On Oct. 9, Santa Fe’s Center for Contemporary Arts opened The Land Mark Show, an exhibit centered on the current ecology of the Midwest through video sculpting, painting, visuals, instillations and photography. Almost all of the work omitted artist statements, which allowed viewers to shape the concepts of the works and focus more on the environmental implications themselves. More than 200 artists submitted to the exhibition and approximately 30 were selected. Ash Haywood—currently taking a semester off from SFUAD—was one of the local talents selected as part of The Land Mark Show; her work fell under the documentation umbrella of the exhibition. Haywood’s work has always had a hand in activism and been inspired by where she lives. She had been intrigued by environmental justice for some time, and moving to Santa Fe only heightened her awareness. She started attending public events regarding New Mexico’s energy industry, and diving into media advocacy with the local non-profit group New Energy Economy. During her work with New Energy Economy, Haywood learned about the lawsuit against Public Service Company of New Mexico over coal versus alternative energy. This issue, and Haywood’s desire to share information, became the main influences in her pieces for the gallery. Haywood had two pieces in The Land Mark Show. “The Flare” is the starting point for a proposed oil pipeline in Farmington, NM. In the image, vast green New Mexico hillsides are shown surrounding a gas flare. The other piece, “Stacks,” was also taken in Farmington on the land of a man named, R.G. “Squeak” Hunt, a sheepherder and butcher. His property is near the acequia that flows from PNM’s San Juan Generating Station. Hunt maintains that runoff from the acequia became contaminated and killed approximately 1,400 of his herd. The photo depicts the beautiful hills of the southwest juxtaposed with the cold harsh image of industry looming...

The Santa Fe Independent Film Festival‘s New Mexico Shorts Program of 2014 has again reminded the Santa Fe film audience that the voices of New Mexico are alive and well. This year, the Center for Contemporary Arts screened five selected short films, some of which were shot in New Mexico and others which were made by New Mexican filmmakers. The commonality stops there. From documentary-style narratives to formulaic Westerns, the themes and stories ranged in all genres and in all styles. The variety, perhaps, reflects that original guerrilla-filmmaking spirit which set the festival’s foundation six years ago.  A Horseback Ride to the Soul, directed by Aimee Barry Broustra SFIFF Description: For the rider and non-rider alike “A Horseback Ride to the Soul” explores the ways in which interactions between human and horse can lead to a deeper understanding of our selves and our relationship to the world. An official selection of the Albuquerque Film and Media Experience and Long Beach India International Film Festival, “A Horseback Ride to the Soul” is more documentary than narrative, but we can overlook that due to the multiple categories the content explores. First, the location of a Santa Fe Ranch filled with beautiful horses makes for some gorgeous cinematography. Second, the subject of horse and rider relationship is not your typical rancher’s story. The technique is Collaborative Horsemanship, and it implies “an approach to groundwork and riding implementing prey-to-prey communication” in order to “establish a relationship of trust between human and horse.” The program is facilitated by Kelly Wendorf, native New Mexican and CEO of The Institute of the Southwest, who believes in a non-aggressive approach to riding. “How can human best serve horse?” Wendorf says in her interview, “How can human, through congruency, act as a herd leader?” Wendorf introduces the term “horse therapy” in her program and the technique becomes especially convincing when...

SFUAD student filmmakers discuss their work showing at the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival Oct. 17.

“The best short films are student shorts,” says Jacques Paisner, executive director and co-founder of the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival. In its fourth year, the festival’s four-day event, Oct. 16-20, will be held at the Center for Contemporary Arts (CCA), Lensic Performing Arts Center, The Screen, and the newly opened Jean Cocteau Cinema in downtown Santa Fe. Dedicated to screening independent films, Paisner shares that a good amount of the festival’s 2013 submissions, as of March 1, came from the student population. Filmmakers, like those from SFUAD’s Film School are provided resources, “great equipment,”as Paisner puts it, which allows for the ideal collaboration experience. “If you’re in directing class…you’ll work with a writer from the writing class and that creates a really good short film,” he says. Furthermore, the shorts can act as a “calling card” because, according to Paisner, the festival circuit is one of the only places students gain exposure. It is here they can say,”‘look I’m a student filmmaker, collaborate with me.” For two of SFUAD’s own film students, the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival was a tremendous opportunity to expose their work. “We were planning on entering the festival before we shot the film,” says SFUAD film major Seth Fuller, whose film U46-Anomaly (Anomaly in the SFIFF listings) will be screened for the SFIFF at 9 p.m., Oct. 16 at the CCA. “We went into it trying to make it as polished as possible, to be a product to showcase what we are capable of. With that being said, we wanted to focus on the local community first since we are local filmmakers.” Fuller’s 13-minute short, shot last year in collaboration with New Mexico local Scott Hussion (producer) and fellow student Emmett Meade (producer/editor), is categorized as a sci-fi drama and...