Other fests, other events, 6/26.

"Now a quarter-century old, Born in Flames - screening Saturday night (7 pm) at the Walker's Queer Takes fest, and hailed by former Twin Cities programmer Jenni Olson as 'one of the most dynamic feminist films ever made' - also begins by proudly celebrating an anniversary: that of New York's Social-Democratic War of Liberation, which 10 years earlier had brought equality to all, even Trotskyite black lesbians." A preview from Rob Nelson.

Owen Land - New and In Person! happens Sunday evening. The LA Weekly's Scott Foundas meets "the artist formerly known as George Landow, whose densely constructed, impishly funny short films made in the 1960s and 70s established him as a major figure of the then-burgeoning American avant-garde cinema," and talks with him about his new work.

Updated.

In the Voice, J Hoberman previews The Films of Bahman Ghobadi, running today through July 7 at MoMA.

"From Perfect Blue to Paprika, [Satoshi] Kon has fleshed out a niche in the anime world that is as maddeningly creative as it is giddily strange," writes Simon Abrams in the New York Press. From tomorrow through July 1, "the Film Society at Lincoln Center screens all of Kon's feature-length films and his six-hour long TV mini-series, Paranoia Agent (screened in two three-hour installments). Together they form an oneiric tapestry of incandescent imaginary lives given meaning by dreams and movies."

"Coming as it does in between the city's two flagship festivals - April's behemoth Philadelphia Film Festival and July's ever-expanding Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival - the Independent Film Fest has to be looked at as David next to a pair of well-established Goliaths," writes Shaun Brady in the Philadelphia City Paper. "But by focusing on indies, the new kid on the block has a distinct advantage in differentiating itself from the marquee names and crowd-pleasers that increasingly fill PFF's catalog, and the niche programming of PIGLFF." Today through Sunday.

Mysterious Objects: The Short Films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul was originally planned to screen as two programs at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts tonight and Sunday. There's been a delay in the delivery of the films, though, so they'll be screened on July 3 and 6; meantime, in their place - and for free - Syndromes and a Century. Matt Sussman in the San Francisco Bay Guardian: "Apichatpong shows more than he tells, and his camera often obscures rather than explicates the minute, alchemical operations taking place before it."

"The Times BFI London Film Festival announced that their 2008 edition will open on October 15 with the world premiere of Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon." Peter Knegt has more at indieWIRE. October 15 through 30.

Meantime, the BFI's David Lean retrospective rumbles on through July; Michael Wood surveys the oeuvre in the London Review of Books.

Quick update: Toronto's picked up a lot of this year's Cannes titles. Peter Knegt has more at indieWIRE. September 4 through 13.

Posted by dwhudson at June 26, 2008 11:25 AM