The 18th annual Durango Independent Film Festival kicked off Wednesday night and will run through Sunday. With 96 films in this year’s festival, the fest will feature a variety of screenings around town, workshops, panels and parties.
One of the films in the Native Cinema section of the fest is “Population Overshoot and Collapse in the Ancient Four Corners,” directed by Durangoan Larry Ruiz, who has been creating anthropological and cultural preservation landscape films locally since 2011 through his nonprofit film company, Cloudy Ridge Productions.
If you missed “Population Overshoot’s” first screening Thursday, you’ll have another chance to catch it Sunday – and Ruiz will be on hand at the showing, along with author Craig Childs, who is in the film.
This is Ruiz’s third film to premiere at the festival. Since 2011, he has produced, co-produced and directed more than 25 documentary films. His work has been featured on National Geographic Television, in Universities and Museums, including his recent work with the Chicago Field Museum.
If you go
WHAT: Documentary film “Population Overshoot and Collapse in the Ancient Four Corners,” Native Cinema: Past and Present Voices. Filmmaker Larry Ruiz and author Craig Childs will be at festival.
WHEN: 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
WHERE: Durango Arts Center, 802 East Second Ave.
TICKETS: Available online at https://durangofilm.org/2023-festival/.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.cloudyridgeproductions.com.
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WHAT: Storyfinding: Writing Workshop with Craig Childs.
WHEN: 12:30 p.m. Sunday.
WHERE: Hermosa Cafe, 738 Main Ave.; entrance by Grassburger.
NOTE: Bring pen and paper, or the next best thing for writing in a cafe.
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WHAT: 18th annual Durango Independent Film Festival.
WHEN: Various times through Sunday.
WHERE: Various locations in Durango.
MORE INFORMATION: For passes and complete schedule, visit durangofilm.org.
After Sunday’s screening, Childs will answer questions and briefly speak about how the parallels featured in the film echo those in one of his recent books, “Tracing Time.” He’ll also host a writing workshop Sunday afternoon.
According to a news release, “Population Overshoot” “addresses issues of settlement, aggregation, depopulation, and climatic concerns of the pre-contact indigenous peoples of the Four Corners region of the United States.” It seeks to answer some pretty big questions: How did these people live? What caused their migration? How did they affect the environment and climate? And are we now experiencing similar patterns of the hardship and violence that ancient people suffered?
The film features specialists in the field of archaeology and anthropology, forensic science and literature.
Enter Childs – a writer and storyteller who, according to a news release, has published more than a dozen books of adventure, wilderness and science. He is a contributing editor at Adventure Journal magazine. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside and The New York Times. Originally from Arizona, Childs currently lives off grid with his wife near Norwood.
He said he’s been working with Ruiz for a while, and when the idea of “Population Overshoot” came along, Childs was a perfect fit with the rest of the group Ruiz got together.
“Larry has been coming to me for quite a few years now. With his interest in the Paleolithic the Ice Age, and because I’ve done a lot of archaeological work and research and writing on both the Ice Age and what’s been going on in the Four Corners for the last 1,000 years, 10,000 years, 50,000 years,” he said. “He brought me in on this, along with some, just stellar scientists, he actually got quite a group together to do this film, when we all and we all met at the same time. So we all were together for a few days, which was amazing. He kind of created a symposium out of us. And he got to film on the side.”
Childs said he is drawn to what happened here so long ago because it’s the past that shapes our present – it’s all about context.
“I think it’s important to understand the longer cultural environmental context of any place where we live.
“And so much has happened here for thousands of years, that it’s easy to not pay that much attention to it and think that our timeline is the only timeline going on,” he said. “But if we look back a little farther, we can see what happened to people here through generations to thousands of years, and then see how we’re in much the same situation now, just a different scale. So I’m interested in context.”
He said that when it comes to seeing ourselves in the same boat as those who came before, he’s not entirely sold on the idea that we’re doomed to repeat history – it won’t be depopulation of the Southwest, but rather adaptation. Especially because drought is going to be a continuing factor for the region: “And it always is; it’s really nothing new. We talk about drought here as if we’re shocked. We live in a place that is more drought than not.”
“I’m not confident that we’re going to go the same direction, but we will be facing the same challenges. I might tend to be on the optimistic side. ... We figure things out,” he said. “I think that’s one of the parts of at least for me, parts of the story is that things never really failed even though people left 800 years ago, they just went somewhere else. And if the world had stayed the same as it was, the Pueblo people were moved back into the Four Corners, and they would have been living here in full force again, but the world changed. A lot of new people showed up.”
Childs will also host a writing workshop Sunday afternoon.
“The workshop is going to be just casual,” he said. “I’m going to be talking about how I gather stories, where ideas come from, and then I’m going to lead everybody in generating their own story. So they’re going to be doing some writing, not a lot of writing. I don’t know if we’ll have time to read much out loud. But I’d like to just put some put a bug in people’s ears about ways of finding stories and writing about them.”
With 96 films playing in local venues this week, it’s easy to miss some. Here are five we’re looking forward to:
Shudderbugs
Samantha Cole returns to her childhood home when her mother suddenly passes. In place of familiar spaces and memories, Sam finds only uneasiness and confusion. Things are missing, the environment seems unnatural, and the neighbor, Noah, is suspiciously obtuse. Isolated with these mysteries, Sam wrestles with her instincts to untangle the truth.
Come One Come All – A Circus with a Purpose
The Salida Circus is a social circus, using the circus arts not just for fun and frivolity, but to promote wellness, social justice and as a tool to bring about positive change.
I Mustache You
A silent short film about Abby Finkelmanstein, an agoraphobic who receives an invitation to love, self-acceptance and the outside world.
Karaoke Paradise
Evi, Finland’s most experienced karaoke hostess, wants to hug her customers’ pain away. With thousands of bars and kilometres behind her, yet again she packs her equipment and travels through the northern landscapes of Finland.
The Big Bad Wolf
Recently, new laws were put in place that allows for near unlimited killing of wolves near the entrance to Yellowstone. This film explores these new laws through the thoughts and feelings of the locals who live in these border communities.
katie@durangoherald.com
