Boston festival gets busy season underway
A busy fall begins this week with festivals, programs, film nights, and more.
The Boston Film Festival, in the third of its eight days, offers a sneak peek at the documentary ``The U.S. vs. John Lennon" this evening. The Lions Gate film pulls together archival material and recent perspective from Yoko Ono and an array of US politicians to detail Lennon's activism during the Vietnam War and the paranoia of a government that put him under surveillance. Director David Leaf, who made the film with John Scheinfeld, is scheduled to attend the 6 p.m. screening at Loews Boston Common and take questions afterward. The festival schedule is at www.bostonfilmfestival.org.
A few blocks away, the Asian Community Development Corporation will try a new experiment called Films at the Gate starting Wednesday. For five evenings in a row, organizers will convert a vacant lot into a free outdoor theater and show kung fu and classic Chinese-language movies. The films will be screened near the Chinatown gate, on Hudson Street, with shorts at 7 and a feature at 8 each night. Movie goers are invited to BYOTO (Bring Your Own Take Out). Complete details are online at www.filmsatthegate.org, or call the ACDC at 617-482-2380.
Also in Boston this week, it's the Boston International Comedy and Movie Festival, running today through Saturday. Most of the program is stand-up comedy, but tonight there's a slate of short films at the Improv Asylum at 8 . Details at www.bostoncomedyfestival.com or 617-782-8100.
The first Martha's Vineyard International Film Festival kicks off this Thursday with an impressive blast: After a sunset cocktail reception, the opening night film is ``The Science of Sleep," director Michel Gondry's much-anticipated follow-up to ``Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." The movie stars Gael García Bernal and Charlotte Gainsbourg.
The four-day Vineyard festival includes daily Morning Coffee Chats with Filmmakers and a wine and cheese gallery walk, a VIP Brazilian dance party, and a closing reception at the Vineyard Haven Marina. A number of acclaimed recent international films are on the bill, including the Academy Award winner for best foreign language film , ``Tsotsi" -- which will be introduced by WBUR-FM host Robin Young -- ``Oktoberfest," ``Moolaadé," and ``Russian Dolls." Musician Kate Taylor will join director Mark Becker at a screening of his film ``Romántico," about Mexican musician Carmelo Muñiz Sánchez, who plays the streets of San Francisco. The whole shebang is being produced by the four-year old Martha's Vineyard Film Society, led by Richard Paradise. Complete details about all the films, special events, and ticket options are at www.mvfilmfest.com, or call 508 -696 -9369.
The eighth annual Telluride by the Sea, which brings six films that debuted at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado to The Music Hall in Portsmouth, N.H., runs Friday through Sunday. The number of films may be tiny, but oh, what a line up. Pedro Almodóvar's new ``Volver," starring Penelope Cruz, is among them, as is ``Fur," with Nicole Kidman as photographer Diane Arbus, ``Venus," starring Peter O'Toole, and the Lennon documentary. The weekend also includes six parties, which must be some sort of record for party-per-picture ratio (603-436-2400 and www.themusichall.org).
That's all this week. But there are loads more festivals and film series coming up later in the fall in Boston or within driving distance. Here's a peek at some:
Newburyport Documentary Film Festival (Sept. 29-Oct. 1), at downtown venues. Originally called the Northern Lights Film Festival, this event positions itself as a ``three-day celebration of this unique film genre" and is in its third year. The line up includes ``Black Gold," about the US obsession with coffee, ``Independents Under Fire: The Battle for the American Bookstore," and a profile of Dolly Parton's fans called ``For the Love of Dolly" (www.northernlightsfilmfestival.com).
The New Hampshire Film Expo (Oct. 12-15), at a variety of venues in Portsmouth, N . H. Now in its fifth year, the festival will screen 60 films , including a special program of New Hampshire works opening night. The expo partners with the New Hampshire Film and Television Office to present a Filmmaker Tradeshow, and will present its first-ever juried awards this year (603-647-6439 and www.nhfx.com).
The Boston Fantastic Film Festival (Oct. 19-24), at the Brattle Theatre. If you loved ``Saw," these are your people. The Brattle's film schedule notes that ``each year we comb the vaults and festivals of the world for the best sci-fi/horror/fantasy/etc. films from across the U S and around the world." The schedule will be available in early October in the theater and at www.brattlefilm.org .
The Boston Latino International Film Festival (Oct. 20-29), at the Harvard Film Archive and other locales. Organizers say they reviewed more than 250 submissions from the United States, Latin America , and Spain, and plan to screen around 80 of these films. Details should be posted online by the end of September (www.bliff.org).
Boston Jewish Film Festival (Nov. 1-12), at more than a half - dozen venues throughout the Boston area. The BJFF is the area's most active festival year - round, with encore presentations of favorite films and co presentations at other festivals. This year the BJFF will screen more than 50 films on Jewish themes during its 12-day run. This is the BJFF's 18th program , and executive director Sara L. Rubin notes that ``in Hebrew, the characters that spell out 18 also spell chai, or life, so it's considered a lucky and important year." The festival kicks off with a party Sept. 19 at the Enormous Room in Cambridge for folks in their 20s and 30s -- they're eligible for the festival's special three-film ReelPass (617-244-9899 and www.bjff.org).
Somewhat North of Boston Film Festival (Nov. 7-11), at venues in downtown Concord, N.H. This will be the festival's fifth year, and Alfred Thomas Catalfo's ``The Norman Rockwell Code" (a 35-minute spoof of ``The Da Vinci Code") will be among the offerings. Over the summer, Catalfo's film sold out its world premiere at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, where part of the story takes place, and was an opening night film for the Woods Hole Film Festival (603 -225-5650 and www.snobfilmfestival.org).
Irish Film Festival (Nov. 9-12), at the Harvard Film Archive and the Brattle Theatre. This fest is all about contemporary Irish film. It draws in part from a rich touring package of movies curated by the Irish Film Archive and sponsored by Culture Ireland (www.irishfilmfestival.com).
SCREENINGS OF NOTE: Boston television anchor Liz Walker is working on a film about a pediatrician whose focus is helping Sudanese women. Walker brings an early edit of ``A Glory From the God" to the Museum of Fine Arts on Thursday at 8 p.m. and will take questions afterward (617-267-9300 and www.mfa.org/film).
Jamaica Plain filmmaker Andrew Bujalski will be at the Brattle Theatre on Wednesday and Thursday for the hometown theatrical premiere of his film ``Mutual Appreciation." The movie plays the Brattle through Sept. 21 (617-876-6837 and www.brattlefilm.org).
The Harvard Film Archive is presenting a week long, six-film series called ``The War in Iraq on Film." It starts Friday at 9:15 p.m. with Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross' s ``The Road to Guantanamo" (617-495-4700 and www.harvardfilmarchive.org).
The four-week ``Viva Pedro" series of films by Spanish director Almodóvar is in swing at the Kendall Square Cinema. New 35 mm prints of ``All About My Mother" ( 2000 Academy Award winner for best foreign language film), ``Flower of My Secret," and ``Talk to Her" play today through Thursday. Starting Friday, it's ``Bad Education," ``Law of Desire," and ``Live Flesh." And for the final week, starting Sept. 22, it's ``Matador." Information on the films is online at www.sonyclassics.com/vivapedro, or call 617-499-1996.
And if Almodóvar gets his own retrospective, how about the undersung auteur (of body blows, anyway) Chuck Norris? The Somerville Theatre has the answer, which is the first-ever ``Chuck Norris Film Festival." It takes place Friday and Saturday and features such timeless classics as ``Invasion U.S.A.," ``Breaker! Breaker!," and ``Lone Wolf McQuade." For more information, go to www.somervilletheatreonline.com.
Leslie Brokaw can be reached at lbrokaw@globe.com. 
