The Park City Film Series returns this week from its summer break with double features and a globe trotting slate of 20 films in two months.
“When I started the series, it was eight films in eight weeks,” recalls Park City Film Series Executive Director Frank Normile.
Normile also recalls the starting prices for series tickets, which this fall will be raised. He explains that any product associated with travel, must contend with rising gas prices and that includes films going the distance to Utah. The increased cost has meant he will bump all ticket prices up a dollar: adult tickets are now $7 and student and senior tickets are now $6. A 10-punch pass is $50.
“I haven’t raised ticket prices in 10 years,” he laments.
Beefing up the lineup are two free returning series including the traveling Global Lens films and monthly features provided by the Sundance Institute, which include a visit from the documentary filmmakers for Q and A post-screening.
“Manda Bala,” a 2007 Sundance Film Festival documentary about the dark underbelly of corrupt politics, plastic surgery and kidnappings in lush and exotic Brazil kicks-off the film series this Thursday. Jason Kohn, the young, first-time filmmaker who won the Grand Jury Prize at the festival will be on hand to speak.
This marks the third year of the series’ partnership with Global Lens films. Global Lens films travel throughout the country to U.S. cities like New York, Chicago, Key West and San Jose, Calif. Films this year come from filmmakers in Iraq and Croatia, Indonesia and Chile. The films are part of the larger Global Film Initiative with a mission to “promote cross-cultural understanding through the medium of cinema.”
“We join the University of Utah and the Salt Lake Film Society to share these films, and every year the crowds get bigger,” Normile explains. “We are very privileged to get this in most cities, you need to pay $8 or $9 to see the films. We provide them for free at the film series. I really think it’s a feather in our cap.”
Tickets to films are $7 for adults and $6 for students and seniors. On Friday and Saturday, screenings begin at 8 p.m.; on Sunday at 6 p.m. All films are screened at the Jim Santy Auditorium 1255 Park Ave. For more information, visit parkcityfilmseries.com.