Filmmaker and educator Julia Smith spent the past six years restoring and digitizing the films of the late Orville Wanzer, a pioneering yet under-recognized filmmaker from the 60s, 70s and 80s whose influence helped shape the evolution of “the modern western” and independent avant-garde cinema in the United States, particularly in the borderland region.
Over the next couple of months, Smith is looking for support to complete her documentary about Wanzer and his film legacy.
Wanzer was hired as a New Mexico State University English professor in 1959. He also taught photography, film history and created the first filmmaking program at NMSU. Wanzer died in 2019 at age 88.
Smith, who taught courses at NMSU in film studies, gender and sexuality studies and English, is launching a fundraiser this month to complete her documentary about the trailblazing filmmaker.
Wanzer’s film “The Devil’s Mistress,” made in 1965, is at the heart of Smith’s documentary, “The Birth of the Acid Western.” It was the first feature film made in New Mexico mixing horror, countercultural themes and the Western landscape. Wanzer’s work anticipated what would later be called the “Acid Western” – a subversive genre blending the mythology of the frontier with psychedelic and avant-garde experimentation.
“Wanzer was working outside of Hollywood, out here in Las Cruces,” Smith said. “He believed in the artistry of low-budget filmmaking and the creativity of amateurs. He was ahead of his time, and his films deserve to be remembered.”
Smith’s documentary received early support through grants and archival partnerships but now needs public support to complete the project. Smith’s fundraising campaign to raise $15,000 by the end of October will fund post-production editing and sound design, industry fees, animation graphics along with promotion and screenings.
Donations can be made through Indiegogo or the El Paso Community Foundation.
“This film was born in Las Cruces, and it belongs to Las Cruces,” Smith said. “By supporting the campaign, you’re helping preserve a piece of New Mexico’s cultural history while also making sure the community that gave birth to it gets to see it on the big screen.”
Learn more about support tiers and rewards for donating to the “Birth of the Acid Western.” Learn more about Smith and her work at https://linktr.ee/acidwesterndoc .
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CUTLINE: Left: Filmmaker and educator Julia Smith holding a poster for “The Devil’s Mistress,” a film by the late Orville Wanzer, a former NMSU professor. Right: Wanzer looking through reels of 16 mm film. Smith is launching a fundraiser to finish her documentary about Wanzer titled "Birth of the Acid Western."(Courtesy photos)
CUTLINE: Filmmaker and educator Julia Smith is launching a fundraiser over the next two months to complete “Birth of the Acid Western, a documentary about the late NMSU professor Orville Wanzer and his avante-garde films, mixing horror, countercultural themes and the Western landscape. (Courtesy photo)
CUTLINE: The documentary “The Birth of the Acid Western” follows the film legacy of the late NMSU professor Orville Wanzer whose first feature film made in New Mexico mixed horror, counterculture aesthetics and the Western landscape. (Screen capture from “Birth of the Acid Western.”)