Fests and events, 4/2.

More fresh programs and sites: Filmfest DC (April 24 through May 4) and the Sci-Fi-London Film Festival (April 30 through May 4).

"The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's film series Non-Western Westerns has traced the global fragmentation of the western myth from more familiar locales such as Utah (as represented by the Italian Alps in Sergio Corbucci's 1968 film The Great Silence) and the Mexican desert (Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1970 El Topo), to unexpected stopovers in Bollywood (1975's Sholay) and Hong Kong (Johnnie To's 2006 Exiled)," writes Matt Sussman in the San Francisco Bay Guardian. "But the most curious, if not the most joyful, destination in the series' itinerary has to be the land once known as Czechoslovakia, the home of Oldrich Lipsky's rangy 1964 horse opera Lemonade Joe."

"The ongoing London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, which runs until April 10, has a massive problem," blogs Bidisha for the Guardian. "It's too good. There's too much interesting work to see, it's too generous in its inclusion of international films, documentaries, dance and musicals, bundles of experimental shorts, prestige retrospectives and new auteurs. The organisers are perpetrating a kind of emotional blackmail, tempting film fans to bunk off work or curtail their special family time to come to screenings."

Sarasota Film Festival programmer Tom Hall previews a series he assembled, Face To Face: The Films of Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman. Friday through April 13.

"Slovenian philosopher, sociologist and cultural critic Slavoj Zizek will serve as the Guest Director for the 2008 Telluride Film Festival," reports indieWIRE's Eugene Hernandez. "[F]estival organizers noted that Zizek is 'certain to stimulate controversy and conversation with his hand-picked film treasures and exhilarating approach to talking about movies, art, culture, politics and desire.'"

"Lou Ye's Bitch, Oleg Novkovic's White, White World and Benedek Fliegauf's Womb are among 15 projects from 14 countries selected for the Cannes Film Festival's fourth Atelier pic project focus," reports John Hopewell for Variety. "The directors of the projects, along with their producers, will be invited to Cannes over May 16 - 23 to meet with producers and buyers who can further their films' financing or distribution."

Joe Dante will be hosting a series at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles from April 9 through 22. He's invited a few directors to introduces the screenings; and Tim Lucas has the details.

At Twitch, Aardvark points to the complete lineup of the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival. April 9 through 20.

Alison Willmore has sorted through the Tribeca lineup and found "some unexpected names showing up as directors." April 23 through May 4.

"The Ann Arbor Film Festival very nearly didn't make it to its 46th year. Known for its eclectic slate packed with shorts and experimental films and diverse features, the historic fest came dangerously close to folding last year due to money woes and a censorship battle against Michigan's obscenity laws." But as Kim Voynar reports for indieWIRE, the fest has made it and "has continued its legacy and vision of highlighting cutting-edge work by a wide array of artists working in the medium of film."

At the House Next Door, Elise Nakhnikian reports on last week's Orphans: A Film Symposium.

"Explicit Ills is a filmic tapestry, and it is a cohesive, fluid one," writes Rumsey Taylor at Not Coming to a Theater Near You. "This is Mark Webber's first film, and ably excited audiences at SXSW (its first two screenings were at capacity, and it received both a jury award for cinematography and an audience award)."

Posted by dwhudson at April 2, 2008 8:48 AM