EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – The El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival is now in its 18th year and has evolved into one of Downtown El Paso’s marquee events, despite some challenges the past few years.
This year’s festival will run from Thursday, July 17, to Sunday, July 27.
The festival promises its usual selection of classic movies, special guests and a few surprises and twists.
“We have built this year around a World War II theme, but not exclusively that,” said Doug Pullen, film festival director.
“You will see a lot of movies that are not about World War II, but may have some World War II references like ‘Toy Story’ with its green soldiers,” Pullen said.
In recent years, the festival has had some challenges to overcome.
The Covid pandemic forced the festival to go into drive-thru and streaming mode in 2020. The next year, they returned to the Plaza Theatre but had to build in three hours between movies to clean.
But the obstacles began even before that.
In 2019, the Walmart shooting took place while the festival was going on. That muted attendance and turned it into a ghost town for a couple of days afterward, Pullen said.
In the past couple of years, attendance has rebounded after the twin challenges of Covid and the Walmart shooting.
The festival is drawing around 30,000 people a year again, Pullen said.
Like the name says, the primary venue has been the iconic Plaza Theatre, which reopened in 2006 after a $42 million restoration project, spearheaded by the City of El Paso and the Community Foundation.
The one-time movie palace opened in 1930 and closed in the early 1980s. It lay vacant and decaying for about 30 years before the renovation project.
What emerged was a jewel for Downtown, and the theater has served as the big star for the festival over the years.
The renovated theater, at 125 W. Mills Ave., had been open for about two years when the first movie festival was held there as a way to showcase it.
“There was still a lot of novelty,” Pullen said. “A lot of people hadn’t been in the theater since it reopened.”
Another thing that makes the festival stand out is seeing a movie on the big screen with other movie buffs, Pullen said.
He called it a “communal experience.”
“You watch something like ‘Saving Private Ryan’ on the big screen as opposed to your cell phone, it is a totally different experience,” he said.
Another factor that has played into the success of the movie festival is keeping it Downtown, Pullen said.
The festival also shows movies in the smaller Philanthropy Theatre upstairs at the Plaza Theatre. They also use a handful of other venues around the Downtown area.
During the past few years, the festival has seen more and more out-of-town guests coming to enjoy the movies, Pullen said. The festival does not advertise outside of the local area, he added.
“It’s just been steadily creeping up, ” Pullen said. “A lot of it is just being around a long time now. Some of it is having more hotels nearby (in Downtown).”
Last year, about 75 cities outside of the local region were represented by guests at the film festival, Pullen said.
Pullen, who has been with the festival for 12 years now, said another big draw for the festival are the special guests it brings in each year and other fun events that are affiliated with it.
“The guest stars drive that (attendance) to some degree,” he said. “Certainly, the programming drives it to some degree too.”
This year, legendary Hispanic writer-director Luis Valdez will be the guest the first weekend of the festival. He will appear for an on-stage interview before his iconic movie “La Bamba” at 7 p.m. Friday, July 18.
Valdez will also make an appearance at 3 p.m. Saturday, July 19 before “Zoot Suit,” which is considered the first major studio movie made by a Chicano filmmaker.
The other special guest this year is Veronica Cartwright. She will make an appearance at 7 p.m. Friday, July 25 before “Alien.”
She will also make an appearance at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, July 26 before “The Birds.”
Cartwright has had a long career in movies and TV and is “sure to have a lot of stories,” Pullen said.
This year also promises more off-site programming that is going on simultaneously with the Plaza Classic Film Festival.
One example is a partnership with the El Paso Museum of Art. The museum has a collection of propaganda art from both World War I and World War II. Some of that will be on display at the museum during the film festival.
The art museum will also show propaganda films made by Hollywood directors like John Ford on the weekends that the festival is going on.
Here are some other examples of off-site collaborative projects between the film festival and other organizations or venues.
At the El Paso Museum of History, military historian and former Fort Bliss Museum Director John Hamilton will give a lecture on Fort Bliss’ role in World War II. The lecture is free and will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, July 19 at the history museum.
The film festival also has several events cooked up with the new Mexican American Cultural Center, which opened in Downtown earlier this year.
For instance, the new MACC will show the El Paso installment of the four-part documentary “Abuelita’s Kitchen” at 2 p.m. Saturday, July 26. Afterward, there will be a cooking demonstration.
The festival also has two signature events scheduled for the final weekend to help it end with a bang and bring everything back to its star venue — the Plaza Theatre.
First, a “Western with a twist,” called “Long Shadows,” will have its local premiere at 7 p.m. Saturday, July 26.
The movie is produced by El Pasoan Allen Gilmer, an El Paso High and UTEP graduate.
Six to eight other people from the cast and crew will attend the movie’s showing, Pullen said.
The movie will make its national premiere in September.
On the last day of the festival, they will have a “re-premiere” of a silent film called “Her Husband’s Trademark,” starring legendary Gloria Swanson.
The movie was partially shot here in the El Paso region in 1921 and shown here locally in 1922.
It has been restored and digitized. It will be shown at 1 p.m. Sunday, July 27.
Festival organizers commissioned a local composer, Enrique Ponce, to write a score for the film. That score will be performed live by him and a string quartet during the movie.
The festival has two levels of passes – $200 for virtually everything during the entire festival and $100 for movies only. You can purchase passes by clicking here.
Individual movie tickets can be purchased at the Plaza Theatre box office and are available now. The festival tries to keep ticket prices low — typical admission is $5 for movies in the smaller Philanthropy Theatre; $6 for matinees at the Plaza; $8 for evening shows; and $10 for shows with special guests.
Here is a link to the home page for the El Paso Community Foundation Plaza Classic Film Festival.
Here is a link to suggested restaurants and hotels that are nearby to the Plaza Theatre.
Here is a link to a downloadable movie schedule.
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