The marquee is lit
Welcome back to The Santa Fe Weekender: five handpicked things worth your weekend, no scrolling required. This is a crisp one. The National Weather Service has today sunny and near 58, then a clear night that drops to about 31, so tonight is the first real coat night of the season. Saturday and Sunday are both sunny or mostly sunny with highs near 61 and barely any wind. That’s good weather for standing on Canyon Road watching someone paint.
The main thing
The Santa Fe International Film Festival. It’s the 18th year, and it now runs six days, Wednesday through Monday, October 14 to 19. About 200 films are screening, 65 features and more than 130 shorts, including a program of 14 short films made here in New Mexico. Screenings are spread across the Lensic, Sky Cinemas Railyard and Midtown, the Kathryn O’Keeffe Theater on Museum Hill, CCA and the Jean Cocteau, so you can build a whole weekend out of it or just catch one film between other plans.
Tonight, Friday, at 6:30, Zahn McClarnon receives the festival’s Visionary Award at the Lensic. He’s the actor behind Joe Leaphorn in Dark Winds and Officer Big in Reservation Dogs. The director Chris Eyre leads the conversation, then the festival screens the Dark Winds Season 4 episode McClarnon directed himself. Dark Winds is shot here in New Mexico, so this one is close to home. Tickets are $35 plus fees and were still on sale Friday morning at lensic.org.
The full schedule, tickets and passes are at sfiff.eventive.org. The box office is at 505-397-0138.
Eat
Santa Fe Teahouse & Bistro, 821 Canyon Road. It sits at the top end of Canyon Road, so it’s the natural place to start or finish Saturday’s Paint & Sculpt Out. It serves scratch-made breakfast and brunch with more than sixty loose-leaf teas, and it has a patio that’s open all year, which this weekend’s sun was made for. It’s open Thursday through Monday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. (the kitchen closes at 2:45), with jazz brunch on Sunday from 11 to 2. Reservations through OpenTable, or call 505-992-0972.
Paper Dosa, 551 West Cordova Road. This is dinner before a film. The South Indian place holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand this year, and the dosas are crisp, enormous and worth the trip off the Plaza. It’s open Tuesday through Saturday, 5 to 9 p.m., so this weekend it’s a Friday or Saturday pick. Book at paper-dosa.com or call 505-930-5521.
See
La Nueva México: Art & Life in the Interior Lands opens at the Museum of International Folk Art on Sunday. It brings together 150 historic objects, many of them rarely shown, from the museum’s own collection. Together they tell the story of this region between 1598 and 1848, when New Mexico was the far northern edge of New Spain. The title comes from the name the place was first given, around 1610.
The opening celebration is free, Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m., with music, food and art-making for all ages. MOIFA is at 706 Camino Lejo on Museum Hill. The show runs through January 30, 2028, so there’s no rush, but the opening is the friendliest way to see it first.
And SITE Santa Fe reopens tonight. After a turnover, the galleries open with three new shows: Larry Bell’s Improvisations, Sara Genn’s How to Build a Sky, and Sayre Gomez’s Closed Forever, large paintings and sculptures of strip malls, convenience stores and storefronts. The opening party is tonight from 5 to 8, and admission to SITE is always free. On Saturday from 1 to 2 p.m., Gomez talks with the curator Brandee Caoba ($10, registration required). Free tours run Saturday at 11:30 a.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. It’s at 1606 Paseo de Peralta in the Railyard, sitesantafe.org.
Do
Walk the Canyon Road Paint & Sculpt Out, Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. On the third Saturday of October, the galleries empty out onto the street. Painters, sculptors, jewelers, photographers and ceramicists set up outside and work in public, so you can watch a painting appear on a blank canvas or a figure come out of clay, wax or stone. It’s one of Canyon Road’s oldest traditions. It’s free, and the artists are happy to talk about what they’re doing. Some take commissions on the spot.
Wear real walking shoes. Canyon Road climbs gently for about half a mile, and the sun is strong at 7,000 feet even when it’s only 61 degrees. Parking is tight, so check the map and shuttle info at visitcanyonroad.com.
Also on
Pam Grier’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Saturday at 6 at the Lensic, is the festival’s other big night, with a Q&A led by the Emmy-winning screenwriter Kirk Ellis. It’s sold out, so we’re only telling you about it.
Oktoberfiesta at Santa Fe Brewing, Saturday noon to 8, at the Beer Hall at HQ, 35 Fire Place, south of town. There’s music, local makers, food and contests (past years had stein holding and brat eating), all to benefit the Santa Fe Animal Shelter & Humane Society. Its adoption RV is there from 12 to 4. It’s a suggested $10 donation, and kids under 12 get in free.
The Santa Fe Symphony, Sunday at 4 at the Lensic: Schubert’s “Unfinished,” Saint-Saëns’s Danse Macabre and Rachmaninoff’s The Bells with the Symphony Chorus, which is just right for October. Guillermo Figueroa conducts. Tickets at lensic.org.
More on stage: The Met’s Macbeth screens live in HD at the Lensic Saturday at 11 a.m. On Sunday night, Tyler Ballgame plays Tumbleroot at 7:30 (lensic360.org).
The Railyard: the Farmers’ Market runs Saturday 8 to 1, with the Santa Fe Artists Market alongside. On Sunday, El Mercado is back at El Museo Cultural.
That’s the weekend. If a friend would love it, forward it their way. They can subscribe at thesantafeweekender.com.
See you next Friday, The Santa Fe Weekender
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