Fests and events, 9/20.

"The opportunity to view Chinese silent film, in theaters or on video, is extremely rare," notes David Jeffers at the Siffblog. "Seattle International Film Festival and SIFF Cinema will present, this Sunday for one night only, a rare surviving episode of the Chinese serial, Red Knight - Errant: Red Heroine (1929)." With live accompaniment from Devil Music.

Osamu Tezuka: Movies into Manga runs at the Barbican in London through Wednesday, so Andrew Osmond introduces the artist to Guardian readers: "Historians of [Japan's] often garish and cartoony pop culture see him as the prime mover behind Japan's vast comic and animation industries after 1945. Tezuka reportedly churned out 150,000 comic pages in his lifetime (10 a day, without fail). He also created dozens of TV cartoons and cinema films. His iconic characters include Astro Boy (a little-boy robot superhero), Princess Knight (a swashbuckling girl disguised as a boy) and Jungle Emperor Leo (the first cartoon lion king)."

"Rashomon was not only the film that brought director Akira Kurosawa (and star Toshiro Mifune) to attention outside of Asia, but the first work by any Japanese filmmaker to make an international splash after World War II," writes Andy Klein in the LA CityBeat. "So it's fitting that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is kicking off its Kurosawa retrospective with a restored print of this 1950 classic." The series runs through October 4.

Variety folks are reporting from the San Sebastian Film Festival, running through September 27.

The Telegraph presents its fall preview; and Sheila Johnston picks ten to catch at the London Film Festival. October 15 through 30.

At SF360, Jonathan Marlow, now Executive Director of the San Francisco Cinematheque (bravo!), offers "a quick wrap-up of the three September festivals (Telluride, Toronto, Venice) and the best of what I was able to catch between meetings."

"The Corto Cortissimo competition at the 65th Venice Film Festival early this September showcased twenty shorts over three days - some from starting filmmakers with the breeding of prestigious film schools, others from self-taught music video directors and others who were everything in between." An overview from Nicole Olivier in the Auteurs' Notebook.

Mile Klindo turns in the fourth part of the WSWS's coverage of the Sydney Film Festival.

Posted by dwhudson at September 20, 2008 10:54 AM