Henny Does Tucson

By Henny Garfunkel

For the last 25 years, Henny Garfunkel has been photographing the film world – snapping portraits, capturing movie sets, documenting film festivals from Berlin to Sundance, Toronto to Cannes. Part of the year she lives in Tucson with her canine pal, Felix. We asked her to show us how Tucson is a Movie City.

Discovering Tucson

Six years ago, just after 9/11, I and my soon-to-be ex-boyfriend wanted to find a place to spend the winter. A New York friend with a beautiful '50s home in the Tucson foothills invited us stay there for February and March. The house was quite spectacular. After a month, we moved downtown to get closer to the street scene - if you can say that Tucson has a street scene.

Staying for the adventure

The following year, I bought a little stone house in downtown Tucson. And then my boyfriend and I broke up. I decided to keep the house. I hired a team to remodel the place, and learned to love this desert town. Tucson has wonderful thrift stores, flea markets, hiking, biking and open spaces everywhere to explore. When I am hiking in the desert, I think that I came here in a bad situation, but stayed for the adventure of a new place.

Everybody goes to the Loft

Part of that adventure is going to the movies. The central place is The Loft. I remember being thrilled to find a place with solid independent programming and great guests. My one pet peeve with Tucson theaters is that they hold over films far past their sell-by date. They still have a Rocky Horror Picture Show midnight screening. In the summer, they project great classic films for free at the Plaza of La Placita. And everyone comes to The Loft: filmmaker Kirby Dick, producer Christine Vachon, director John Waters, actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. I just saw Armistead Maupin, the guy who wrote the Tales of the City novels. The place was filled to the brink with all kinds of people including old ladies and gay men.

Drive-In Skies

The DeAnza Drive-In shows four movies at the same time. When I went there the first time, my head was spinning all around – on one screen was Tom Cruise in some Spielberg movie, and then behind me was another film, and another over there. All I could do is look up at the desert sky. For the last year, the DeAnza Drive-In has been in a life-and-death struggle to keep from becoming a strip mall. So far the theater is winning.

The Catalina vs. the strip mall

Tucson doesn't lack for strip malls. I hate them. It seems like every theater is in one, which is always jarring to walk out into after a movie. When I started looking for local art cinemas, I found the Catalina, which, has now gone under, and is waiting to be demolished and inevitably turned into another Walgreens. One thing I do love here is leaving a theater with a monsoon raging. When it clears, there is a rainbow, and the temperature goes back down to 102 degrees.

Outlaws and renegades

This guy with the bike was in front of my favorite video store. I loved the "Sober Forever" on his back. A lot of Tucson still has this aura of the old Wild West about it­­, the outlaw and renegade in the desert.

Mi Casa Video, Tu Casa Video

At Casa Video, there is always warm popcorn in the front. And throughout racks of independent directors – John Waters, Billy Wilder, Takeshi Kitano. In the back, there's a porno room, and upfront, a transgendered clerk. You got to love that.

Festival fever

Tucson hosts tons of film festivals – Jewish, gay and lesbian, music, slow food festival. I volunteered for the Arizona International Film Festival one year. The Back Alley Film Festival takes place behind the Bison Witches Bar & Deli on 4th Avenue. I went there a few years ago. The cars were gone, and people were sitting on blankets, watching a bunch of obscure independent shorts that you wouldn't have seen anyplace else.

Buena Vista Social Slump

It's sad how so many of the small cinemas are shutting down. The Buena Vista is now being demolished. It used to be a fourplex in the 70s, but I never got the chance to go there. I wish someone would take it over and turn it into a restaurant and cinema like the IFC Center in New York.

Dancing Queens

Everyone goes to the big mall cinemas, like the Century El Con 20, which does show some indie stuff. It's located in the El Con Mall, which used to have this fabulous Mexican-influenced '60s architecture, until they renovated it. I recently saw Mamma Mia! there, and all these older ladies got up and started dancing in the aisles to the music of Abba.

Danny Vinik

People here are so friendly. Someone introduced me to Danny Vinik at Sundance. He gave me his number and we soon became good friends. He was the producer on Spun. He also runs brinkmedia.com, which is a group of different entertainment companies. During parts of the year, Dan drives around the country to different film and music festivals in a caravan of his 60s Dodge motor homes, called the BrinkMobiles. He shows his work, sells DVDs, negotiates deals, and holds court at the many parties he throws inside.

Darren Clark

Tucson is small, but spread out. (Too much urban sprawl for me). I constantly find myself standing in front of another horrible development, shaking my head, and asking "Who approved that?" Lots of people in the arts end up doing lots of different things. Darren Clark is a photographer, fashion designer, landscaper, curator, t-shirt maker, interior designer with his own company patch&clark – a jack of all trades. He often works on film crews when they are shooting a film here. He is even a dresser with the Arizona Opera. He has so much energy; he seems more New York than Tucson.

Tucson Twilight

There are a lot of films shot here, and no wonder, the light is fab and great by day or night. Sam Mendes just shot part of his new film for Focus Features here. The Tucson Inn is one of my favorite places. They shot the cult classic Perdita Durango here with Javier Bardem and Rosie Perez, fucking in almost every scene. I've been told that Georgia O'Keefe used to live here.

Desert decay

I love decay, and states of decay – so many remnants from the past. Both ancient and recent. They are everywhere here. Lots of old cars, old signs, old trailers, old cacti, even old ruins. Did you know it takes a cactus 75 years to grow an arm? It's the perfect backdrop for films – films like Traffic, Three Kings, Boys on the Side, Warhol's Lonesome Cowboys, Desert Bloom, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and, let's not forget, Oklahoma!

What Would They Think?

Tucson is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the United States. Thousands of years old. I wonder what the ancients would think of Tucson now.