Award-winning film gets a special screening
Carlisle resident Gabrielle Savage Dockterman has picked up an armful of major awards from festivals across the country and in Monaco for her debut film ``Missing in America," which finally comes to Boston for its first appearance this week. It will close the Boston International Film Festival on Thursday at 5:45 p.m. at the Boston Common Theatre.
The film stars Danny Glover, David Strathairn, Ron Perlman, and Linda Hamilton, and is about a Vietnam vet (Glover) who lives in self-imposed isolation and ends up taking care of the daughter (Zoë Weizenbaum, of Amherst) of an Army friend (Strathairn) who is dying of exposure to Agent Orange. It's based on a story by Vietnam Green Beret Ken Miller, with a screenplay written by Miller, Dockterman, and Nancy Babine, who also lives in Carlisle and once taught screenwriting courses at the former Boston Film/Video Foundation.
The film has already been released on DVD, which means that it probably won't play in theaters except for festival showings like this week's.
``It's a question of economics -- it costs something like $100 to fill a $10 seat," Dockterman says by e - mail from France, where she's been on vacation. ``What people don't realize is that most independent films that get released in theaters do so by taking the income from the DVD sales to pay for the theatrical release, and the investors seldom see a dime, even with good-quality films. Many filmmakers are OK with that. I'm not."
The good news, she says, is that the film is now in video stores and being seen. ``It is faring very well, having been in the top 10 rentals list for the first few months, which is nearly unheard of for a straight-to-DVD release," she writes.
Still, it will be nice to finally have the film on the big screen in her hometown. Dockterman and her young star Weizenbaum will both attend. The festival schedule is at 617-482-3900 and www.bifilmfestival.com.
SNEAK PEEK AT UPCOMING PROJECTS: It's always fun to look through the list of New England filmmakers who are given grant money each May from the LEF Foundation. It's a who's who list of familiar and new names -- a kind of all-star team of creative talent -- and it gives a sneak peek at what many of the area's best, if modestly funded, directors are up to.
This year the foundation awarded $230,000 to 28 projects. Most filmmakers got $5,000 or $10,000, with a handful getting up to $20,000.
Among the grant winners: Robb Moss and Peter Gallison, who are working on a documentary about the world of government secrecy; Nora Jacobson, whose film is about an American who travels to Korea to research the women who put their babies up for adoption; Geva Patz, whose short documentary is about the proliferation of warning labels and how societies try to make a dangerous world safe; and Steve Gentile, whose films looks at the common character quirks between Benjamin Franklin and -- if you can believe it -- Henry Miller.
Other filmmakers receiving awards include Andrew Bujalski, Liz Canner, Jo Dery, Henri Hérré, and Daniel Sousa. The list is online at lef-foundation.org -- click on ``New England," then ``Moving Image Fund," then ``Past Awards."
WAR ON FILM: War-themed films are in abundance this week. In addition to ``Missing in America" at the Boston International Film Festival, Christian Frei's 2001 film ``War Photographer," which profiles the great Massachusetts-raised photojournalist James Nachtwey in action, will screen six times over the next three weeks at the Museum of Fine Arts. The first showing is next Saturday at 10:30 a.m.
The Harvard Film Archive's 39-film series ``At Home and Abroad: The Vietnam War on Film" continues this week. Director Peter Davis will attend a showing next Friday at 7 p.m. of his 1974 Academy Award-winning documentary ``Hearts and Minds." The film pieces together much of the imagery that was on American television at the time along with first-person interviews. Information about the entire HFA Vietnam series is at 617-495-4700 and harvardfilmarchive.org.
ENCORE PRESENTATION: The ``Do It Your Damn Self!!" national film festival -- curated by teens and featuring films by teens -- celebrated its 10th anniversary last November. For the past few years, the festival has partnered with the Museum of Fine Arts for a springtime screening of all the films. That takes place Saturday afternoon starting at 12:30 p.m. Some of the student filmmakers will be in attendance.
All 11 videos from the fall festival will be shown, including ``Portrait of a Black Girl" and ``Bittersweet," which were both made through the Institute of Contemporary Art's Fast Forward program for teen filmmakers. Also on the bill is a music video remake of the Biggie Small s song ``Juicy." The new version, made by Joseph Saint Germain and Odney Andre of Cambridge, was accepted into the LA Film Festival's high school competition and will play there later this month .
The festival's base is the Community Art Center in Cambridge, which was honored by first lady Laura Bush at the White House this past January for being one of the nation's best programs to ``enable young people to nurture their interests under the disciplined and caring tutelage of educators and community leaders." Most of the teens involved live in Cambridge's Newtowne Court and Washington Elms public housing developments.
Information about the screening is at 617-267-9300 and mfa.org/film. Information about the Community Art Center and its Teen Media Program, which is seeking donations to help send the filmmakers to the LA festival, is at 617-868-7100 and communityartcenter.org.
IFFBOSTON-SPONSORED EVENT: The Independent Film Festival of Boston is hosting a benefit tonight for Jamaica Plain filmmakers Amy Grill and David Day. The couple, who run sQuare Productions, are raising money to finish their documentary ``Speaking in Code," about the international electronic dance music scene. It's at the Enormous Room in Cambridge from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m., and for $50 you get your name in the credits.
SCREENINGS OF NOTE: Catherine Deneuve as ``Princess Marie" today at 2 p.m. and Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the MFA (617-267-9300 and www.mfa.org/film) . . . The New England premiere of ``Kilometer Zero," a French/Kurdish film about an Iraqi conscript sent to the frontlines of the Iran/Iraq war, tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. at the Studio Cinema in Belmont (617-484-1706 and www.belmontworldfilm.org) . . . The 2005 family drama ``Little Jerusalem," about an Orthodox Jewish woman who falls in love with a Muslim man, on Thursday at 8:15 p.m. and Friday at 6 p.m., also at the MFA . . . . Italian director Roberto Rossellini's ``The Flowers of St. Francis" along with Guy Maddin's short ``My Dad Is 100 Years Old," starring Isabella Rossellini, in celebration of the 100 - year anniversary of the director's birth, Thursday at 2:30 p.m. and Friday at 7:45 p.m., also at the MFA.
As part of the HFA's New American Independent Cinema series : Jem Cohen's ``Chain" on Thursday at 7 p.m. and June 19 at 9 p.m.; Miranda July's ``Me and You and Everyone We Know" on Thursday at 9 p.m. and Saturday at 7 p.m.; and Phil Morrison's ``Junebug" on Saturday at 9 p.m. and June 19 at 7 p.m. (617-495-4700 and harvardfilmarchive.org).
And finally: Donnie Moorhouse didn't let being voted out of the ``Project Greenlight" competition dissuade him from going on to make ``Cathedral Pines," a slasher-turned-spiritual-thriller. He got Peter Scolari to star and shot in Ludlow, Easthampton, and other Springfield-area locales. It has its premiere on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Calvin Theatre in Northhampton ( highlandshoremedia.com).
Leslie Brokaw can be reached at lbrokaw@globe.com. 
