Mitote for Feb. 1, 2009
1/31/2009
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Happy 25th! The seminal movie El Norte is celebrating an anniversary this year and is being released on special edition DVD and Blu-Ray from Criterion to mark the occasion. The film tells the story of two Guatemalan immigrants and their struggle to reach the United States.
Recently the Los Angeles Times' Reed Johnson interviewed director Gregory Nava — now a Santa Fe resident — for an article about the film's lingering impact.
"We made the film not to make a commercial hit, but to make a film about the human tragedy of a very tragic situation that still continues to this day," Nava told Johnson. "I'm very, very gratified that the film is still considered to be so relevant, and it saddens me because the issues are still there."
Nava, a San Diego native, has continued to revisit the immigrant experience in his films, including in 2006's Bordertown, made in New Mexico and starring Jennifer Lopez.
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Actor and Pecos-area resident Val Kilmer — the former Ralph Nader-supporter turned Democrat — might be hinting at a run for New Mexico governor, but he was spotted by the Cort Theatre in New York City on Jan. 24, according to Gawker, an online celebrity site. Here's the spotter's report: "Val Kilmer at Will Ferrell's Broadway play. He looks much better than I expected, because you know he's looked pretty bad in celebrity rags. Tall, fit (for an old guy), BUT he definitely has been tanning WAY too much AND he was definitely wearing makeup."
Next up for Kilmer — acting-wise, that is — an appearance as a climate-change expert in action-horror thriller The Thaw.
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Santa Fe's Tom Ford has new jeans in the store, and they don't come cheap. Made from "raw-looking, pre-washed, Japanese selvage denim," according to New York Magazine, the jeans cost $990. "Better still," reports the magazine's Amy Odell, "the front button is 18-karat gold plated, and the pockets are lined with fine silk." What recession? As for the word selvage, it refers to a specific type of denim that is unwashed or raw. It is not a misspelling.
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Jennifer Beals, best known for her 1980s hit Flashdance and more recently for her role in The L Word, is joining the cast of Denzel Washington's Book of Eli. She'll play a blind mother who will do whatever it takes to protect her daughter. The currently being-made-in New Mexico film stars Washington as Eli, a man searching for a sacred book in post-apocalyptic America. He and Beals previously starred in Devil in a Blue Dress.
Washington just was named America's Favorite Movie Star for the third year in a row by the Harris Poll. Taos-area resident Julia Roberts is No. 6 on the list, down from No. 4 last year. She's still tops among women, though.
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Vanessie's was hopping last week for the annual membership meeting of the Southwestern Association for Indian Market. In addition to hearing the good news that the organization that puts on Santa Fe Indian Market each summer is back in the black, the members elected four new board members. Joining are Jed Foutz, owner of Shiprock Trading Company in Santa Fe; Charles King, owner of King Galleries in Scottsdale; Brian Vallo, founding director of the Sky City Cultural Center and Haaku Museum at his home on Acoma Pueblo; and Steven Wall, an Indian Market artist and faculty member at the Institute of American Indian Arts. SWAIA also announced its 2009 poster artist at the meeting; she is Maria Samora of Taos Pueblo. But you have to wait until February to see the image that will promote Indian Market to the world during 2009.
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