Film Festival presents outdoor film and concert at Tequa Marketplace to celebrate summer; meet the filmmakers in a special Q&A following the screening.
The Sedona International Film Festival is proud to present “Cinema Under the Stars” at Tequa featuring the exclusive Northern Arizona premiere of the award-winning family film “Broken Hill” on Tuesday, June 22. There will be one screening of the film outdoors at the Tequa Marketplace courtyard in the Village of Oak Creek.
A live concert performance by Chris Spheeris and Suzie Schomaker will kick off the evening at 7 p.m. Come early, bring lawn chairs and blankets … and enjoy the sounds of these renowned performers! The film will follow the concert at approximately 8 p.m. “Broken Hill” writer/director Dagen Merrill and producer Chris Wyatt will be present to host the film and Q&A.
“This promises to be an extraordinary night of music, film and fun as we celebrate summer with the first of our planned ‘cinema under the stars’ events,” said festival director Patrick Schweiss. “Where else can you experience the incredible music of Chris Spheeris and Suzie Schomaker along with an award-winning film under the beautiful Sedona night skies?”
In the tradition of Save The Last Dance, Billy Elliott and August Rush comes the musical drama “Broken Hill”, starring Timothy Hutton, Luke Arnold and Alexa Vega.
Tommy McAlpine (Luke Arnold) was born and raised on a rocky, drought-ridden sheep station in the middle of the Australian Outback. His now deceased mother has instilled in him a passion for music and to experience life on a broader stage. His father, George McAlpine (Timothy Hutton), is a lonely, crusty, third generation farmer who believes Tommy’s only chance for a future is on the family farm, making a living from the dry Outback land.
Tommy has a genuine gift for music and aspires to attend the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Torn between the legacy of his mother and a desire to appease his father Tommy works on the farm and even plays Australian-rules football, but in his heart he wants to be a great musician. The local town is small and the world is about sheep and football. No one can carry a tune, and Tommy’s gift remains unseen.
When Tommy’s unrequited crush on a visiting American high school classmate Kat Rogers (Alexa Vega) gets him into hot water with the police, Tommy discovers a new opportunity. He chooses to do community service at the nearby jail in order to use the prisoners to perform his music. That choice creates a new set of challenges for Tommy and his father.
But the stakes for Tommy are raised even further when his music teacher and mentor, an Aboriginal musical genius named Pindari, lands him an audition for the elite music conservatorium in far off Sydney. Afraid that he won’t get approval from the prison warden, Tommy manipulates events to bring his musicians to a prison band competition where a talent scout from the conservatorium can see the performance. What happens there could change the course of his life. Despite the odds, Tommy finds a way to bring his music to life and that becomes the key to a second chance for all of them.
“Broken Hill” is the story of an artist who learns to reach for the stars.
