Fests and events, 10/7.

"If John Waters is 'the Pope of Trash' (according to the gospel of William S Burroughs) then freelance curator and film fanatic Jack Stevenson is a shoe-in for Cardinal," writes Matt Sussman, introducing his interview. "The last time Stevenson rolled into town in 2006, he arrived with a stack of film canisters that were a veritable Pandora's box filled with drug scare propaganda, witchcraft and Scandinavian skin flicks. This time he comes bearing amateur blue movies, a gritty portrait of a bisexual hustler, and grainy reels documenting live, nude girls - all shot in San Francisco - for the series The Superstars Next Door at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts." Thursday and Saturday.

Also at SF360"Since being a cinephile is, in many cases, the same thing as being a Francophile, it's good news that the San Francisco Film Society has added a Gallic counterpart to its long-running New Italian Cinema series," writes Max Goldberg. "The inaugural French Cinema Now features a couple of obvious ringers - an early look at Laurent Cantet's Palme d'Or-winner The Class and a visit from director Arnaud Desplechin - but part of the charm of a short series like this is that we're more likely to alight on something unexpected when we don't have to tote around a telephone book's worth of programs." Tomorrow through Sunday.

At indieWIRE: "Facing local hostility, overt moves by the government to halt their event, and a persistent shroud of secrecy for gays and lesbians in their country, organizers of Russia's first queer film festival fought to stage their event this weekend even as they were ridiculed in the media. Just back from St Petersburg, outgoing NewFest artistic director and Sundance fest doc programming associate Basil Tsiokos offers a diary of his experience as a juror at the first Side By Side fest."

Tim Lucas met Lamberto Bava this weekend at Cinema Wasteland: "Most of what has been written about Lamberto's work in English has been of the 'He lives and works in the shadow of his father, Mario Bava' school, and while that may be the general critical view, it's not a realistic view. I saw numerous awestruck people approach Lamberto's table and tell him that his movies - his, not his father's - inspired them to become artists, writers, painters, actors, or just horror fans. I felt so pleased for him."

For indieWIRE, Keaton Kail reports from the Mill Valley Film Festival, where he's had a peek at Joe Wright's The Soloist, starring Robert Downey Jr and Jamie Foxx.

At FilmInFocus, Peter Bowen looks back on the Woodstock Film Festival.

Posted by dwhudson at October 7, 2008 3:02 PM