New Hampshire, Quebec get fall festivals
The fall festival season continues, and next weekend it's the sixth annual New Hampshire Film Expo in Portsmouth, for four days starting Thursday. The event features 67 films, four workshops, two panels, parties, and a trade-show.
Among the feature-length documentaries that have a regional focus are ``American Fair" by Boston's Rick Widmer, about fairground life in York County, Maine (Saturday at 10:30 a.m.); ``Art in the Face of War," by David Baugnon, about eight World War II vets from New England and how they have used artwork to process and explain their wartime experiences (Sunday at 4:45 p.m.); and ``Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars," by Mary Jo Godges and Renee Sotile, about the New Hampshire teacher and astronaut who died aboard the space shuttle Challenger in 1986 (it plays Friday at 11:30 a.m. and Sunday at noon).
Other local films include the shorts ``Saul Goodman," by West Bridgewater's Jim Connell, a computer-animated conspiracy tale set in Boston's North Station (Friday at 2 p.m.) and ``Chasing Buckner," by Christoph Gelfand, which ``attempts to absolve baseball great Bill Buckner of sole responsibility for the Boston Red Sox loss to the NY Mets in the 1986 World Series," as Gelfand puts it. Gelfand interviews ``Only a Game" radio host Bill Littlefield and others and says he ``draws on his own brushes with glory during his Little League career and subsequent futility at baseball." (Sunday at 2:30 p.m.)
Also of note are Barbara Ettinger's ``Two Square Miles," which looks at the small town of Hudson, N.Y., and its battle over whether a proposed cement plant will be good or bad for residents (Friday at 5:15 p.m., with a Q&A with ``Friends of Hudson" co-founder Sam Pratt, who appears in the film); Marc Meyers's ``Approaching Union Square," which has picked up best film and best cast prizes at other festivals this year and depicts 30-something New Yorkers who cross paths on a bus (Saturday at 11:30 a.m.); and Mark Hammond's ``Johnny Was," a British gangster film featuring rocker Roger Daltrey (!) as the boss-man (Friday at 5 p.m. and Saturday at 3:45 p.m.).
The Film and Video Trade-show takes place on Friday and Saturday and is put on by the New Hampshire Film and Television Office. That's free to the public. Workshop topics include the art of re writing and how to license pre recorded music. Details about all the events are at 603-647-6439 and www.nhfx.com.
QUEBEC CINEMA: A three-day mini festival of Canadian films, guest speakers, and workshops takes place starting Thursday at the Brattle Theatre, Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge, and Harvard Film Archive. Called ``La Tournée du Cinéma Québécois," the program is touring Canada and for the first time is coming to the United States, with Boston its only stop.
The program begins with the East Coast premiere of Jean-Marc Vallée's ``C.R.A.Z.Y." on Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Brattle, with co-screenwriter François Boulay attending. The family drama was named Best Canadian Film at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, which described it as an ``ambitious and magical cinematic homage to the pop-culture-saturated Montreal middle class of the '70s." Information on the entire program is at www.rvcq.com (click on Boston in the right column).
NEW ENGLAND FEST CONTINUES: The New England Film and Video festival continues today and tomorrow at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. Among today's short films is ``Over the River," about a woman who lives for her lottery numbers and her grandchildren. Filmmakers Michael Kennedy, who grew up in Dorchester, and Erin Francis, who grew up in Stoneham, met while getting their MFAs in film at Boston University. (And today's their wedding -- or, as Francis puts it, the premiere of ``their most ambitious co-production to date.") Festival details are at www.befva.org.
READING IS FUNDAMENTAL: The Cambridge Public Library hosts a program called Cambridge Reads, which encourages everyone in the city to read the same book. This year it's Tracy Kidder's ``Mountains Beyond Mountains," which celebrates the work of Harvard Medical School's Dr. Paul Farmer. Because Farmer spends part of his time in Haiti, the Brattle Theatre is presenting filmmaker Jonathan Demme's ``The Agronomist" on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. That film profiles human rights advocate and radio journalist Jean Dominique, who was assassinated in 2000. Details at 617 876-6837 and www.brattlefilm.org.
``TASTE OF FILM" FUND-RAISER: A fund-raiser for The Color of Film Collaborative's mini grant program will be held Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Roxbury Center for the Arts, 184 Dudley St. Some of the 21 filmmakers who have received money for their projects will be attending, including Tracy Heather Strain, Jibril Haynes, Lorna Lowe Streeter, and Kona Khasu. Food will be provided by Irie Jamaician Restuarant, Eclectic Chef, Dancing Deer Baking Company, and others. Details at www.coloroffilm.com.
SCREENINGS OF NOTE: As part of its 25th anniversary celebration, the Sundance Film Festival has selected 14 theaters to host screenings of films it debuted. The Coolidge Corner is among them, and as a result this month's Sundance Series brings ``Donnie Darko" to Boston tomorrow night, ``Tarnation" the following Monday, and a ``Hedwig and the Angry Inch" sing-a long on Oct. 28. All the screenings will be in the newly renovated Moviehouse I.
Tomorrow 's 7 p.m. show of ``Donnie Darko" also features Dr. Bruce M. Cohen as a guest speaker. Cohen is Director of the Shervert Frazier Research Institute at McLean Hospital and an expert in psychiatric disorders.
Also this week, the Museum of Fine Arts presents three documentaries on composer and Boston native Leonard Bernstein on Wednesday. At 6 p.m. it's Richard Leacock's ``Bernstein in Israel" and ``Bernstein in Moscow," and at 8:15 p.m. it's Nina Bernstein Simmons and Mark Kaczmarczyk's ``Bernstein: A Total Embrace." Both Leacock and Simmons will be at their films' screenings, and students from the Boston Conservatory will perform. A reception at the Museum School for all ticket holders closes the evening. Details at 617-267-9300 and www.mfa.org/film.
Leslie Brokaw can be reached at lbrokaw@globe.com. 
