IFFB 08.

"Elusive animals, the mysteries of time past, family conflict, peer pressure, and, inevitably, Iraq dominate what we were able to screen from the robust sixth annual Independent Film Festival of Boston," writes Peter Keough, introducing another round of capsule reviews in the Phoenix. "What unifies them is their originality, their intensity, and their high quality, all of which confirm that the IFFB is now the top film festival in New England."

Not Coming to a Theater Near You is ready; and the festival, running through April 29, has got a blog going, too.

Updated through 4/29.

Also in Boston, but unrelated to the IFFB, the Phoenix's Gerald Peary has details on several screenings coming up in May tied to a book release. The background: "For peddling some not-for-sale DVDs to a dubious Internet customer, local critic Paul Sherman found himself in the middle of an FBI sting, removed from his reviewing posts at the Boston Herald and the Improper Bostonian, and under voluntary house arrest. Down but not out, Sherman spent his incarceration compiling the Beantown book of books, Big Screen Boston: From Mystery Street to The Departed and Beyond. Self-published (Black Bars Publishing, May 1), this is an indispensable history/dictionary/catalogue/critique of local feature filmmaking through the years. Dramas. Documentaries. Hollywood features and many indies." The site's got excerpts galore.

Updates, 4/26: Victoria Large at Not Coming to a Theater Near You: "I wanted, I think, to read Crawford as an optimistic film that celebrates America's ability to accommodate a variety of viewpoints, one that reminds us that there is dissent, and a potential for dialogue, even in a place like Crawford. But by the end I had realized that any film that sets out to capture a moment in time - particularly this moment in time - needs to be more bruising than that."

More from Andrew Osborne at ScreenGrab.

Update, 4/27: Goliath has Andrew Osborne at ScreenGrab thinking back to another Zellner Brothers' feature, Plastic Utopia, "one of the most brilliantly deranged independent films I’ve ever seen, a surrealistic cult classic that, sadly, has never inspired nearly the cult it deserves."

Update, 4/29: Once again, Andrew Osborne with a few more quick takes and a longer one on Turn the River.

Posted by dwhudson at April 23, 2008 2:54 PM