A festival of international films, Boston connections
Politics and social justice will dominate the opening night of the fourth annual Boston International Film Festival on Wednesday, with screenings of Rick Wilkinson's documentary ``Journey Into Sunset," about actor Don Cheadle's travels to Uganda for a charity screening of his ``Hotel Rwanda," and Tim Boxell's Depression-era drama ``Valley of the Heart's Delight," about a kidnapping and a newspaper reporter's fight against vigilante ``justice," starring Pete Postlethwaite as the journal's publisher. The films start at 5:45 p.m. at Loews Boston Common. They're followed by an opening-night party at 9 , also at the movie theater. All the evening's events are open to the general public.
More than 110 short and feature-length independent films will play during the festival's nine-day run. They include the 17-minute film ``Mother" by Cambridge's Siân Heder, which won third prize in the Cinéfondation competition for new filmmakers at the Cannes Film Festival last weekend. It screens on Thursday at 4:15 p.m. at Loews Boston Common.
Other local filmmakers of note are Fitchburg State College grads Court Dunn and Michael Matson Forest, whose 86-minute film ``Midnight" follows two strangers in the same hotel on New Year's Eve. The directors say the movie was shot in one take, and the two stories are presented in split-screen. ``Midnight" plays Saturday at 8:15 p.m. at MassArt, 621 Huntington Ave.
And stand-up comedian Ray Ellin, who grew up in Brookline, graduated from Boston University, and performs at Boston comedy clubs, brings his ``The Latin Legends of Comedy" to the festival on Friday at 7:15 p.m. at Loews Boston Common. Part documentary and part concert film, it profiles Latino comedians J.J. Ramirez, Joe Vega, and Angel Salazar. ``Latin Legends" is Ellin's first film -- financed, he says, ``by maxing out six credit cards" -- and has been bought by 20th Century Fox for a scheduled fall release. Ellin will be at the screening for a Q&A session afterward .
Full information about all the movies on tap and when they're playing is at 617-482-3900 and www.bifilmfestival.com .
FESTIVAL IN RHODE ISLAND: The Newport International Film Festival also kicks off this week, running Tuesday through next Sunday . The festival opens at 7 p.m. with the area premiere of ``Quinceañera," a coming-of-age story of a 14-year-old Mexican-American girl in Echo Park, Los Angeles. Todd Haynes is executive producer, and the film stars newcomer Emily Rios. An opening-night gala follows from 9 to midnight at the Colony House.
Other festival highlights: Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg's ``The Trials of Darryl Hunt," the true-life story of Hunt's incarceration for a brutal murder and subsequent release after DNA testing, and ``51 Birch Street," Doug Block's documentary about uncovering and then coming to terms with secrets about his own family's life. His question: How much do any of us really want to know about our parents' mysteries?
Local films included in the lineup are ``Tina Barney: Social Studies," Jaci Judelson's documentary following the Rhode Island-based photographer as she travels to European mansions and chateaux to photograph the very wealthy; ``Buddy," about former Providence mayor Vincent A. ``Buddy" Cianci, by Rhode Island native Cherry Arnold; and ``Live Free or Die," a comedy about a clueless would-be scam artist, by onetime ``Seinfeld" writers Andy Robin and Gregg Kavet.
Diane Ladd and Brian Dennehy will receive lifetime achievement awards in a private ceremony on Saturday . Information about all the festival events is at 401-851-6963 and www.newportfilmfestival.com .
IN TOWN: Paris-based Jacqueline Pery, who received the Légion d'honneur for her service as part of the French Resistance, will be in town this week as a guest speaker at two screenings of the film ``Sisters in Resistance." The movie profiles four women Resistance members -- Pery among them -- who were incarcerated at the Ravensbruck concentration camp for their fight against the Nazi occupation of France.
Filmmaker Maia Wechsler made the movie in the late 1990s after meeting Pery 10 years earlier. Wechsler had been working as a journalist for U.S. News and World Report, covering France's first trial of a Nazi for crimes against humanity. The screenings are being presented by EnlightenNext's Frontiers of Film and will show in Cambridge on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at 38 Cameron Ave., Suite 100, and in Westborough next Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Mill Pond Auditorium at 6 Old Hickory Path. Call 617-548-6660 for more information.
Also in town are the Guerrilla Girls, who will be live and in person (and wearing gorilla masks, as usual) today at 3 and 7 p.m. at the Brattle Theatre. They'll be talking about sexism and racism in film and art, and their book ``Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers: The Guerrilla Girls' Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes" (the group's tagline: ``Fighting discrimination with facts, humor, and fake fur"). It's a benefit for the Boston Women's Center (617-876-6837 and www.brattlefilm.org ).
VIETNAM WAR ON FILM: The Harvard Film Archive is hosting a three-week series of nonfiction films about the war and antiwar resistance. Among this week's films are Frederick Wiseman's ``Basic Training" (1971) on Wednesday at 8:45 p.m., about training at Fort Knox in Kentucky, and David Zeiger's ``Sir! No Sir!" (2005), about war-era resistance by G.I.s on bases, battlefields, and military college campuses, on Saturday at 7 p.m. (The movie also has archival footage of Jane Fonda and an interview with her today.) The full schedule is online at www.harvardfilmarchive.org , or call 617-495-4700.
SCREENINGS OF NOTE: Andrew Bujalski's ``Funny Ha Ha" and Joe Swanberg's ``LOL" Monday at 7 and 9 p.m. at the Harvard Film Archive; both films are about 20-somethings trying to navigate friendships and infatuations through the thick haze created by boring day jobs, e-mail obsessions, and a painfully affected nonchalance (617-495-4700 and www.harvardfilmarchive.org ). . . . ``Suite Habana," Fernando Pérez's homage to Cuba following 10 ordinary folks over a typical day -- with only the natural sounds around them and a musical track to accompany the images -- on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at the Museum of Fine Arts (617-267-9300 and www.mfa.org/film ).
Leslie Brokaw can be reached at lbrokaw@globe.com. 