‘Theworld is in Houston’
A very different Cinema Arts Fest unspools thisweek
The world that the Houston Cinema Arts Festival returns to for its 12th edition is very different from the one that greeted it last year.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced major changes for the film festival, running Nov. 12-22, including moving most of the screenings and events away from the intimacy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and into the virtual realm, as well as such drive-ins as The Moonstruck and The Showboat. But artistic director Jessica Green says one word was never seriously considered: cancellation.
“I think it was at some point, sure, probably bandied about,” she said in a phone interview. “But it just became so clear so quickly how much people were adapting. We’ve been doing virtual programming since April, so that, I think, probably helped and gave us a bit of a workshop lab, if you will, to work through.”
If anything, she says, putting on the festival is more important this year than ever. “This is something that so many people are dealing with in so many industries. I think we all just tried to keep that in perspective, and we’re just working through the challenges,” she continues. “I think it also becomes clear as you’re just looking at work and talking to people, filmmakers and artists, just how open people are to wanting to create right now. And then just how amazing the work is and how it possibly hits in a different way because of everything that’s going on.”
Working virtually also brings opportunities.
“One of the films we’re showing, ‘Eyimofe: This Is My Desire,’ is this incredible film made by two Nigerian brothers (Arie and Chuko Esiri), and one of the producers is also an incredible young Nigerian woman … We’re going to have a conversation with them. So there’s this opportunity in the virtual space to bring people together in a way that would be more challenging or difficult, and cost prohibitive, if you were required to bring everybody to Houston,” Green says.
As for the use of drive-ins, Green says that was a natural option that offered some sense of physical connection. “And it’s so exciting that Houston really has this incredible kind of ecosystem of drive-ins. The Moonstruck is amazing and overlooks the skyline.”
The opening-night movie — which will be shown both virtually and at The Moonstruck — is “Mogul Mowgli,” the feature-film debut from Bassam Tariq, the Houstonian known for the short “Ghosts of Sugar Land,” available on Netflix. In the new movie, Riz Ahmed plays a British Pakistani rapper torn between cultures as well as his quest for both authenticity and fame when he’s struck down by a progressively debilitating disease.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Tariq conducted by Bun B.
“I saw it at Berlin (International Film Festival) … and the minute I saw it, was immediately gunning for it for opening night,” Green says. “I think he’s one of the great, rising talents in the global film ecosystem. I think the movie is incredible. It has an incredible leading man and, of course, an incredible leading performance. And it also speaks to the themes of the festival, of the intersection of art and life.”
And even a movie that’s outwardly just a prison movie — Ivory Coast director Philippe LaCôte’s captivating and often fantastical “Night of the Kings” — merges art and drama in its story of a young prisoner forced to be the griot, or storyteller, for the imprisoned, who sometimes respond with their own form of theater and dance.
A few documentaries this year also throw a spotlight on this intersection: “Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful,” “Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena,” “Horton Foote: The Road Home” and “Friday I’m in Love: A Night at Numbers,” the latter a loving look at the history of Numbers, the long-running Houston dance club. (The “Friday I’m In Love” screening will be followed by a recorded Q&A with director Marcus Pontello and DJ Stephanie Saint Sanchez as well as a live DJ set from Sanchez.)
The festival will also feature a virtual dance performance of Harrison Guy’s music-dance multimedia piece, “Take Me to the Water.”
If the broad outline of Cinema Arts always has been films about the arts, the more specific theme this year is “urbana,” named after the umbrella music term for contemporary, global Spanishlanguage-inspired pop that includes African influences: reggaeton, cumbia, dancehall, Latin trap and Latin hip-hop.
“So the idea was, where do we find urbana in art? Where do we find urbana in film, in dance, in literature? Also those roots are very much about intermingling in Latin America and the U.S.”
Films that would fall under this banner include: “Ema,” the latest from Chilean director
Pablo Larraín (“Jackie”), about the fractured relationship between a contemporary dancer and a choreographer — played by Gael García Bernal and Mariana Di Girólamo, respectively — after they decide to give back their adopted child; and Mexican director Michel Franco’s drama “New Order” that’s set against the backdrop of violent protests in Mexico City.
Though there may be films that don’t fall within these specific categories — such as the 19thcentury-set “Ammonite” starring Saiorse Ronan and Kate Winslet — the idea is to reflect Houston’s multiculturalism. “It’s very far reaching and very global,” Green says. “But this is the power of doing this in Houston. All of these global stories get us back to Houston and Houston’s peoples and Houston’s experiences because the world is in Houston.”