This past weekend was a busy one for me, thank goodness it was a longer weekend because I was on the move! I was given the opportunity to attend and cover the 10th annual Houston Cinema Arts Festival and it was truly an honor. For those of you who don’t know, the Houston Cinema Arts Festival (HCAF) celebrated it’s 10 year anniversary with a 5-day, multi-venue film and arts festival including narrative and documentary features, video installation exhibitions, multimedia performances, panel discussions, and workshops aimed at connecting the various literary and performance art through film.
What’s so great is that there were so many films that were shown over these 5 days and there was truly something for everyone. The screenings were in a few different venues, which also made it easily accessible for anyone who wanted to see them. The screenings that I had passes for were at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Rice Media Center; both were fairly close to me, but never venues that I’d visited for films.
So not only was I lucky enough to get passes for these screenings, but I was able to partner with HCAF and raffle off some tickets to the screenings as well, sharing the wealth if you will. I had passes for ‘Widows’, a movie that I had my eye on for a while. It’s this dope take on a TV series in which these widows who had never met are forced together to repay a debt their husbands owed. With a cast like Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Colin Farrell, Liam Neeson, Brian Tyree Henry and more I knew it was going to be everything I thought and it lived up to the hype. Do yourselves a favor and see this film.
Another movie I had passes for was ‘Owned’, and this one wasn’t your typical film. One of the things I love about the HCAF is how they have the perfect mix of blockbuster Hollywood films and more thought-provoking documentaries. ‘Owned’ was a masterpiece by Georgio Angelini that served as a fever dream vision into the dark history behind the US housing economy. Ghettos, gentrification, forcing entire communities to move from their homes are something that I learned about in a few classes and through discussions with family members and friends, but I’d never seen someone go into detail like that in a documentary. Eye-opening isn’t even a strong enough word to describe it.
There were a few other films, panel discussions, workshops and other exhibitions that I didn’t have the time to visit, but that just means that I’ll have to be back next year. I hope those local to the Houston area will join me!