Fests and events, 6/28.

Lots of festival news has piled up, so I'll start with a couple of items relevant to today, run more or less chronological for a bit and then wrap with a few reviews of events that've already wrapped.

"A documentary critical of South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, will finally be shown to the public today more than a year after it was made and after it was twice pulled from the state broadcaster amid accusations of political censorship," reports Chris McGreal for the Guardian. "The program, which portrays President Mbeki as paranoid and vindictive, will be screened at an international film festival in Durban, coinciding with an African National Congress conference." The fest runs through Sunday.

"Overlooked Aldrich, a six-film series that begins [today] at Brooklyn's BAMcinematek, may help put Ulzana's Raid on more Ten Best lists, or at least reveal a gem hidden for 35 years," suggests Robert Cashill. Also: "The cinema side of the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Afro-Punk Festival kicks off tomorrow with a novel choice, 1972's Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, the fourth in the popular Apes series." Much more on the festival, which runs through July 7, from Annaliese Griffin at the Reeler.

Susan King in the Los Angeles Times: "The Bicycle Film Festival, which pays homage to all styles of bikes and biking, pedals into the Vine Theater in Hollywood this weekend for its third year in LA." Through Sunday.

Peter Keough in the Boston Phoenix: "The Harvard Film Archive's second annual New American Cinema series provides a rare opportunity to sample the work of [over a dozen] slacker underground auteurs: films about troubled heterosexual relationships, with quirky, quotidian details, tongue-tied protagonists with nowhere jobs and in marginal circumstances, and a vague, sometimes bemused recognition of life's absurdity." Saturday through July 10.

Matt Dentler's heading out to Marfa, Texas, this weekend to screen Double Dare, a doc featured in the SXSW lineup in 2005. Related: Sujewa Ekanayake's interview with Matt.

The New York Asian Film Festival carries on through July 8 and at Twitch, Michael Wells reviews After This Our Exile and City of Violence. At Cinema Strikes Back, Charlie Prince highly recommends Takashi Miike's Big Bang Love, Juvenile A.

Blake Etheridge calls Sion Sono's Exte "[e]asily one of the funnest and jaded films I've seen so far in 2007." Catch it at NYAFF or at the Fantasia International Film Festival, which opens in Montreal on July 5 and runs through July 23. At Twitch, Todd has a huge post, all about that lineup.

"The Cambridge Film Festival 2007 programme and website are both now live and heading out there at speed," notes sneersnipe editor David Perilli. "As the print programme describes: 'The Cambridge Film Festival has gone all Web 2.0...'" July 5 through 15.

Tribeca 798 Film Festival Beijing: July 10 and 11.

"Thailand has caved in to pressure from Iran and withdrawn the animated movie Persepolis, about a girl growing up and feeling repressed under Islamic rule, from next month's Bangkok International Film Festival." Reuters reports, via the Literary Saloon. July 19 through 29.

"It reeks of Garden State, Napoleon Dynamite and Me and You and Everyone We Know. It could turn out to be a disaster," warns Matthew Clayfield. "But somehow, Eagle vs Shark, which is screening at next month's Melbourne International Film Festival, manages to avoid becoming another self-absorbed foray into pseudo-sentimentality or cynical hipsterism." July 25 through August 12.

"With her video installations, photographs, and short films, Australian artist Lynette Wallworth creates communal environments that respond, like natural ecosystems, to human presence." For Rhizome, Marcia Tanner reviews Hold: Vessel 2, 2007, on view in London through September 2.

At the Siffblog, David Jeffers looks ahead to a splendid season of silent features screening in and around Seattle and at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

"Petter Næss's new film Gone With the Woman (Tatt av kvinnen) with 'the Bothersome Man,' Trond Fausa Aurvåg in the lead, has been chosen to open the 35th Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund on August 18." Annika Pham has more at Cineuropa.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Shekhar Kapur and Cate Blanchett's followup to Elizabeth, will see its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, reports Variety's Brendan Kelly. At Filmmaker, Benjamin Crossley-Marra will point you to the trailer. IndieWIRE's Brian Brooks has a full list of "32 international selections that have screened at festivals globally, set for this year's TIFF, taking place September 6 - 15."

What's more: "Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited will open the 45th New York Film Festival." September 28 through October 14.

Chapliniana. Through October 30 in Bologna.

Boyd van Hoeij at Cineuropa: "The 27th edition of the Dutch Film Festival (NFF) will open on September 26 with the premiere of Duska, the latest work by Dutch veteran director Jos Stelling." Through October 6.

"At this year's edition, its sixth, the competition section of the Transylvania International Film Festival (TIFF) offered twelve first or second films of which nine were from Europe, allowing for a snapshot of the current state of European cinema as seen through the eyes of its promising new directors." Boyd reports at european-films.net.

Michael Guillén and Michael Hawley wrap Frameline 31.

For Movie City News, Andrea Gronvall reports on the Jackson Hole Film Festival, while Stephen Holt files from the Newport Film Festival.

Andy Spletzer wraps the Seattle International Film Festival.

Posted by dwhudson at June 28, 2007 2:46 PM