The Palm Springs International Film Festival has named Desert X 2021–The Film an official selection of its 2022 festival. The new documentary will be screened as part of the festival’s Local Spotlight section. Screenings are scheduled on Friday, January 14 at 7:00 pm at the Annenberg Theater at the Palm Springs Art Museum and on Sunday, January 16 at 3:00 pm at Regal Palm Springs.
The film, which was released worldwide earlier this year at premiere screenings at the Rancho Mirage Amphitheater and the Getty Center, Los Angeles, goes behind the scenes of the 2021 exhibition, curated by artistic director Neville Wakefield with co-curator César García-Alvarez, offering atypical insight into newly commissioned works by 12 participating artists from eight countries. The artists are invited to explore the desert as both a place and idea, and to look deeper at ideas essential to the sustenance of our future and identity and the histories, realities and possibilities of the Coachella Valley and its many communities.
“Following COVID lock-downs, it seemed urgent to make the ideas and conversations provoked by the exhibition available to the widest possible audience. We are honored that the Palm Springs International Film Festival is recognizing the Desert X film as an Official Selection and thus highlighting the important work of the participating artists,” said Desert X President Susan Davis.
Desert X 2021–The Film takes us inside the artists’ studios in Accra, Ghana; Berlin, Germany; Guadalajara, Mexico; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; La Paila, Colombia; London, UK; New York City, USA; Panajachel, Guatemala; and Sitka, Alaska, USA. Through their creations for Desert X, the participating artists explore the current socio-political climate, speaking directly to the Native American Land Back movement, climate change and water rights, histories of feminism and the urgent issues facing Black lives. It is at once a record of the previous tumultuous 18 months through the eyes and voices of some of the most well-known artists and a timely piece that poses urgent questions about the past while imagining the possibilities of a shared future.
Tickets go on sale on December 22 here.
Desert X 2021 – The Film is directed by Dylan Robertson and produced by Zoe Lukov for Desert X. The Executive Producer is Richard Mille. Desert X 2021 is part of KCET’s original series ARTBOUND.