Wrapping LAFF.

The Los Angeles Film Festival wraps tonight and Anne Thompson's got two good and swift reports on Awards Night and points to Jeffrey Wells's entry on James Ellroy's appearance at the fest, where he talked about The Black Dahlia.

As part of indieWIRE's coverage of the fest: "Gretchen and Deliver Us From Evil Win Big Award$," reported Eugene Hernandez last week.

In the Los Angeles Times, Gina Piccalo has a solid backgrounder on one: "Deliver Us comes years after the priest sex abuse scandals broke in Los Angeles and other cities, but [director and investigative news producer Amy] Berg feels there's too little said about the church's reluctance to take responsibility for the crimes." For a sharp and succinct review, turn to Brian Flemming.

Leonard Klady profiles Berg for Movie City News, where David Poland reviews the film. Klady also talks with Stanley Nelson (Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple) and Derek Sieg (Swedish Auto).

Doug Cummings has a sterling entry on the panel, "Unshown Cinema: Inside the World of 'The Films That Got Away'."

Andre Richter: "Los Muertos has the advantage of making all other films seem false, another inspiration to start anew.... [Lisandro] Alonso is the only filmmaker of his generation, plus granted 15 years older or younger, who cares about the green of the earth. Positif called Alonso's way of filmmaking 'haughty.' While watching Los Muertos, I suddenly thought 'hardly any filmmakers give a shit about people.'"

Back to the LAT: Rachel Abramowitz on CC Goldwater's Mr Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater, "an unabashedly admiring — though not wide-eyed — attempt to reclaim her grandfather's legacy, and to reconcile the man she adored — the avid gadgeteer, ham-radio operator, aviator, and truly talented photographer of American Indians — with the controversial political figure, often heralded as the father of the American conservative movement." And two bloggish collections of entrues by LAT critics, "The Critics Speak" and "Reporter's Notebook."

AJ Schnack has loads of observations and pix.

Peter Martin talks with Last Rites filmmakers Duane Stinnett and Krissann Shipley for Twitch. Also, reviews of My Mother and Her Guest and The Wild Blue Yonder.

Quick reviews from André Soares: El Aura, Analog Days, The Lather Effect, Old Joy and Half Nelson.

Update, 7/3: Movie City News has the full list of awards.

Posted by dwhudson at July 2, 2006 3:25 PM