08/31/2026
This weekend, we experienced a cinematic eclipse of sorts, with two filmmakers from very different generations, both bringing films to Palm Springs that explore the use of technology explore an every-changing landscape and evolution of storytelling— in very different ways. And on the same incredible weekend. 🎬🍿
On Saturday August 29th, Kenyan/Swiss filmmaker Damien Hauser brought his award winning film, Memory of Princess Mumbi. In this afrofuturistic work of sci-fi, young actors and filmmakers in east Africa in the 2090s must wrestle with the themes of preserving memory and representing authenticity in a world where you can make whatever reality you want.
And on Sunday August 30th, filmmaker Mark Pellington brought not just his documentary This is Buzz, but also a curated collection of some of his favorite decade-defining music videos from the early 1990s. Buzz TV only aired for 13 episodes on MTV, but the short-lived show by Mark Pellington and Jon Klein would go on to define not only the style and visual language of MTV during the 90s, but predicate the ultra rapid-fire information-dense world of social media decades later.
Thank you Damien and Mark for your films, and for your time and energy to come out to the Palm Springs desert in August. Thank you to Manny the Movie Guy from NBC Palm Springs for hosting the Mark Pellington Q&A, and thank you to all the Festival Theater fans and movie lovers who show up to our film events.
Damien Hauser memoryofprincessmumbi Mark Pellington THIS IS BUZZ Manny Dela Rosa
