Fests and events, 9/4.

"Cinefamily's monthlong hip-hop film retrospective Word Is Born: Hip-Hop at the Movies, 1979 - 1984 places certified b-boy classics (Wild Style, Beat Street, Style Wars, Breakin') alongside cool and illuminating rarities that are the true jewels in the series," writes Ernest Hardy in the LA Weekly. "As an added bonus, there will be postscreening DJ sets from the likes of West Coast cult legend Arabian Prince and LA's own international b-boy (and co-owner of Stones Throw Records), Peanut Butter Wolf. If there is one 'don't miss' title in this smart, ambitious survey (curated by programmer Gabriele Caroti), it's the 1984 documentary Beat This! A Hip-Hop History (screening on September 25)."

"With only a couple exceptions (most notably Francesco Vezzoli's self-obliterating Marlene Redux: A True Hollywood Story!), [The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality and the Moving Image] takes itself as seriously as a graduate student certain he's discovered something new when he hasn't," writes Tyler Green. Through Sunday.

"The adjacent installations of computer-generated video by Swiss artists Alexander Hahn and Yves Netzhammer currently on display at SFMOMA require more time than most to reveal themselves," writes Michael Fox at SF360, "and it's the rare visitor who sticks around that long. Are the peripatetic hordes missing out on some fantastic secret of the universe? I daresay no. Yet I consider it my public duty to encourage anyone who checks out the show in its last month to slow down their meter and get on its rhythm." Through October 5.

In the New York Press, Armond White previews David Lean: Ten British Classics, running at Film Forum from September 12 through 25. The series "reveals one of the strongest, most impressive careers in movie history (his final six films conclude the series). Perfectionist Lean was a giant; only small-minded moviegoers would miss this retrospective."

In the Austin Chronicle, Josh Rosenblatt previews The Third Wave: Contemporary German Cinema. Tuesdays through October 14.

Mike Everleth has the lineup for the 10th Hi Mom! Film Festival, running tomorrow and Saturday in Carrboro and Chapel Hill, NC.

Turns out, David Fear has been blogging from Venice for Time Out New York all this time. More from Venice: A big roundup from Shane Danielson at indieWIRE; and the Telegraph's David Gritten talks with Uberto Pasolini about Machan.

The Martha's Vineyard International Film Festival, running September 11 through 14, has announced its lineup.

Online listening tip. "He's one of a handful of film composers - alongside Hans Zimmer and Ennio Morricone - to have attained some measure of celebrity for his work," writes Thomas Rogers, introducing his interview with Howard Shore for Salon. "Recently, the 61-year-old Shore has begun experimenting with new venues for his music, both high- and lowbrow, creating a full orchestral score for Soul of the Ultimate Nation, a multiplayer online role-playing game, and transforming The Fly into an opera, his first. The opera, which uses elaborate costumes, visual effects and gore to enhance Shore's slow-building music, opened in Paris at the Théâtre du Châtelet in July. (David Henry Hwang wrote the libretto, [David] Cronenberg directed and Plácido Domingo conducted.) On Sept 7 it will debut in the United States at the Los Angeles Opera."

Posted by dwhudson at September 4, 2008 3:25 PM