Mission Statement of the Madrid Film Festival

The Madrid Film Festival seeks to encourage local filmmaking by showcasing the best short films produced in New Mexico each year. Supporting amateur and minority filmmakers is a particular emphasis, especially in the small town of Madrid where educational workshops can directly reach young aspiring filmmakers.

 

 

Strategic Vision

To pursue this mission in perpetuity, the Madrid Film Festival will inspire ever-increasing participation. More film submissions means a better-quality festival, which will result in larger audiences, which will provoke more film submissions, and so on. Creating that positive feedback loop is the core strategy for the festival’s self-sustaining, steady growth.

 

 

History of the Festival

Local musician and thespian Joe West had the idea of a local short film festival and brought it to author Andrew Wice; when they added technical wizard Doug Speer, the trio of producers balanced together. The inaugural 2018 festival was a surprise runaway sold-out hit. They expanded the 2019 festival into three full days, and then took the winning films on a successful short tour around New Mexico. The 2020 Madrid Film Festival promises to feature the absolute best short films made this year, and the Film Festival On Tour will bring the award-winning films to  communities all over the state.

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Joe West’s Theater of Death, now in its eighth year, produces an annual anthology of dark horror/comedy plays, featuring original live music and macabre melodramatics, inspired by the Grand Guignol Theatre of Paris. The next Theater of Death plays will be terrifying audiences around Halloween, 2020. 

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Joe West is an award-winning songwriter, performer and director. In addition to his music schedule and many albums (including his newest, Rodeo of the Soul), he propitiously founded the Theater of Death production company. Please visit www.joewestmusic.com and www.theaterofdeath.org. 

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Andrew Wice is a novelist and screenwriter. He is the author of seven novels, including To The Last Drop (Bäuu Press, Colorado, 2008), as well as the best-selling smartphone app, The Oral History Tour of Madrid, NM. Please visit www.AndrewWice.com.

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Doug Speer is a retired producer, creative director and photographer. After 32 years in corporate communications, he joined the Theater of Death in 2018 as Technical Director for the inaugural Madrid Film Festival and continued with the fall productions of Invasion!, Xoe Fitzgerald and Freakatorium.