My Tiny Vegas: Las Vegas, New Mexico News, Stories, Photographs, and More!

It's Oscar, Friendo

by Birdie Jaworski


Joel Coen fiddles with a prop car while Javier Bardem looks on (left). Photo by Birdie Jaworski

Douglas Avenue changed overnight. The Coen Brothers' film crew fixed simple red and white plastic lettering to a vacant office building, adding geriatric walkers, tightly wound ACE bandages, and the promise of pharmacological discount in a carefully orchestrated window display. Las Vegas residents stood behind a cadre of beefy security guards, jockeying for position. A painful heat rose from the sun-shattered sidewalk, the perpetual dull ache that summer's drought beat into every resting object. Director Joel Coen bent over a vintage sky-blue sedan as actor Javier Bardem looked over his shoulder, his known perfectionism fiddling with minute detail. A hush fell over the crowd, as if each watcher understood this moment would become a part of celebrated film history.

"No Country for Old Men" took top honors during Sunday's 80th annual Academy Awards with Joel and Ethan Coen's meditative thriller about violence in the modern West claiming best picture, best directors, and best adapted screenplay. Javier Bardem won for his supporting role as evil assassin Anton Chigurh. Prior to the Oscars, the film triumphed in an impressive array of other contests, including those held by the Screen Actors Guild, the Directors Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America, the Producers Guild of America as well as an assortment of critics groups in New York, Chicago, Boston, Las Vegas , Phoenix San Diego, Toronto and Washington, D.C.

"I think there should be a new Oscar category. Best location!" exclaimed NMHU student Rob Chavez. "This film wouldn't have been such a success without the backdrop of this city." Chavez paused, pointing toward the intersection of I-25 and University Avenue where the Coens' realistic Border Patrol station once stood. "I was an extra in the border crossing scene. I've been telling my mom that I feel like I won an Oscar Sunday night, too."

Another local, Lynn Salazar, recalls her "Oscar-winning performance."

"My job was to walk up and down Grand Ave. for hours and hours," Salazar laughs. "I was in the State Street Cafe scene. At least my shadow was. I had to hold hands with a man dressed in overalls and walk up and down the sidewalk. It sure was a hot day. The film crew sprayed us down with water spritzers every now and then. The amount of detail that it takes to make a film like this just blew me away."

In accepting the best picture prize, "No Country" producer Scott Rudin credited renowned filmmaker Sydney Pollack for teaching him that "with the opportunity to make movies comes the responsibility of making them good." He saluted the Coens, saying, "I can't think of anybody I would rather be standing here with than the two of you."

The usually quiet Coens proved relatively garrulous in their three trips to the podium. Older brother Joel spoke for both of them as he described making their first films - including one at the Minneapolis airport called "Henry Kissinger: Man on the Go"  -  as young kids. "And honestly, what we do now doesn't feel that much different from what we were doing then," he ruminated. "We're very thankful to all of you out there for letting us continue to play in our corner of the sandbox."

Referring to both "No Country" and the other big winner of the evening - another work filled with realistic violence - "There Will Be Blood," Jon Stewart, the evening's emcee, joked that both films were "this year's slate of Oscar-nominated psychopathic killer movies."

Chavez grins as he describes the way he and his girlfriend waited in the hours before dusk for their fifteen minutes of fame.

"I watched everything that film crew did. They really took their time. You could see that the directors were particular. When the sun finally set and we got to work, I just knew something big was going to come of this."

Cineflex Film Winter-Spring Series Debuts at Ilfeld

by Birdie Jaworski

The student technical crews managing Ilfeld Auditorium at NMHU know what it's like to work under pressure. Studying theater arts trains students in the areas of communication and human relations skills, and gives them experience as members of a team working toward a common goal. Donna Martinez, manager of both Ilfeld and the KEDP student radio station, understands how to motivate her work study students, how to push them in ways that expand their abilities.

"Our student technical crews want to learn all they can about sound, lighting, and stage management," Martinez explains.

To help her crew gain new understanding and skills, Martinez started the Cineflex film series, now in its second semester at Ilfeld Auditorium. Technical study crews set-up the historic theater once a week for an evening showing of a current film. The films are open to the public, and all Las Vegas residents are invited to attend the showings. Past evenings have included a wide range of movies, from big-name blockbusters to intellectual art films.

"It started last fall, and it's been well enough attended to continue this year," Martinez says. "We've had 40 to 60 people typically attending each show, and we hope to have more during this new series."

Technical theater work - building scenery, hanging lights, making props, running the show, adjusting sound levels, managing equipment such as projectors - is a particularly good way to learn how to think on your feet, to identify problems, evaluate a range of possible solutions, and figure out difficult puzzles. Such skills translate to other areas of life, including business and relationships. Theater art students exhibit incredible creativity in such areas as acting, design, staging, and directing, and many companies seek to recruit creative thinkers like those in NMHU's program.

The Cineflex series consists of films selected by Martinez' students. She works with the students' suggested lists and chooses the movies that will have the most appeal, making sure none are offensive. Films are every Wednesday at 7 p.m., unless there is a rehearsal or performance in the auditorium. The Winter-Spring series started on January 30 with "I Am Legend," starring Will Smith, and continues on February 2 with "No Country for Old Men," filmed in and around Las Vegas, and "3:10 to Yuma" on February 13. Further films will be listed in posters around town, and on the NMHU online calendar.

Martinez expresses excitement about the series' schedule in March.

"March is going to be a theme month, offering documentaries such as "Hemp" about the history and commercial benefits of industrial hemp, and film called "Planet Earth," and a documentary on Woodstock."

Martinez expects that her students will learn from the experience setting up the weekly films, and will have fun in the process. She hopes the public will enjoy the weekly events as well.

"Please come by and enjoy the show," says Martinez.

For more information on the Cineflex series, call Donna Martinez at 454-3238.

A Night at the Silent Movies

by Birdie Jaworski

A still from Romaine Fielding's "The Rattlesnake"

Filmmaker Romaine Fielding fell in love with New Mexico's endless sky, with her territorial bustle.  At the turn of the last century, residents of Las Vegas reported seeing him roam the dusty Plaza dressed in an expensive wool coat, his mustache carefully clipped and waxed, the epitome of Hollywood glamour. Fielding wrote and directed some of the first movie Westerns, some of them filmed in San Miguel County.

Fielding cultivated an aura of mystery. Born William Grant Blandin in Iowa, he claimed to be the son of wealthy European aristocrats - he wasn't -  and worked as a travel agent, machinist, and railroad engineer. Hungry for adventure, he wandered to Alaska where he met novelists Jack London and Rex Beach who both became his lifelong friends. Under the new name of Fielding, he tried his hand at acting, then production, and discovered he had a talent for creating realistic scenes of Wild West hardship.

On January 30, the Friends of the City of Las Vegas Museum will screen one of Fielding's silent films, "The Rattlesnake," following their Annual Meeting. Before the film, Elmo Baca, a Las Vegas native, will speak on "Romaine Fielding and the Las Vegas Film Tradition." Baca has served two years as New Mexico Historic Preservation Field Officer as well as four years in the late 1990's as the Director of the New Mexico Main Street Program. He helped found the Citizens Committee for Historic Preservation of Las Vegas, NM and has been involved for over 20 years in revitalizing Las Vegas historic districts.

Baca's deep interest in local film stems from his work in reviving the historic Kiva Theatre in the 1970's as a working theatre. A popular lecturer on preservation and community development, Baca will share his research on Fielding's role in American film.

"Fielding was a pioneer of the silent cinema during the formative years of the World War I era, when such stars as Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks were on the rise. Unfortunately, many of Fielding's films were destroyed in a warehouse fire in 1914," says Baca. "Now largely forgotten, Fielding was once among the most popular film stars of the early silent film industry. He directed more than 70 films and acted in more than 60 features. Working as a film producer for the Lubin studio of Philadelphia, Fielding was among the first artists to interpret the West."

In 1913, Fielding crossed the Mexican border where he was able to film the attack on Nogales by "Constitutionalist" forces. He arrived in Las Vegas shortly after and produced nine feature films including "The Rattlesnake," one of only a handful of Fielding films that survives. Fielding's biggest local film effort was "The Golden God," a $50,000 movie - a huge sum then - involving scores of actors and extras, and attracting great crowds during the filming.

"Of historical interest is a fading ghost sign remnant on the west side of the Plaza Hotel declaring 'Hotel Romaine,' a vestige of Fielding's stay in Las Vegas," Baca explains.

A publicity blurb of the time describes the film as "Man who threatens society with a dangerous snake returns to sanity after an encounter with a young girl." A still from the movie in the City of Las Vegas Museum's photo archives shows a man holding what appears to be a dangerous rattlesnake, rattles and all, while a young girl and older woman cower in fear.

Local pianist Em Krall will play accompaniment on the Duncan Opera House piano. Charlie's Bakery and Cafe will provide refreshments, including popcorn. Friends of the City of Las Vegas Museum member Yvonne Bond relishes the role Las Vegas continues to play in the film industry.

"Las Vegas has recently had an uptick in local movie production," muses Bond. "Las Vegas residents are still trading stories and jokes about the infamous "border crossing" on the University Avenue off-ramp set up during the filming of the Coen brothers' 'No Country for Old Men.'  Movie stars, attempting to remain incognito, are seen in town. All this becomes part of our area's tradition, just like ranching, mines, drought, fire, and the railroad."

"The Rattlesnake," film by Romaine Fielding, 6 p.m. January 30. The program is sponsored by the Friends of the City of Las Vegas Museum. The City of Las Vegas Museum is located at 727 Grand Avenue. The event is free and open to the public; donations welcome. For more information, call the Museum at 454-1401, extension 283 or Bob Mishler at 425-5929.