NOTICE: The film screening and panel discussion have been canceled. Information about rescheduling the event will be sent at a later date.
The Museum of Texas Tech University will host a documentary screening and panel discussion for “Ol' Max Evans, The First Thousand Years” from 7-9 p.m. Saturday (Oct. 13) in the auditorium of the museum.
The film creates a portrait of internationally renowned, best-selling New Mexico author Max Evans (The Rounders and The Hi Lo Country). Now 92 years old, Evans also has been a miner, prospector, movie producer, soldier, husband, father, accomplished artist and legendary hard-drinking, calf-roping cowboy who helped establish the New Mexico Film Commission.
“Ol' Max Evans” takes viewers through the changing times of the West and includes Evans telling personal stories of Hollywood, ranching, publishing houses, brawls, spiritual encounters and more. The film is composed of a number of episodes from Max Evans' life, told through interviews with Max, his friends and colleagues, narration, still photographs, location footage, graphics and recreations.
“By the time I was 17, life was really whippin' up and the son of a gun never stopped,” Evans says in the documentary. “It has been a dead run for 90 damn years and my ears laid back all the time.”
A panel discussion featuring two of the film's directors, Lorene Mills and Paul Barnes, will be held after the screening. Mills is a journalist with PBS interview show “Report from Santa Fe,” and Barnes is an editor and producer who worked with Ken Burns for more than 30 years. TJ Martinez, assistant professor in the College of Media and Communication, Paul Hunton, director of KTTZ TV and Katelin Dixon, curator of the Max Evans Collection at the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, also will be a part of the discussion panel.
A short reception will be held both before and after the screening and discussion from 6:30-7 p.m. and 9-9:30 p.m. in the sculpture court. The event is free and open to the public.
