Fests and events, 3/13.

"Every national film movement has its peaks and valleys, and it appears that Iranian cinema, having captured the interest and imagination of audiences, critics and film-festival programmers over the past 15 years, is well beyond its peak," writes Robert Koehler in the LA Weekly. "It may even be in real decline, judging from the recent offerings on the international festival circuit, this year's widely disparaged edition of the Fajr film festival (by far the country's most important) and now UCLA's 18th annual survey of new Iranian cinema."

Also, at filmjourney.org, he's got another dispatch from Guadalajara, this one on José Padilha's Elite Squad and Albertina Carri's La rabia.

The latest from Still Lives: The Films of Pedro Costa: Michael Guillén at the Evening Class and Ryland Walker Knight at the House Next Door.

"In the second of three feature film program announcements, the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival unveiled the line-up for its Discovery and Midnight sections on Thursday," reports Peter Knegt for indieWIRE.

The Independent Weekly's Neil Morris gets a few words with Love Lived on Death Row filmmaker Linda Booker: "After nearly a year on the national festival circuit, the movie's next screenings take place Tuesday, March 18, at the Hanes Art Center in Chapel Hill and March 19 at the UNC School of Law, both as part of the 'Criminal Justice: The Death Penalty Examined' initiative."

In the Philadelphia City Paper, Sam Adams recommends two films by Agnès Varda screening at the International House.

Posted by dwhudson at March 13, 2008 2:55 PM