Escape into other people’s dreams, get the sense of being a cinema jet setter, slip off your sunglasses and take in some of the same films screened earlier this year at festivals in Berlin, Cannes, Sundance, Toronto and Venice. The ninth annual Loft Film Fest opens Thursday, Nov. 8, offering its own perspective on the international scene in independent film.
“Every festival has its own personality,” said Peggy Johnson, the Loft’s executive director. “Our budget may be a lot smaller, but our curating is as good as it gets. In terms of quality, I believe our fest is a world class event.
“We are always looking at what they are doing in other festivals,” she said, having attended the Cannes, Venice and Sundance events this year. “Of the film festivals being held in Arizona in 2018, we are the only one to receive a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.”
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The Loft fest’s official opening film, screening on Thursday, Nov. 8, at 7 p.m., is “Roma” from Oscar-winning Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón (“Y Tu Mamá También,” “Children of Men”) a semi-autobiographical story shot in atmospheric black-and-white, set in the Roma neighborhood of Mexico City during the 1970s.
Earlier this year “Roma” won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film festival. Johnson calls it “a front-runner in the Oscar race for Best Picture of 2018.”
The bookend event closing the festival on Nov. 15 is an award-winning documentary, “The Guardians,” also set in Mexico, with a soundtrack featuring Tucson’s own Calexico musicians Joey Burns and John Convertino. Immediately afterward the iconic band will be onstage to play a short concert.
“The Guardians,” by co-directors Ben Crosbie and Tessa Moran, is described as a meditative journey connecting the disrupted lives of migrating Monarch butterflies and the survival of an indigenous Mexican community. Crosbie and Moran will also attend to discuss their film.
“We want to present a rich variety of independent films, but also tip the scale in favor of showing under-represented populations,” said Johnson. “And to have as many films made by female directors as male directors.”
This year’s festival includes 43 film programs running daily on two screens from noon until late each evening. Most films will be shown twice. The diversity of entries stretches from Iceland to Japan, from Africa to South America.
Topping the highlights is “Shoplifters,” from Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda. It won this year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes with the touching story of a family of small-time criminals who befriend a young girl with a dangerous past.
“Diamantino” is a Portuguese film, winner of the Critics’ Week Grand Prize at Cannes, centered on an international soccer star whose career ends in disgrace, leaving him lost and on a surreal journey of delirious experiences.
“‘Roma,’ ‘Shoplifters’ and ‘Diamantino’ were the top three films on my must-get list,” said Johnson.
Attending the festival as this year’s Lee Marvin Maverick Award winner is Penelope Spheeris. She first made waves in the 1980s as a female director with punk rock documentaries “The Decline of Western Civilization Part I and II.” Then in 1992 she scored a popular hit directing “Wayne’s World.”
“She had commercial success and then returned to making indy films with ‘Decline of Civilization Part III,’” said festival co-director Jeff Yanc. “If that isn’t a maverick, what is?”
The complete film schedule is at loftfilmfest.org
Chuck Graham has written about the Tucson arts scene for more than 35 years.
