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Then, it’s on to the border. We’ll relive the rise of Emilio Zapata, an uneducated farmer who led the Mexican Revolution, changed his country’s Constitution and sparked an internationally-known social justice campaign that carries his name to this day. March with civil rights activist and Hispanic feminist, Dolores Huerta. Learn about a young Mexican-American living along the border in Kieren Fitzgerald's award-winning documentary, “The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández.” Walk into a borderlands bar with Sam Shepard. And experience how 8th grade students from Rio Gallinas school unravel the meaning of “The Line Between Us”.
Next, we’ll cross the line. Through the courageous work of poet Carolyn Forché and environmentalist Angus Wright we’ll step into the shoes of people beyond the border to remember what we often forget--our connection to each other doesn’t come from what we’re told to think or what we hear. It comes from what we see, what we touch and what we feel. It comes from the root of what we have in common, from a deep and careful understanding.
Through it all, you’ll hear from neighbors, friends and guests, among them farmers, filmmakers, artists, teachers, activists, writers, healthcare workers and lawyers.
It’s your time. It’s your place. It’s your festival.
Ándale!
Con mucho amor,
Pilar
REEL Las Vegas