The Plaza Classic Podcast
The Plaza Classic Podcast is hosted by KVIA news anchor and three-time Regional Edward R. Murrow Award-winner Borderland Crimes podcaster Stephanie Valle and EPCC Mass Communication Professor Lisa Elliott. Valle and Elliott are members of the Plaza Classic Film Festival Program Advisory Committee. The podcast is produced in partnership with EPCC and the El Paso Community Foundation. Each episode features guests ranging from committee members to filmmakers who delve into a different aspect of the city’s No. 1 feel-good summer event, including this year’s schedule, the Local Flavor showcase, screenwriting competition, and more.
Episodes
Classic films are timeless and inspirational for both film fans and filmmakers.
Scott McGee is somewhat of an expert on the classics. McGee has spent the last two decades curating movies that are shown during the film festival sponsored by Turner Classic Movies. And for almost as long, he's shared his insight with El Paso audiences as a special guest at the Plaza Classic Film Festival.
McGee sat down with Lisa Elliott and Stephan...
One Battle After Another, the latest film by acclaimed director Paul Thomas Anderson, took over El Paso when the film crew shot parts of the movie here in 2024. The excitement was palpable as Downtown El Paso's historic buildings and unique facades became the backdrop for several scenes and Academy Award winning actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio Del Toro, and Sean Penn were spotted meandering around the city.
On Sept. 13, 2025, the...
Veronica Cartwright is one of Hollywood's busiest character actors. As a child, she started off as a model, then a commercial actor, and even landed a recurring role in Leave It to Beaver.
Cartwright's big screen break came at age 14, when she was cast as Cathy Brennan in The Birds (1963), directed by Alfred Hitchcock. She later worked alongside Ridley Scott as "Lambert" in the sci-fi classic Alien (1979).
The actress was a special...
Luis Valdez influenced a generation of Latinos and Latinas when he showcased their stories on the big screen in the 1980s.
The director was the special guest during the first weekend of the 2025 Plaza Classic Film Festival, appearing before the screenings of La Bamba on Friday, July 18 and Zoot Suit on Saturday, July 19.
The following interview with Film Festival Advisory Committee member and podcast co-host Stephanie Valle was hel...
Location matters when it comes to setting up a business, buying a house, and filming a movie.
Jacob Cena knows El Paso like the back of his hand. It's one of his most prized assets as the Borderland's trusted location scout.
Cena will delve deeper into his craft during the Filmmaker's Brunch, which takes place on the last day of the Plaza Classic Film Festival.
He also shares some insight into what it takes to get a film shot in th...
Not all the movies shown during the Plaza Classic Film Festival are classics in the traditional sense of the word. Some are making their debut on the big screen during the festival.
Local filmmaker Diego Munoz Holguin has the honor of screening several of his short films at the Plaza.
Munoz talks to podcast hosts Stephanie Valle and Lisa Elliott about his works and the method to his filmmaking.
Luis Valdez and Veronica Cartwright may not be household names, but they have both played large roles in some memorable films you surely have seen.
Valdez directed "Zoot Suit" with Edward James Olmos and "La Bamba" with Lou Diamond Phillips; Cartwright portrayed both Cathy, the teen girl in "The Birds," and Lambert in "Alien." And both stars will be gracing the stage during the Plaza Classic Film Festival.
Festival Program Director...
If you're a fan of "Notting Hill" starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, then you're in luck.
The 1999 rom-com is the star of the newest date night event held during the Plaza Classic Film Festival. The "I'm Just a Girl" Dinner is on Monday, July 21 with a screening of "Notting Hill" to follow.
In this episode, podcast hosts Lisa Elliott and Stephanie Valle are just two girls, sitting in front of two fellow committee members Craig ...
Do you know the story behind the most famous pitch in film history?
It was for 1979's Alien. Legend has it, the screenwriters told the studio heads three words: "Jaws in space."
The power of the pitch is clear, and there will be a workshop during the Plaza Classic Film Festival to help writers finesse that much-needed skill.
El Paso Film Commissioner Drew Mayer-Oakes joins Lisa Elliott and Stephanie Valle in the podcast studio to t...
2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. As part of a massive collaborative effort, the Plaza Classic Film Festival is teaming up with FIVE of El Paso's museums to showcase "Hollywood Goes to War," the festival's major theme commemorating the anniversary.
Podcast hosts Stephanie Valle and Lisa Elliott are joined in studio by representatives of the Mexican American Cultural Center, the El Paso Museum of Art, and t...
El Pasoan Ron Stallworth had an eventful career in law enforcement. He helped sabotage KKK activities in Colorado Springs as an undercover member of the Klan, and he also uncovered Bloods and Crips activity in Salt Lake City's Mormon Country.
His true life stories are more fascinating than fiction, prompting screenwriters to bring his published memoirs "BlacKkKlansman" and "The Gangs of Zion" to the big and small screen, alike.
Sta...
The sequel to the Star Wars, the 1977 sci-fi film that defined the genre and shaped a generation, is blasting its way onto the Plaza Classic Film Festival schedule this summer.
Jaime Mendez, a member of the film festival's advisory committee and an avid Star Wars fan, joins Lisa Elliott and Stephanie Valle to convince them -- and all of you -- that "Empire" isn't just the best film in the series, but one of the best movies ever mad...
Do you remember when the Mighty Wurlitzer organ was encased in glass near the food court in Sunland Park Mall?
That was just one unlikely stop before the classic instrument returned to its home in the Plaza Theatre.
Gary L. Williams, the Vice President of Programs for the El Paso Community Foundation, and Richard Garven, Organist-Choirmaster Emeritus, join podcast hosts Lisa Elliott and Stephanie Valle to talk about the journey to ...
The Master of Suspense is making his mark on the Plaza Classic Film Festival once again.
Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious (1946), featuring Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant, will screen during the festival, which takes over Downtown El Paso July 17-27, 2025.
The festival Advisory Committee's Hitchcock expert, Leanne von Mittenwald, joins podcast hosts Lisa Elliott and Stephanie Valle in the studio to talk about why Notorious is her favori...
A silent film that partly takes place in the Borderland is making its Plaza Classic Film Festival debut this summer.
When "Her Husband's Trademark" lights up the Plaza Theatre screen on July 27, it will feature something it didn't have when it premiered in 1922: an original score. You could say this moment was over 100 years in the making. But in actuality, the festival's Program Director Doug Pullen has been trying to bring "Trad...
2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, and as more and more Americans who witnessed the tragedies firsthand are lost to time, it's more important than ever to study this moment in history.
A wartime movie doesn't always depict violence on the battlefield. They can also capture the mood of a nation at a time when its soldiers are fighting overseas.
Doug Pullen, the Plaza Classic Film Festival's Program Director,...
El Pasoan Terri Rutter grew up around horses. She rides them, trains them, and trains people how to behave around them.
Now, she's sharing her horse sense with Lisa and Stephanie. She's talking about her favorite films featuring fillies (and mares, colts, and stallions) that have been featured at the Plaza Classic Film Festival, and the ones she'd like to see shown on the big screen this summer.
The Plaza Classic Film Festival is J...
This Women's History Month, the Plaza Classic Podcast wants to take a moment to spotlight a showcase focused on local female filmmakers.
Femme Frontera is both a Borderland-based organization of Latine women and gender-expansive filmmakers and a curated film selection featured during the classic film fest since 2019.
Filmmakers Jackie Barragan and Celina Galicia join Lisa Elliott and Stephanie Valle to talk about the showcase and ...
Each award season, the dedicated cinephiles on the Plaza Classic Film Festival Advisory Committee try to guess who the voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will pick to win Oscars.
This contest isn't just for bragging rights. The winner of the Oscar Ballot Contest gets to select one movie to screen during that year's Plaza Classic Film Festival.
For the second year in a row, committee member Keri Moe ha...
Whether he knew too much, shot the bad guy, or arrived to Earth from space, a man sure can accomplish a lot on the big screen.
Film critic Felipa Solis joins Plaza Classic Podcast hosts Lisa Elliott and Stephanie Valle to talk about the various takes on "The Man Who..." -- specifically, Alfred Hitchcock's two renditions of The Man Who Knew Too Much, John Ford's 1962 classic The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and The Man Who Fell to ...
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