The 2017 Santa Fe Independent Film Festival revealed the first announced films selected to to screen at the festival this October and will be followed with a full line-up of short films, educational events and parties at the hottest venues in downtown Santa Fe. John Sayles and Maggie Renzi will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Only The Brave
Directed by Joseph Kosinski
A drama based on the elite crew of firemen from Prescott, Arizona who battled a wildfire in Yarnell, AZ in June 2013 that claimed the lives of 19 of their members.
Becoming Who I Was
Directed by Moon Chang-Yong, Jeon Jin
Deep in the highlands of northern India, a young Buddhist boy discovers that he is the reincarnation of an ancient Tibetan monk. This documentary explores the boy’s coronation as Rinpoche, the reincarnation of a spiritual leader, and his journey to discover the secrets of his past life.
Ol’ Max Evans: The First Thousand Years
Directed by David Leach, Lorene Mills, and Paul Barnes
Fast paced ride through life and times of internationally renowned, best selling New Mexico author, Max Evans, telling his stories of Hollywood, ranching, publishing houses and brawls with friend with director and friend Sam Peckinpah. Sam Elliott and Peter Coyote lend their voices to the film.
Pinsky
Directed by Amanda Lundquist
North American Premier
In the wake of a bad breakup and the death of her grandfather, Sophia Pinsky moves back home under the martial law of her Russian grandmother and is forced to reevaluate the terms of her adult life.
Sami Blood
Directed by Amanda Kernell
Elle Marja, 14, is a reindeer-breeding Sámi girl. Exposed to the racism of the 1930’s and race biology examinations at her boarding school, she starts dreaming of another life. To achieve this other life, she has to become someone else and break all ties with her family and culture.
Atomic Homefront
Directed by Rebecca Cammisa
A major metropolitan area in the United States lies dangerously close to a large landfill containing radioactive waste and an escalating underground fire.The film documents those (mostly women) who have mobilized to get answers, created a powerful coalition and continue to fight for environmental justice.
The Sensitives
Directed by Drew Xanthopoulos
A loving grandfather struck down by a debilitating, mysterious illness faces an agonizing choice: an uncertain future with his family or the lure of an isolated, safe community built for sensitives like him. As his wife and daughter struggle to keep their family together, we meet others who faced the same impossible choices: an aging mother and her twin sons living in quarantine deep in the desert and an activist in fragile recovery, who advocates for those worse off than herself. The Sensitives is an intimate, verité film focused on three families put to the test by an unknown illness.
On A Knife Edge
Directed by Jeremy Williams
Set against a background of rising tension and protest, a Lakota teenager learns first-hand what it means to lead a new generation and enter adulthood in a world where the odds are stacked against him. Filmed over a five-year period, On a Knife Edge provides a privileged view into the interior world of George Dull Knife as he becomes politically active with the American Indian Movement, confronts the challenges of growing up on the Pine Ridge Reservation, and wrestles with accepting leadership of his storied family from his aging father.
Most Beautiful Island
Directed by Ana Asensio
Most Beautiful Island is a chilling portrait of an undocumented young woman’s struggle for survival as she finds redemption from a tortured past in a dangerous game.