Take a gander at film, art & design at Houston Cinema Arts Festival 2017

At Rice Cinema, native Houstonian, influential music video director (Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, U2, Eminem), and boundary-pushing filmmaker Joseph Kahn will present his brand new feature (winner of the People’s Choice Midnight Madness award at the 2017 Toronto Film Festival). A satire set in the world of contemporary battle rap, Bodied explores the dangerous spaces of the world’s most multicultural and artistically brutal sport. After the screening, Kahn will discuss his film with Houston’s own beloved hip-hop artist Bun B.

Cressandra Thibodeaux of 14 Pews will present Jesse Lott: Artist in Action about Fifth Ward-based painter Jesse Lott, who was recently awarded the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award by the Art League of Houston. The film will be screened at

Filmmaker Wayne Slaten, whose short film Red Pearl was a prize winner at CineSpace in 2015, will premiere Ash: The Art of Wayne Gilbert about the eponymous artist who utilizes cremated human remains to create stunning artistic works.

A discussion between both filmmakers and their subjects will follow the screenings.

The short film competition CineSpace, presented in partnership with NASA, returns for the third year and will again be judged by indie director Richard Linklater. It offers filmmakers around the world a chance to share their works inspired by, and using, actual NASA imagery.

CineSpace finalists were selected from more than 650 global submissions and prize winners will be presented at Rice Cinema on Friday, November 10.

• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri at MFAH | Friday, November 10 – The People’s Choice Award winner at the Toronto International Film Festival, the movie a scorching black comedy from acclaimed director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges), with a stellar cast, including Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, and Sam Rockwell. In the film, Mildred (McDormand) goes head-to-head with local law enforcement officials after they fail to properly catch her daughter’s murderer.
• The Ballad of Lefty Brown at MFAH | Saturday, November 11 – is a gritty Western starring screen legends Bill Pullman and Peter Fonda. The film depicts the 63-year-old Lefty Brown’s transition from lifelong sidekick to sudden hero when the title character, portrayed in a career best performance by Pullman, must avenge the death of his lifelong friend Edward Johnson (Fonda). At times poignant, brutal, and uplifting, the film received considerable praise when it screened at SXSW earlier this year.
• Call Me By Your Name at MFAH | Saturday, November 11 – A radiant and sumptuous portrait of a budding romance, the film was directed by HCAF alumnus Luca Guadagnino, written by fellow HCAF alum James Ivory, and stars Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet. Amid the sun-drenched splendor of northern Italy in 1983, Elio (Chalamet) and Oliver (Hammer) discover and explore the desire and passion of first love over the course of a life-altering summer.
• Bomb City at MFAH | Sunday, November 12 – Written and directed by Amarillo natives Sheldon Chick and Jameson Brooks (who will attend the screening), Bomb City is a combustion engine of a film. Based on a true story, it pits punk rockers in a conservative Texas town against a more affluent clique and culminating in a brutal hate crime. The young cast includes Lorelei Linklater, who recently had a breakout turn in her father’s landmark 2014 film Boyhood.