What will the face of this year’s Las Cruces International Film Festival look like? Only Asiah Thomas-Mandlman knows. The local artist will create the poster art for the 11th annual festival, which also will be featured on all LCIFF apparel, including T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats and all festival badges.
One hint about the artwork is that it’s not likely to be a landscape.
Thomas-Mandlman, a New Mexico State University art graduate who was born and raised in Las Cruces, is drawn to people’s faces, to their emotions. She takes photographs and from those images she creates art using colored pencils or charcoal.
“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.”
Thomas-Mandlman’s vision will be revealed at the LCIFF poster party from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Friday, March 6 at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum, 4100 Dripping Springs Road. The artist will be on hand to sign limited edition prints of the poster. The original artwork will be auctioned off at the event. Admission is $30 and includes a signed collectible poster, food, drinks (beer & wine) and music. The festival runs April 8-12. Discounted VIP tickets for $150 will be on sale only at the poster party.
Thomas-Mandlman’s portrait work is showcased at the Doña Ana Arts Council gallery and in El Paso’s Take the Stage series. But art is not her only talent. She also sings with the jazz ensemble Lush Life Quintet and new band Groove Runner and has appeared in the Music in the Park series and was featured at the Las Cruces Juneteenth Jazz Festival.
The five-day festival, showing 168 films, will be live in-person at the Allen Theatres Cineport 10. VIP passes are $200, All-Access Passes are $100, Day Passes are $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 will include eight panels and workshops for students and members of the community.
Founded by Marks in 2016, the LCIFF is now the largest student-run film festival in the country. Marks teaches two courses on how to produce a film festival. 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. Approximately 80 to 100 NMSU students in the Creative Media Institute and the Creative Media Technology program at Doña Ana Community College will work together putting on the festival, which is expected to draw more than 12,000 visitors to the region.
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CUTLINE: Asiah Thomas-Mandlman, local artist and New Mexico State University alumna, will create the poster for this year’s Las Cruces International Film Festival. A poster party to reveal the artwork will be from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Friday, March 6 at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum. (Courtesy image)