Fests and events, 5/2.

The Cinematography of Ed Lachman runs at BAM from May 9 through 20 and Steve Dollar talks with Lachman, who, for over 30 years now, "has directed photography for Robert Altman, Steven Soderbergh, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Paul Schrader, Mira Nair, Sofia Coppola and other blue-chip directors... 'No two films look the same,' the director Todd Haynes, who collaborated with Mr Lachman on the neo-Sirkian Far From Heaven (2002) and last year's kaleidoscopic I'm Not There, said."

Also in the New York Sun: "I was envisioning a global campfire where we could all share our stories." S James Snyder talks with Jehane Noujaim about Pangea Day, May 10.

Good to see Nathan Lee's byline resurfacing; today, it's in the New York Times, heralding BAM's revival of Wong Kar-Wai's As Tears Go By: "The debut feature by modern cinema's most voluptuous romantic is no masterpiece; that would come a few years later with Mr Wong's sublime sophomore memory trip, Days of Being Wild (1991), the first in an uninterrupted series of triumphs extending from Ashes of Time (1994) to 2046 (2004). As Tears Go By heralds a new vision not yet in perfect focus."

For the Guardian, Bob Stanley watches Tony Palmer's All You Need Is Love, out on DVD in the UK and screening at BFI Southbank today and tomorrow: "A mammoth 17-part series on the history of popular music, it begins in Africa before moving into ragtime, jazz, blues, swing and so forth. Rock'n'roll doesn't make an appearance until episode 13.... Inverted racism, blunt sexism, and simple wrongheadedness aside, Palmer manages to break pop's golden rule over and over: he lets his show get boring."

Ghita Loebenstein has an overview of Melbourne's ReelDance Festival in the Age. May 8 through 11. Also, Craig Mathieson: "In Focus on John Cassavetes, programmed from May 15 - 25 at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, the writer/director's distinctive landscape is thoughtfully defined."

"New York City's Korea Society will screen four seldom-seen North Korean films this month at its Special Feature Series Classic Movie Night," reports Libby McCarthy for Variety. May 12 through 15.

"Twelve films from around the world have been selected to compete for a cash prize of $60,000 as the Sydney Film Festival turns into a competitive event." Matt Riviera's got the list and a few comments. June 4 through 22.

The San Francisco Greek Film Festival runs June 6 through 12.

At Hot Docs, Paul Devlin heard "A Few Wise Words from Richard Leacock."

David Bordwell's got "Snapshots and soundbites" from Ebertfest.

Posted by dwhudson at May 2, 2008 2:51 PM