Sweeney road trip hits Woods Hole
``A lot of times in the movies I don't believe that a certain guy is with a certain beautiful girl -- these guys have these wildly improbable love interests," says the actor D.B. Sweeney. `` Not only because of reasons of attractiveness, but because of being different kinds of people."
That goes not just for two actors playing a couple, but for actors playing a group of friends. Sometimes the connections just appear implausible. In his new movie ``Dirt Nap," which Sweeney stars in, directed and produced, and coauthored with former Peabody resident Brian Currie , he used friends of his -- actors John C. McGinley (``Scrubs," ``Platoon") and Paul Hipp -- as the other leads. Ed Harris also is featured.
``This film just feels like three guys on a road trip behaving badly and learning to appreciate each other," says Sweeney, who's 44, by phone from California. ``It was important to me that they would seem like three guys who have known each other for 30 years, not three guys who just met out by the Winnebagos a week ago."
Audiences have known D.B. Sweeney the Actor for 20 years. One of his first big roles was playing ``Shoeless" Joe Jackson in John Sayles's 1988 movie ``Eight Men Out." Sweeney has worked steadily since on television and in movies and theater, including a production of ``Under Milk Wood" at the Williamstown Theater Festival three summers ago . ``Dirt Nap" is his first movie as a filmmaker as well as an actor, and it's currently on the festival circuit.
Last month Sweeney won the best-director award at the Boston International Film Festival, and he's bringing the movie back to the area on Saturday at 7 p.m. as one of the opening- night selections of the eight-day Woods Hole Film Festival . The festival, in its 15th year, runs through Aug. 5.
The festival's stock in trade is its embrace of emerging and regional filmmakers. In the line up are Vermont filmmaker Jay Craven's ``Disappearances," shot in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom and featuring Kris Kristofferson as a whiskey smuggler during prohibition, and John Stimpson's ``The Legend of Lucy Keyes," a ghost story starring Julie Delpy and ``based on the actual events of April 14, 1755, and the subsequent stories of hauntings on and around Wachusett Mountain," as the press materials put it.
Also featured are Claudia Myers's romantic comedy ``Kettle of Fish," which stars Matthew Modine trying to grow up when he falls for Gina Gershon, who plays a biologist, Andy Robin and Gregg Kavet's fictional ``Live Free or Die," about an inept scam artist in New Hampshire, which won the jury prize at both the Seattle Film Festival and the South by Southwest Festival, and Jennifer Winston's ``Fisher Poets," a documentary about commercial fisherman that Albert Maysles calls ``the kind of film that attention must be paid."
Directors Richard Leacock and Jon Jost will be honored at the festival, and Jost will lead a three-day workshop on digital filmmaking.
The festival takes place at seven venues in Woods Hole. For information about schedules and tickets, call 508-495-3456 or go to www.woodsholefilmfestival.org .
CRAZY FOR THELMA: The 100th anniversary of actress Thelma Todd's birth will be feted with a four-day ``Thelma Todd Celebration" in Manchester, N.H., Thursday through Sunday . Organized by film buff Dave Stevenson , the schedule includes screenings of the comedian's films, a program on women in early film comedy, and a bus tour of notable sites in Todd's hometown, Lawrence . Jerry ``Tucker" Schatz, who appeared with Todd in the 1933 ``Sitting Pretty" and in the ``Little Rascals" films through the 1930s, will be a special guest. Information is online at www.looserthanloose.com.
SCREENINGS OF NOTE: Rebecca Dreyfus's ``Stolen," about the 1990 art theft at the Isabella Stewart Gard ner Museum, is at the Museum of Fine Arts today at 11 a.m. and then for two more screenings through Aug. 12 . Also at the MFA this week is Argentinean director Carlos Sorin's ``El Perro," about a man who hits the road in Patagonia and ends up teaming with a pure-bred dog who's a serious contender in dog shows (617-267-9300 and www.mfa.org/film).
Tomorrow, the Coolidge Corner Theatre hosts the final in its Summertime Blues series with a screening of Mel Stuart's 1973 documentary ``Wattstax" and a live Stax revue by Eli ``Paperboy" Reed and the True Loves. Warning: Earlier events in the series have sold out, so get tickets in advance if you don't want to be left on the curb (617-734-2500 and www.coolidge.org).
The Independent Film Festival of Boston is starting a new monthly series that will showcase Boston premieres of indie films in one-time-only screenings or short runs. The first movie is ``Factotum," which was featured last month at the Provincetown International Film Festival. It stars Matt Dillon and features Lili Taylor and Marisa Tomei, and is based on the Charles Bukowski book. It plays Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Somerville Theatre (617-625-5700 and www.somervilletheatreonline.com).
Finally, online voting for WGBH's short films competition has been extended to Aug. 4. You can find it all at wgbh.org/producingfortv.
Leslie Brokaw can be reached at lbrokaw@globe.com. 
