Other fests, other events.

David Fellerath talks with Mikel Rouse about the third installment of his Opera Verité trilogy, The End of Cinematics, inspired by Susan Sontag's essays, "The Death of Cinema" and "A Century of Cinema," and heading for BAM's Next Wave Festival October 4 through 7.

Also in the Independent Weekly, Fellerath again: "One of the most quietly productive filmmaking partnerships in the Triangle is that of Raleigh's Neal Hutcheson, who makes the films, and NC State linguistics professor Walt Wolfram, who provides the mission and the executive production through the North Carolina Language and Life Project. Their studies of lingering rural dialects have led to four films, the most recent of which, The Queen Family, will air nationally on PBS this Sunday [tonight!], and locally next Wednesday, Oct 4 at 8:30 pm."

"His blend of artist and entertainer, as controversial as Hitchcock's during the polemical heyday of auteurism, was to Dwight Macdonald a 'problem,' to Stanley Kauffmann a 'paradigm,' and to Jacques Rivette nothing less than the very definition of mise-en-scène," writes Fernando F Croce, introducing Slant's upcoming coverage of Otto Preminger: Notorious, a series running at MoMA October 1 through 29. "Few directors were as debated, yet few started their careers on such a high note: Laura, Preminger's breakthrough film, was so unanimously acclaimed that, from its 1944 release on, all the critics had to do was sit back and gloat over the so-called 'decline' of the next decades."

Carol Kino on Nikki S Lee's latest project: "Titled A K A Nikki S Lee [showing at MoMA October 5 through 7], the film purports to be a documentary about the real Nikki, a rather plain, serious young woman who is in turn making her own documentary about her alter ego, Nikki Two, the effervescent exhibitionist who appears in the photographs. Yet as the true Ms Lee explained in an interview in her East Village apartment, 'Nikki One is supposed to be real Nikki, and Nikki Two is supposed to be fake Nikki. But they are both fake Nikki.'"

"After a two-year hiatus caused by war and political unrest, the Beirut International Film Festival makes an unexpected return October 4 - 11 thanks to the efforts of the Lee & Gund Foundation, which is sponsoring it in conjuction with the launch of the foundation's new initiative: MakeFilmsNotWar.org."

Steve Vineberg on Centennial Starlets: Anna May Wong and Janet Gaynor, a series, mostly weekends through November 15, at the Harvard Film Archive: "It's been so many years since movies were conceived in terms of actors that when you see how Murnau builds [Sunrise] around her and [George] O'Brien (who is also magnificent) - and how Borzage builds Street Angel and Lucky Star around her and [Charles] Farrell - there's an emotional completeness in the experience that you might have forgotten movies can offer. Janet Gaynor's career was short-lived, but these men gave her a few years of glory."

Also from Vineberg, also in the Boston Phoenix, and overview of John Huston: A Centennial Tribute at the Brattle through October 10: "When most people think of Huston's movies, it's probably in Hemingwayesque masculine terms.... But if you look carefully at the material he was drawn to, it also shares a tone - irony, often of the extravagant, romantic kind."

CineKink NYC (October 17 through 22) unveils its lineup - and a blog.

The Hamptons International Film Festival (October 18 through 22)has announced more details regarding its lineup and Brian Brooks covers them at indieWIRE.

At Twitch, Todd unveils the complete lineup for Toronto After Dark (October 20 through 24) with notes on the latest additions.

Virginia Film Festival (October 26 through 29) has announced a lineup highlighting the theme Revelations: Finding God at the Movies.

Just barely film-related, but wow. In the Chicago Reader, Peter Margasak tells the story behind the exhibition Pathways to Unknown Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn & Chicago's Afro-Futurist Underground, 1954 - 68, "a collection of artifacts related to the charismatic, radical jazz musician Sun Ra [that] was in danger of landing on the trash heap," at the Hyde Park Art Center from October 1 through January 14.

In the New York Times, Jon Pareles visits Bob Dylan's American Journey, 1956 - 1966 at the Morgan Library and Museum through January 6, and Anne Midgette has an overview of several events celebrating Steve Reich's 70th. Related: Mike Barnes in the New Statesman. And in the Guardian, Reich himself: "Thirty-six years ago, I had the nerve to write a short essay entitled 'Some Optimistic Predictions about the Future of Music.' I would not write such an essay today."

Aernout Mik's Raw Footage/Scapegoats is at the BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, in Utrecht from October 1 through December 24.

In the Guardian, Geoffrey Macnab chronicles the feud between the festivals in Venice and Rome and, noting how remarkably Rome has ratcheted up its standing so early on, cautions that "the festival is in the same position as the gossip columnist in La Dolce Vita. Marcello is a debonair but forlorn figure: someone who aspires to be a serious writer but just cannot kick the celebrity habit." Related: The BBC on the chummy relationship between Rome and Tribeca.

Looking back to Toronto:

• Steve Erickson in Gay City News: "My round-up of the festival wouldn't be complete without mentioning its biggest surprise, Paul Verhoeven's Black Book. A stunning comeback, its depiction of a Jewish-Dutch woman's struggles during World War II is as exciting as Raiders of the Lost Ark, but far more thoughtful and filled with the director's usual dose of sleaze and provocation. For sheer entertainment value, nothing topped it."

• Anne Thompson sorts out a top ten, more good ones, a few disappointments and more.

• Joanne Laurier at the WSWS on Michael Tucker's The Prisoner, or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair, James Longley's Sari's Mother and Jafar Panahi's Offside.

Catching up with Fantastic Fest, which wrapped on Thursday:

• First, here's the list of awards; as Matt Dentler notes, "the big champion of the night (collecting an armful of trophies) was Simon Rumley's The Living and the Dead." Blake Ethridge has video at Cinema Strikes Back.

• "Taking time off from doing working on Tarantino's half of Grind House, legendary special effects artist Greg Nicotero of KNB showed a compilation of his greatest hits along with lively commentary." And Blake Ethridge has MP3s at Cinema Strikes Back.

• Jette Kernion reviews Blood Tea and Red String, Starfish Hotel and The Woods for Cinematical - and she's got pix from the fest.

• At Twitch, Peter Martin on Pan's Labyrinth, Lie Still, Firefly and A Quiet Love.

• Wiley Wiggins wraps his long run; his favorites remained Bug and The Host.

• Tim Basham: "While getting lost inside Pan's Labyrinth was pure joy, getting lost in The Fountain was not."

Meanwhile, Matt's got great SXSW news: a program called "Zellner Vs Duplass: a Sibling Rivalry in Short Form."

Two travelling fests are coming through LA. In the Weekly, Ron Stringer previews the All Roads Film Festival; and Holly Willis on the Eames Film Festival: "As filmmakers, they linked the tools of graphic design to moving images, deftly revolutionizing information graphics in ways that continue to reverberate."

Posted by dwhudson at October 1, 2006 10:33 AM