A New Mexico State University (NMSU) art graduate will play a significant role in creating the official poster for this year’s Las Cruces International Film Festival (LCIFF), the country’s largest university-run film festival.
Local artist Asiah Thomas-Mandlman, who was born and raised in Las Cruces, is the brain behind the poster art for the 11th annual festival, which will appear on all LCIFF apparel, including T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, and all festival badges.
Thomas-Mandlman’s masterpiece debuts at the LCIFF poster reveal party from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. Friday, March 6, at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum, 4100 Dripping Springs Road.
NMSU hints that the artwork is not likely to be a landscape.
Captivated by people’s faces and their emotions, Thomas-Mandlman photographs subjects and creates art using colored pencils or charcoal from those images.
“Asiah is an emerging young artist, so we wanted to bring attention to her and her work,” said Ross Marks, LCIFF executive director and NMSU Creative Media Institute professor.
“We always select a local artist, and I tell them to do whatever speaks to them. We’ve had a tattoo artist, we’ve had a photographer, we’ve had watercolor and we’ve had oil on canvas,” he said.
Thomas-Mandlman will sign limited edition prints of the poster at the LCIFF poster party. The event also features an auction of the original artwork. Admission is $30 and includes a signed collectible poster, food, drinks (beer & wine) and music. The festival runs April 8-12, and discounted VIP tickets are available for $150 only at the poster party.
NMSU reports that the Doña Ana Arts Council gallery and in El Paso’s Take the Stage series showcase Thomas-Mandlman’s portrait work. But she excels in other areas as well. She sings with the jazz ensemble Lush Life Quintet and new band Groove Runner, appears in the Music in the Park series, and performed at the Las Cruces Juneteenth Jazz Festival.
What to expect at the LCIFF?
LCIFF is a five-day festival showing 168 films in person at the Allen Theatres Cineport 10. VIP passes cost $200, All-Access Passes $100, Day Passes $35 and admission to the Outstanding Achievement celebrity screening of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” with Michael Rooker is $35. Tickets are available now at www.lascrucesfilmfest.com.
The festival also features eight panels and workshops for students and community members.
Founded by Marks in 2016, the LCIFF has grown into the largest student-run film festival in the country. Marks teaches two courses on producing film festivals. During the fall course, he teaches students to prepare for the festival, while the spring course gives them the hands-on experience of producing the festival.
An estimated 80 to 100 NMSU students in the Creative Media Institute and the Creative Media Technology program at Doña Ana Community College are collaborating to stage the festival, which organizers expect will gather more than 12,000 visitors to the region.
Many regard LCIFF as one of the most prestigious film festivals in the Southwest and often call it as “The Sundance of the Southwest.”