Fests and events, 2/5.

What's more: "[Director Todd] Rohal, who will attend every screening along with producer Megan Griffiths, has organized a series of special events to go along with the screenings."

"The Balboa Theater and San Francisco State's Documentary Film Institute are generously co-presenting this year's nine Oscar-nominated documentaries on Tuesday and Wednesday, February 20 and 21," notes Michael Guillén. "All nine documentaries will play each day but in a different order and admission is free." That's right. He said: Free.

Speaking of the Balboa, San Franciscans may well want to celebrate it 81st Birthday Bash, featuring screenings of Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr and The Playhouse, on February 27.

Meantime, SF360's Susan Gerhard asks Cheryl Eddy about a TV show she'll be co-hosting, SF360 Movie Scene.

To New York. Along with several shorts, the features featured in the New Filmmakers series at the Anthology Film Archives in NYC on Wednesday are Therapy and Manhattan Kansas.

AJ Schnack has pix to show and stories to tell from Sundance.

IndieWIRE checks in with several industry folk to ask about the deals made at the festival - which are listed at the end of the report.

Also: "While CineMart projects often begin here and continue fund raising and development throughout the year, some projects complete their funding in Rotterdam," reports Mark Rabinowitz. "Both Andrew Bujalski's Reliable Responses (USA) and Aktan Arym Kubat's The Light (Kyrgyzstan/France/Germany/Belgium) are now ready to begin production due to deals made at CineMart."

"Perhaps the key to the success of the Rotterdam event is its organisers' steadfast determination to make theirs an international film festival in the widest possible sense," writes Mike Brett in the Guardian. Also: Chris Campion on Cyrus Frisch's mobile phone movie, Why Didn't Anybody Tell Me It Would Become This Bad in Afghanistan.

Posted by dwhudson at February 5, 2007 4:10 PM