14th Prescott Film Festival returns to YC’s Jim & Linda Lee PAC, July 17-20
The Cowboy who befriended a Queen. The mime who once ruled The Muppet Show. The laid-back Skiffle drummer who was almost one of the Beatles. The Prescott Film Festival is back this summer, with lots of great stories to tell! Tickets go on sale in June for that unique blend of Cowboy Culture, Showbiz Mystique and great independent filmmaking that is the Prescott Film Festival! The PFF returns for its 14th Edition, July 17-20, at the Jim & Linda Lee Performing Arts Center on Yavapai College’s Prescott Campus.
“We are thrilled to be back in the summer.” Festival Director Helen Stephenson said. “This year, we are between the Rodeo and the [Paris] Olympics, which we feel is a great place to land. We have new volunteers, new ideas and I am doing cartwheels – okay, not literally – over the amazing films we’ve found.”
Those amazing films include several fusions of modern life and Cowboy Culture. The PFF’s opening night film, Cowboy Poets (July 17 at 7 p.m.) celebrates the riders, wranglers and ranchers who spin their experiences into verse. British filmmaker Mike Davis’s documentary follows several scribes of the saddle – including local poets Gale Steiger, Amy Hale and Mary Matli, who are scheduled to appear in-person for the film. Western fans will also enjoy The Cowboy & The Queen (July 20, 4 p.m.) the story of real-life horse trainer Monty Roberts, who dedicated himself to embracing, not breaking, a horse’s spirit. When word of Monty’s methods travels across the Pond, he strikes up a friendship with Queen Elizabeth II that continued for the rest of her days. And Tokyo Cowboy (July 19 at 7 p.m.) is a very funny clash of Far East-meets-Way Out West, when an idealistic Japanese businessman is set loose in Montana with a failing cattle ranch and a dream.
Fame, art and celebrity collide in a documentary about an artist who found success as a robot – before robots were even cool! Robert Shields: My Life as a Robot (July 18 at 7 p.m.) tells the story of the Sedona mime who, as one-half of the beloved duo Shields & Yarnell, rode the poignant, silent adventures of their stoic robot couple all the way to The Tonight Show, The Muppet Show, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour and much more. Robert Shields will be on-hand after the screening to discuss his remarkable career.
The Prescott Film Festival’s closing night film is the documentary feature, Pre-Fab! (July 20 at 7 p.m.) which offers a window into the origins of the band we thought we all knew. Follow the story through the eyes of Liverpool’s Colin Hanton, a Skiffle drummer who joined the Quarrymen, hitting hit the skins behind local lads John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
In between, the Festival offers a compelling selection of independent and foreign films: Shoshana, a film by Michael Winterbottom, uses a love story set in 1930’s Tel Aviv to explore the dynamics of love, loyalty, idealism and cruelty that drives people and nations apart. From Argentina, The Extortion is a tightly acted and brilliantly etched thriller of secrets, betrayal and revenge. The award-winning documentary UnBroken shares the story of a Holocaust survivor whose daughter asks, ‘What if no one had helped her?’ An old Dodge Polara, a mysterious box and a young man with questions come together in What We Find on the Road, executive produced by Tim Disney. Set against the epic backdrop of British colonialism, The Convert stars Guy Pearce (Memento, L.A. Confidential) and captures the struggle of New Zealand’s indigenous Maori tribes to maintain their lands and identity. Avenue of the Giants is a critically acclaimed personal take on the Holocaust, shared by a survivor who kept his story a secret for fifty years. From the United States and India, Call Me Dancer inspires and surprises as it follows a performer, who has long yearned for glory, finally taking steps toward that dream.
The PFF will weave its feature films around short subject offerings and captivating free workshops. Arizona Shorts, a program of locally based short films, will kick off the festival with a variety of pieces that include works from students at Yavapai College’s Film & Media Arts program. In the workshops, veteran Hollywood stuntman Gary Montana (John Wick, Transformers) will share How to Stage and Film a Fight Scene. In Making The Survival Show with Cody Lundin, the Survivalist and Dual Survival producer will detail his work developing his own reality series. In Scene Study and Improvisation, veteran film actor Sean Dillingham (Longmire, Brooklyn Ninety-Nine, This is Us) will demonstrate successful acting techniques for the camera. And Hollywood writer Derek Chase – creator of television pilots, theatrical plays and independent film scripts, will share techniques on writing for the camera in Show Don’t Tell: A Screenwriting Workshop. All workshops will be held in the Prescott Campus Community Room, in Building 19, adjacent to the performing arts center.
