Fests and events, 2/5.

IndieWIRE's Brian Brooks surveys the offerings at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival, running through Valentine's Day. Jeffrey M Anderson has a few suggestions if you'll be in the neighborhood.

Cheryl Eddy in the San Francisco Bay Guardian: "More than any other local fest, IndieFest exists to bring films made by show-biz outsiders to the forefront; this year in particular, many of the films seem to be about outsiders as well. In other words, this fest couldn't be more in tune with its multiplex-allergic audience." Also: "Is a minifest with an Asian focus next? Judging by this year's stellar lineup of crowd-pleasers from Japan and Hong Kong, I wouldn't be surprised."

The Austin Chronicle sneak previews SXSW: "The official, full-fledged list of films will be released early next week, but we've got a credible source on the inside that was able to supply some titles." Also, Marc Savlov previews the Texas Frightmare Weekend (tonight's the last night) and a pointer to Marching On: Independent African American Films From 1935 to 1950, through March 4.

Anticipating Film Forum's week-long Boris Karloff series, timed for the 75th anniversary of Frankenstein, Terrence Rafferty writes in the New York Times, "The scary-but-sympathetic mode was often effective for Karloff, whose eyes were rather sensitive, whose voice was soft and sonorous and whose lisping diction was always touchingly precise." More from David Edelstein in New York, Elliott Stein in the Voice and Martha Fischer at Cinematical. Greenbriar's got pix.

In the Independent, Alice Jones previews the Pavel Jurácek at the National Film Theatre in London and Geoffrey Macnab celebrates the series Italian Kings of the B's: Secret History of Italian Cinema, 1949 - 1981 at the Tate Modern through February 10.

Lili Taylor: Independent Spirit is a retrospective running at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis through February 19. In the City Pages, Terri Sutton considers a unique career.

Kevin Crust in the Los Angeles Times: "The tragic Jean Seberg brings considerable style to a pair of 1960s dramas being shown as part of UCLA's Columbia Restorations series."

The Boston Phoenix's Gerald Peary anticipates a few selections in the On All Fronts: World War II on Film, a series running at the Harvard Film Archive through February 27.

The Vue Weekly's Paul Matwychuk previews the Edmonton Film Society's winter screening series of Great Romantic Films, Mondays, through April 10.

David Lowery's been having second thoughts about self-distribution. "Second" as in a second round of thoughts rather than a change of heart. But new channels are opening up, so he's contacted Andrew Bujalski, Kyle Gilman (Possible Films) and Caveh Zahedi, gathered their thoughts and is coming to the conclusion that his original notion of complete self-autonomy as the ultimate goal might need "one simple addendum": "Do whatever you feel is right for your film." Related: Sujewa Ekanayake has details on evenings in DC featuring David and Kelley Baker.

On Wednesday night, "Owen Gleiberman, David Edelstein, Lisa Schwarzbaum and moderator David Sterritt bounded from Oscar chat to best-of/worst-of meditations to the narrowing theatrical release window within breaths of each other, only getting dangerous long enough to indict William Hurt's performance in A History of Violence," and The Reeler was there.

Online viewing tip. The CellFlix Festival. Via DVblog.

Posted by dwhudson at February 5, 2006 11:40 AM