Fests and events, 11/14.

In a week-long retrospective, Film Forum begins screening features and shorts by Les Blank, 26 films in all, tonight. Brian Sholis offers an overview of this "capricious body of work" at Artforum.

As part of the Arthur Penn retro at Anthology Film Archives, Night Moves screens Sunday, Tuesday and November 23. Kevin Lee: "Arthur Penn's contribution to the mid-70s Hollywood revival of film noir reflects all of the bitter disillusionment and vertiginous, disempowering truth borne by the fallout of Watergate on American society."

Just as the debate over whether or not to boycott the Sundance Film Festival simmers down (it takes place in Utah, home state of the Mormons, who did so much to ensure passage of California's insidious Proposition 8), David Poland's passes along word that Alan Stock, CEO of Cinemark, gave $9999 to the "Yes on 8" campaign - and Cinemark, notes David, "owns the Holiday Village Cinemas, where many of the press screenings are during Sundance." Related: "The Daily Beast's Kevin Sessums talks to David Geffen, Darren Star and others fuming about Prop 8."

Alexander Shiryaev, whose work will be shown for the first time in the UK at the Encounters Short Film Festival, running Tuesday through November 23, "has proved to be one of the true pioneers of stop-frame animation," writes Peter Lord, co-founder of Aardman Animations, in the Guardian. "More importantly, Shiryaev was a wonderful, natural animator."

"Cinefamily's series of vintage 'homemade horror' is a welcome reminder of the passion and ingenuity dedicated amateurs used to invest in the lowest of low-budget genre product," writes Christoph Huber in the LA Weekly. Saturdays through the end of the month.

Peter Nellhaus is posting reviews of films he's caught at the Starz Denver Film Festival, which runs through November 23.

For SF360, Dennis Harvey previews the New Italian Cinema series in San Francisco. Sunday through November 23.

In the Los Angeles Times, Susan King previews Tyrone Power: Everybody's Darling Boy, running this weekend at the Egyptian Theatre. Also, New Films from Italy tops a roundup of other local goings on.

Kevin Langson sends a dispatch from the 3rd I: San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival into Pixel Vision.

Driving Media is an exhibition of work by Nam June Paik on view at the WRO Art Center in Wroclaw, Poland, from November 25 through January 21.

Mike Everleth has the Chicago Underground Film Festival award-winners.

At indieWIRE, Agnes Varnum looks back on the Sheffield Doc/Fest.

Posted by dwhudson at November 14, 2008 12:27 PM