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It’s Getting Windy around Here
New Mexico sure loves to be a film and telvision state (likely because we can get bored around here and also because the parties are good), and our tradition of being home base for popular AMC shows (y’know, like Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul) continues this week as Forbes contributor Paul Tassi reports that the New Mexico-filmed and Indigenous-led Dark Winds has been performing quite well on Netflix. Quite well. As of earlier this week, the show was even listed within Netflix’s top 10 most-streamed offerings and, Tassi says, totally outperforming the Anne Rice-based vampire nonsense from AMC that recently hit Netflix. Based on novelist Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn & Chee series, Dark Winds follows tribal cop Joe Leaphorn (the most excellent Zahn McClarnon of Reservation Dogs fame) and his unlikely partner Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) as they investigate crimes and stuff. The show’s New Mexico connections are myriad, too, including producers/New Mexicans like George RR Martin and Robert Redford, director Chris Eyre (shout-out to Eyre for being such a badass) and countless crew members. Also cool? Dark Winds does a whole lot of work at Camel Rock Studios, the country’s first-ever tribally owned studio. And yes, there will be a third season.
Something in the Eyre
Speaking of Chris Eyre (Cheyenne and Arapaho), the Smoke Signals and, as we’ve established, Dark Winds director is slated to pop by Violet Crown Cinema later this month to present a double feature including an episode of Dark Winds and a screening of his 2005 short A Thousand Roads.—a film that was made for and otherwise screens exclusively at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. The screenings come to us as part of the CineMania series from filmmaker Scott Garren, who also produced and co-wrote A Thousand Roads. Who is credited as the other co-writer? Oh, no big—just Joy freaking Harjo (Muscogee Creek). Eyre will hang out for a Q&A following the screenings. Why are we telling you about an event going down on Sept. 26? Because we think it will likely sell out and we want to give everyone a fighting chance to get their tickets.
Setting the Bar
One SFR staffer couldn’t help but notice how the Jean Cocteau Cinema’s marquee contained language about its Milk of the Poppy bar last weekend, so it looks like the downtown theater/bookstore/bar/performance space might be ready to go with that one. The new patio outside reportedly looks nice, too, though it’s at least mildly sad that there are dwindling warm days left for the luxury of patio-sittin’ and sippin’. Just like Dark Winds, the ol’ JCC comes to us from George RR Martin, which most readers likely know already, but our friends from out of town might not. We will try to send someone over to the bar to learn more definitive information soon, but it’s always wise to call ahead whenever you do anything.
Wim/Win
The Center for Contemporary Arts got its hands on a 4K restoration of filmmaker Wim Wenders’ 1984 neo-Western Paris, Texas, and you should probably go see that if you want to call yourself a cinephile. The tale of a man who emerges from the desert after some years missing, this movie has everything you could want—by which we mean Harry Dean Stanton, Dean Stockwell and Nastassja Kinski. Did we mention Sam Shepard co-wrote this thing? Well, he did. Paris, Texas turned 40 this year, too, if you’re bad at math.
