THE SANTA FE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL may have a global reach, but its impact for New Mexico filmmakers and talent can make a world of difference locally. Driven by a love of independent film, siblings Jacques Paisner and Liesette Bailey founded what was then known as the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival (SFIFF) in 2009, hosting screenings at a local center for underserved youth and a local coffee shop. Since then, the annual festival has grown to six movie-filled days (October 15–20) across five theaters that draws up to 150,000 attendees and ranks among MovieMaker Magazine’s top 50 film festivals. An Academy Award–qualifying event for short films, SFIFF boasts 15 to 20 movies in the New Mexico Film Program, which awards a $500 prize for the Best New Mexico Short Film. Three of those entries showcase the state’s filmmakers and tackle some of its most pressing issues.
"Blackfeet Buffalo Yo-Yo Ma" premieres at the Santa Fe International Film Festival on Sunday, October 19. Photography courtesy of Hunter Robert Baker.
Blackfeet Buffalo Yo-Yo Ma
Directed by New Mexico–based Hunter Robert Baker (True Detective) and Elias Gallegos, this short film chronicles a weekend in 2025 when cellist Yo-Yo Ma played to a herd of buffalo on Blackfeet Nation in support of indigenousled.org, working to return buffalo to their sacred homelands. The moving film “weaves together beautiful imagery of the American plains with his phenomenal cello,” says festival director Stephanie Love-Riner. Baker has lived and worked on the Navajo Nation for more than a decade, telling the stories of desert communities. His 2018 documentary, The Blessing, examines the relationship of a father and daughter caught in the struggle to protect a sacred mountain. See it Sunday, October 19, at 10 a.m. or 8 p.m. at the Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe.
A 2024 SFIFF actors panel featured (from left) Tait Fletcher, Cassidy Freeman, and Yolonda Ross.
Photograph courtesy of Sasha Ewing.
She Cried That Day
Albuquerque-based film-maker Amanda Erickson, a 2023 Jackson Wild Fellow, follows a San Carlos Apache woman from Gallup as she fights for justice in the years since her sister’s 2015 murder. The documentary highlights the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women “through the eyes of Indigenous women and allies on the frontlines of New Mexico,” says Paisner, SFIFF artistic director. When Erickson’s father introduced her to an Apache Sunrise Ceremony, the moment corresponded with her growing awareness of the crisis, triggering a six-year journey through affected communities. See it Thursday, October 16, at 5:30 p.m. and Sunday, October 19, at 6 p.m., at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture.
In Our Blood
In this found-footage–style horror film from Oscar-nominated Brazilian-American filmmaker Pedro Kos (Rebel Hearts, The White House Effect), Brittany O’Grady (Black Christmas) stars as Emily Wyland, a filmmaker interviewing her estranged mother for a documentary. But when her mother, a former addict, goes missing, Emily embarks on a quest to locate her. Filmed in and around Las Cruces, the grisly genre picture underscores the region’s crises of homelessness and addiction, using them as the backdrop for a slow-building tale of terror. Since it was nominated for Best Feature at the 2024 Fantasia Film Festival, in Montreal, “You’re about to see it go all over the country,” Paisner says. See it Thursday, October 16, at 7 p.m. at Guild Cinema—Albuquerque, and at 9 p.m. at Sky Cinemas 2, in Santa Fe.
