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An Arizona premiere. A look back at NASA’s Apollo program with rarely seen-footage. Insights on joy from unlikely friends. Silent-movie swashbuckling, set to a live soundtrack and much more! All of this can be found when our local celebration of independent cinema returns! The Prescott Film Festival makes its stunning comeback to the Yavapai College Campus Thursday, October 14 through Sunday, October 17.

www.prescottfilmfestival.com | Film / Event schedule pdf

The 11th Edition of the Prescott Film Festival begins Thursday afternoon, Oct. 14, with a 1 p.m. “soft opening” in Yavapai College’s Community Room (Bldg. 19-147) featuring Disney: Behind the Scenes – Imagineers. Guest speaker Michael Broggie – a Disney historian, author of eight books and the publicist who titled The Love Bug – talks about being the son of one of Walt Disney’s original “Imagineers,” and tracks the evolution of the legendary company and its culture.

The Festival’s first film, a 4 p.m. screening of Chasing Childhood, chronicles the phenomenon of overscheduled childhood. Chasing Childhood explores how carefully regimented playdates and a gridlock of pre-determined activities may be undermining adventure and imagination in America’s kids.

The Greatest Adventure: Man’s Journey to the Moon – the Festival’s 7 p.m. feature – is a rare treat for space buffs. The 1979 film, co-executive produced by YC Paralegal Studies Program Director Rick Frimmer, tells the story of the Apollo space program with footage seldom seen today. Though technically “out of print,” Frimmer will screen his own copy of the movie in this very special presentation.

On Friday, October 15, at 7 p.m., The Prescott Film Festival reopens the gorgeous (and newly renovated) Yavapai College Performing Arts Center with an uplifting and literally joyous documentary. Mission Joy: Finding Happiness in Troubled Times, Academy Award®-winning director Louie Psihoyos’ latest film, captures the unique and heart-warming friendship between Archbishop Desmond Tutu and His Holiness, The Dali Lama. Consisting largely of never-before-seen footage shot at the Dalai Lama’s residence in Dharamsala, Mission: Joy invites viewers behind the scenes as these luminaries recount stories from their lives, including periods of incredible difficulty and strife. With genuine affection, mutual respect and a healthy dose of teasing, these unlikely friends impart wisdom gained from lived experience, ancient traditions, and cutting-edge science about living with joy through all of life’s challenges. This beautiful film is an antidote for our times.

Films continue in the Performing Arts Center on Saturday, Oct. 16. Cowboys Across Borders, screening at 4 p.m., follows Gaston Davis, from a six-generation ranching family, and his passion for ranching heritage and agriculture. He decided to explore the culture of ranching and ranch-hands from Montana to Argentina. “The heart of the American Cowboy remains the same,” he discovers. “They will forever serve their people on their respective frontiers.”

Cowboys Across Borders is followed by the Arizona premiere of Rickshaw Girl, at 7 p.m. Based on the book of the same title, the film follows Namia, a Bangladeshi girl who decides to buck tradition and help her struggling family by disguising herself as a boy and driving her father's prized rickshaw for desperately needed income.

Sunday celebrates our newest filmmakers with the YC Film & Media Arts Student films, screening at 1 p.m., in the Community Room. Our High School Student Film Competition winners will start the afternoon. First-place winner Johana Pena, from Camp Verde High School will screen her film, A Story of My Brother’s Deportation. Prescott High School’s Sari Incao will screen her award-winning animated film, Stevie the Misunderstood Reaper.

The screenings will be followed by boxed dinners in the YC Sculpture Garden at 3 p.m. Triple Creek Restaurant will offer a delicious selection of savory hand-held pastries: duck confit with cranberry; beef and smoked gouda; root vegetable and goat cheese. Accompanied by a charcuterie of pickled vegetables and cured meats; bites of lemon tarts and chocolate dipped berries. Pre-order is required.

The festival closes with a 4 p.m. event that has become a crowd favorite: Silent Symphony. “This experience is like stepping into a time machine,” PFF Executive Director Helen Haxon-Stephenson says. “You walk into this big beautiful theater. The movie, which is fully restored to its 1920 glory, is on a huge screen, and there is a live orchestra accompanying the film.” This year’s film is Douglas Fairbanks’s swashbuckling classic, The Mark of Zorro.

All Prescott Film Festival events take place on Yavapai College’s Prescott Campus, 1100 E. Sheldon Street, in Prescott. For a full schedule of PFF events, including all movie and workshop descriptions, please visit: www.prescottfilmfestival.com

Tickets for individual Prescott Film Festival screenings are $14 general admission and $7 for students, and available at the door of each event. The Silent Symphony Event tickets are $27 general admission and $15 for students. The Silent Symphony with the gourmet boxed dinner packages are $47. All tickets can be purchased through the Yavapai College Performing Arts Center Box Office at 1100 E. Sheldon St., in Prescott, via phone or online at: www.ycpac.com. For reservations or more information, please call: (928) 776-2000.