Santa Fe Film Festival 2008

Actor James Cromwell, a 2008 Luminaria Tributee, joins the festival for the world premiere of his new film, a thriller with a political edge about a veteran CIA agent interrogating a Russian defector at an abandoned Southwest prison. Filmed outside Santa Fe. In his plot summary, writer-director Justin Evans says, "It is the fall of 1972. CIA Agent Robert Harper fears he has much to answer for. KGB defector Nikolai Dzerzhinsky suspects his secrets are already known. And in an abandoned prison deep in the Mexican desert both men will learn this is...a lonely place for dying."

Dennis Lambert was one of the most successful and diverse songwriter/producers of the '70s and '80s, with hits like "Ain't No Woman Like The One I've Got", "Rhinestone Cowboy", "Don't Pull Your Love", "Baby Come Back" and "Nightshift". He had chart-toppers in almost every genre of music, and at one point four of his songs were simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, a feat previously accomplished only by The Beatles. That was then. Today, he's a 60-year-old family man selling real estate in Florida. But it turns out his obscure 1972 solo album is still huge... in the Philippines. A Filipino concert promoter has been begging Dennis to tour for decades, and in 2007 - thirty-five years after the release of his album - he finally agreed. "Of All The Things" is a hilarious and touching pop/rock/country/R&B documentary that follows Dennis on his whirlwind tour as he rediscovers his passion for music -- a twoweek adventure that takes him from the comforts of Boca Raton, through the remote outer islands of the Philippines, to a sold-out show at Manila's famous Araneta Coliseum for thousands of fans he never knew he had. Biography Jody Lambert was born and raised in Los Angeles. He was a child actor and musician before moving to NYC to attend NYU film school. He switched majors to acting, where he studied at the Atlantic Theater Company. For the past 15 years, he's lived in New York's East Village and has worked at some of downtown's best theaters, including ps122, the Ohio, HERE and the Atlantic Theater Company. He also helped in the creation of the New York International Fringe Festival and traveled to the Edinburgh Fringe with several award-winning productions. OF ALL THE THINGS is his directorial debut AFI Project: 20/20 is an American Film Institute (AFI) international initiative designed to enhance cultural exchange, understanding and collaboration through filmmakers and their films from the US and abroad. It is an unprecedented cultural diplomacy effort that is the only international filmmaker exchange supported by all of America’s cultural agencies—National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)—and the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Participation in AFI Project: 20/20 is by invitation based on an artist’s filmmaking excellence and their potential for positively interrelating with film professionals, filmmaking peers, cultural officials and audiences, particularly in foreign countries. AFI FEST—the debut festival for the program—and the other venues and countries participating in AFI Project: 20/20 provide an arena for American and International cultural voices to be heard and seen, creating learning opportunities for audiences and artists alike. Through workshops, seminars and appearances at film festivals, cultural centers, museums and other community, educational and cultural venues in the US and abroad, AFI Project: 20/20 filmmakers will promote mutual understanding, while nurturing filmmaking excellence. Now in its third year, the program continues to support and advocate the use of film in cultural diplomacy. Representing various countries, AFI Project: 20/20’s multicultural roster of films challenges its audiences to examine, reflect and celebrate diversity. In 2008-2009, 13 filmmakers from 8 countries and their films are planning to visit China, Peru, South Africa, France and Great Britain, as well as St. Louis, Santa Fe, Washington, D.C, Honolulu, Dallas and Waterville, Maine. WINNER of the Audience Award at the Sarasota, Nantucket and Palm Beach film festivals.