Fests and events, 4/21.

Via Anne Thompson comes news that the Rolling Roadshow Tour is rolling on out of the US in June - to the Almeria region of Spain, where, in 1964, Sergio Leone teamed up with a then-little-known American actor by the name of Clint Eastwood to shoot A Fistful of Dollars. And of course, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly would follow.

Peter Knegt files a dispatch from Hot Docs to indieWIRE. Through Sunday.

New Yorkers: Dan Sallitt recommends The Paper Will Be Blue, screening tonight as part of the series Shining Through a Long, Dark Night: Romanian Cinema, Then and Now running through Sunday. And Acquarello reviews Maria and Don't Lean Out the Window, "a well crafted, if occasionally caricatured portrait of a nation at a profound political and cultural crossroads, where the anonymous, if familiar structure of repression has begun to collapse under the anarchic weight of an uncertain, encroaching liberation and (re)emerging identity."

"This week marked the beginning of the All Power to the Imagination festival celebrating the 40th anniversary of 'les evenements' of May 1968 and its effects on European and American film," notes Daniel Tapper at the Guardian. "The program covers films from the Czech Republic, Hungary and Britain, with discussions on everything from Walter Benjamin to the Beatles' white album in locations across London, Leeds, Glasgow and Berlin." Through June 10.

At Hollywood Bitchslap, Peter Sobczynski has an extensive preview of Ebertfest. Wednesday through April 27.

"Never simply telling a story so much as taking apart and seeing what is inside it, [Tomu] Uchida forces the viewer to pay close attention and follow the trail to the conclusion, at which point they are often asked or forced to recall the beginning," writes Alex Ross Perry in the Tisch Film Review. "These narrative recurrences, in addition to being well ahead of their time in the early 60s, show a director in touch with the power he has over an audience and is intent on using this power to bring attention away from the story and onto the means by which it is being spoken, written or filmed." Tomu Uchida: Discovering a Japanese Master runs through April 30.

The San Francisco International Film Festival opens on Thursday and runs through May 8. Brief picks in the San Francisco Chronicle:

• Walter Addiego on One Hundred Nails.

• Leba Hetz on Children of the Sun.

• Joshua Kosman on Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts.

• Mick LaSalle on La France and Lady Jane.

• Ruthe Stein on Walt & El Grupo, Traveling With Pets and Two Ladies.

• David Weigand on Flower in the Pocket, Ask Not and Barcelona (A Map).

• Steven Winn on 1000 Journals.

Brian Darr plans to catch pretty much what Michael Hawley plans to catch - but he's adding Johnnie To's Linger to the list. But the bulk of Brian's entry - another whopper, taking in all sorts of Bay Area goings on - is a preview of the Silent Film Festival, set for July 11 through 13.

Michael Guillén previews several of SFIFF's offerings that he's caught at other festivals.

Morgan Freeman's "appearance in The Country Girl is especially noteworthy because his character, an actor who has lost his nerve, has no center whatsoever," writes Bruce Weber in the New York Times. "Mr Freeman is playing not only squarely against type, he has rarely, if ever, embodied uncertainty. The play opens next Sunday at the Bernard B Jacobs Theater."

At Twitch, Blake Ethridge has early word on a few highlights of September's Fantastic Fest.

"The exhibition High Risk Citizen explores forms of political resistance and public engagement today, as considered by contemporary artists working in video." Through May 3 at Art in General, via Marisa Olson at Rhizome.

At the House Next Door, Keith Uhlich takes a long look back at the Sarasota Film Festival.

Recently updated: "The run-up to Tribeca."

Posted by dwhudson at April 21, 2008 2:21 AM