Aspen Filmfest 2024: ¡CASA BONITA MI AMOR¡ brings a Colorado landmark back to life | Sarah Girgis The Aspen Times
September 16, 2024
Aspen Film’s 45th annual Filmfest officially kicks off this week and runs Tuesday through Sunday at the Aspen Film Isis Theatre. The annual fall festival features films that have premiered at global film festivals, including Sundance, Cannes, Tribeca, Toronto, and Telluride.
“I’m thrilled about how this festival came together with such a strong mix of new features, docs, and phenomenal animation,” Aspen Film Executive and Artistic Director Susan Wrubel said. “Some special films are showing which have received incredible accolades, and many of them are our matinees. I strongly recommend checking out ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig,’ which is Germany’s selection for the foreign language Oscar®; the gorgeous animated work ‘Flow’ and the inspiring documentaries ‘Champions of the Golden Valley’ and ‘The Remarkable Life of Ibelin.’”
Comprised of 17 invited films, the non-competitive festival presents a lineup of provocative fall 2024 titles. Themes of love and family, tenacity and overcoming obstacles, truth and freedom shine through many of the selections, showcasing outstanding and unforgettable characters.
The festival opens Tuesday with the documentary “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story,” which first premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
The story of Christopher Reeve charts his rise from an unknown actor to an iconic movie star through his definitive portrayal of Clark Kent/Superman which set the benchmark for the superhero cinematic universes that dominate cinema today.
Reeve portrayed the Man of Steel in four “Superman” films and played dozens of other roles before being injured in a near-fatal horse-riding accident in 1995 that left him paralyzed from the neck down.
After becoming a quadriplegic, he became a leader and activist in the quest to find a cure for spinal cord injuries, as well as an advocate for disability rights and care — all while continuing his career in cinema in front of and behind the camera while dedicating himself to his beloved family.
From the directors of “McQueen,” Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui, this film includes never-before-seen intimate home movies and a trove of personal archive material, as well as the first extended interviews ever filmed with Reeve’s three children about their father, alongside interviews with the A-list Hollywood actors who were Reeve’s colleagues and friends.
At 5 p.m. Wednesday, Fimfest is screening “¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!,” the documentary that tells the story of the rebirth of the venerated Colorado restaurant Casa Bonita, by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The film enjoyed its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, recently screened at the Telluride Film Festival, and is now showing in select theaters around the country.
“‘¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!,’” is an absolute delight,” Wrubel said. “This film is such a brilliant Colorado underdog story about the saving of a beloved and iconic institution, by the South Park creators no less. It has heart, is funny, and has a happy ending — who could ask for more? We’re delighted to welcome director Arthur Bradford for a Q+A following this film.”
The film tracks the rise, fall, and revival of the beloved Colorado landmark Casa Bonita. Casa Bonita opened in 1974 in an unassuming strip mall. The massive “Disneyland of Mexican restaurants” is an Old West and Acapulco-inspired fever dream made famous by its indoor waterfall, cliff divers, and haunted caves.
The restaurant was featured in a classic 2003 episode of “South Park.” When the show’s creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, learn that Casa Bonita might close its doors for good, they attempt to preserve a crumbling piece of their childhood and Denver history, even if it means spending $40 million on a project they had originally thought would cost $6 million.
“Everyone in Denver and Colorado knows about Casa Bonita. The obsession with this restaurant is very unique to Colorado,” Bradford said. “I don’t know of any other place that has this love affair with a single restaurant the way people in Colorado do with Casa Bonita. Matt and Trey are true Colorado people so they have the same obsession.”
Bradford has been a longtime friend and collaborator with Parker and Stone since being introduced to them through a mutual friend shortly after the duo graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder.
The future director moved to Aspen after he graduated from high school to take a gap year to work for the Rocky Mountain Institute. It was here that he discovered his future path.
“It was around 1989, and Aspen, for a relatively small town, always got cool independent films when I lived there. I loved watching movies so I would spend time after work seeing movies at the Isis. That was when I realized that I didn’t want to do environmental work, I was more interested in filmmaking,” he said.
He left Colorado to attend Yale University but returned often to ski and visit family. After meeting Parker and Stone he said they began to trade VHS tapes through the mail of videos that they had made, which eventually led to Bradford documenting the duo and producing the Emmy-nominated “Six Days To Air” in 2011.
In 2012 Bradford visited Casa Bonita with Parker and Stone for the first time, which resulted in a moment when the South Park creators admit that owning the restaurant is a dream of theirs. That footage is the opening scene of the film.
“As we got deeper into filming, I noticed a huge interest from the local media and community in Denver,” Bradford explained. “We saw people hanging around in the parking lot, just lurking, waiting for some sign of the place opening. There was massive interest. You could feel it from inside and outside the building. I realized early on that this is bigger than you think. It’s not just about rehabbing a restaurant.”