Fests and events, 2/18.

Karina Longworth launches a series of entries at the SpoutBlog previewing films lined up for SXSW by presenting a set of questions to Yeast director Mary Bronstein.

As part of the Brooklyn Independent Cinema Series, Michael Tully presents - tonight! - "The Best Short Films of the 21st Century." Via Brandon Harris.

"Roman Polanski will be feted by the Turin Film Festival, the indie event headed by Italo helmer Nanni Moretti, who is using his clout to boost its profile," reports Nick Vivarelli for Variety. The two directors met on the set of Quiet Chaos, the feature recently screened in Competition at the Berlinale starring Moretti and featuring a delightful cameo by Polanski.

Michael Jones posts the "Top five things about the 3rd annual Redcat International Children's Film Festival in downtown LA, running now through March 2."

At the SF Indiefest, Michael Guillén gets a kick out of Stuart Gordon's Stuck.

"Passion & Power, the Technology of Orgasm, opening this week at the Roxie New College Film Center and the Smith Rafael, gives Rachel Maines's entertaining academic book on the subject a new life onscreen," writes SF360's Susan Gerhard, who talks with filmmakers Wendy Slick and Emiko Omori "about the passions behind their project, as well as using jellyfish as a metaphor and the unexpected audiences taking a shine to the film." Update: At Hell on Frisco Bay, Adam Hartzell highly recommends Passion, one of his favorite films of 2007.

Simon Abrams's latest takes from the Film Comment Selects series at Twitch: Olivier Assayas's Boarding Gate and Alex Cox's Searchers 2.0.

More from Brandon Harris: "A lower key, appealingly absurd riff on the same erotic, globalization era techno thriller he first brought us in 2002's explosive Demonlover, meta-auteur Olivier Assayas' newest fun house of pomo woman in trouble mess Boarding Gate is nothing if not art cinema made fun and sleazy. Fortunately it's so much more."

Meanwhile, acquarello contrasts Nanouk Leopold's Wolfsbergen with Jaime Rosales's Solitary Fragments.

Vince Keenan carries on filing dispatches from Noir City Northwest.

Online listening tip. Milos Forman is on the Leonard Lopate Show, talking about the retrospective at MoMA.

Online viewing tip. "In the past decade, more websites have brought attention to young filmmakers by mounting online short film festivals, and the currently-in-progress Now Film Festival is no exception," writes Paul Clark at ScreenGrab. "There have been a number of worthy films to date, but the best of the lot thusfar is this week's featured short, Lucas McNelly's gravida."

Online viewing tips. Seemingly hours worth of Trailers for films screening at SXSW.

Posted by dwhudson at February 18, 2008 12:07 PM