Brattle spotlights New England directors
It's a "Made in New England" kind of week at the Brattle: For the next seven days, the theater is focused almost entirely on the work of regional directors, in three programs that cover everything from love and sex to lemmings and squirrels.
The first program is a collection of short films. With the New England Patriots out of tonight's Super Bowl, there's all the more reason to trek out at 6 p.m. to see the sixth annual Boston Cinema Census, an evening put together by Central Productions and Newbury Film Series. Nine films that range in length from 1 to 19 minutes were selected from an open call, and the lineup sounds terrific.
The evening starts with "Fernando's First Snow" by Jared Katsiane, a Boston filmmaker whose films have played festivals all over the world. Boxborough filmmaker Todd Davis's much-lauded "In the Tradition of My Family," a narrative about a custom in which fathers give teenage sons their first scars, is included. It screened at the New York Film Festival last fall and won top prizes at the Rhode Island, Philadelphia, and Plymouth festivals in 2006.
There are two documentaries: a piece by Somerville's Gayle Anonuevo called "Lemming Drop" about whether lemmings really do dive off cliffs, and the experimental "Demolition Derby," by Kevin McCarthy of Allston, which uses footage and sound from the 2003 Marshfield Fair. Also included are films by Isaac Cohen of Roslindale, James Dingle of Dorchester, Robert DelGaudio of Hopkinton, and Frank Forte of Watertown, Conn. The night closes out with "Leftovers," about a man on a bench and a hungry squirrel, by Timothy Reckart of Cambridge. The full program is online at bostoncinemacensus.org.
The second program highlighting New England filmmakers is the continued engagement of Vermonter Jay Craven's "Disappearances," which plays daily through Thursday. Craven shot the movie in Vermont near the Canadian border, and after a year on the film festival circuit and a 100 Town Tour in Vermont, this is the movie's first extended run.
The third program is Saturday's 9:30 p.m. birthday party for local drag-king impresario Aliza Shapiro, put on by her Truth Serum Productions. As Shapiro says on her website, "It's my birthday and, like every other year, I figured I should celebrate it with some of the things I love: drag, dance, films, drinks, and dessert. And it's a benefit for the Brattle!"
Jennie Livingston's 1990 drag-scene documentary "Paris Is Burning" is the featured film of the evening. Also playing is the 22-minute "Who's the Top?" by Livingston and producer Laura Teodosio of Boston, a 2005 film that "doubles as a musical whose production numbers are more exuberant than anything in 'Rent,' " says the Globe's Wesley Morris. Both movies just finished a two-week run at London's Institute of Contemporary Art.
Some of the city's swankiest drag performers will open the party, and after the movies everything moves to UpStairs on the Square for cocktails and cake.
Information about all the events is at brattlefilm.org, or call 617-876-6837.
COLD WAR CINEMA SERIES : Village Voice film critic J. Hoberman is a visiting lecturer at Harvard University this spring and has curated a series of films for his students that is also open to the public at the Harvard Film Archive. Called "Poetic Horror, Pop Existentialism and Cheap Sci-Fi: Cold War Cinema 1948-1964," the eight-film program addresses, as Archive press materials put it, "post Auschwitz/post Hiroshima guilt and anxiety."
Things kick off Tuesday at 9 p.m. with the 1959 "City of Fear," about an escaped convict who threatens to contaminate Los Angeles with radioactivity. (Sound familiar? The television show "24" recently featured a story line about a suitcase nuclear bomb in Los Angeles.)
Other films in the series , which runs until Feb. 28, are "Invasion USA," "D.O.A.," "Rocketship X-M," "The Third Man," "Red Menace," "Panic in the Streets," and "Pickup on South Street ." Details are at 617-495-4700 and hcl.harvard.edu/hfa.
CELEBRATING GALVIN: Boston documentarian Maryanne Galvin is being highlighted in a retrospective at the Boston Public Library that starts this week.
"High, Fast and Wonderful," about priests who serve the National Circus, auto racers on the Champion Auto Racing Team, and migrant workers of Nantucket and Fall River, opens the showcase tomorrow at 6 p.m. The Rev. Gerry Hogan, who ministers to the circus performers, and the Rev. Richard Wilson of the Office for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees, Washington, D.C., will be at the screening along with Galvin.
"The Pursuit of Pleasure," a survey of women's thoughts about sexuality, celibacy, marriage, and intimacy, plays on Feb. 12. Guest speakers will be Kristin Keefe, a Boston gynecologist, and Cheryl Kane, a nurse with Boston's HealthCare for the Homeless, both of whom appear in the film.
All screenings take place in the Rabb Lecture Hall and are free. Additional information is available from the Library at 617-536-5400 and bpl.org, or from Galvin's website, at mgproductions.biz.
SCREENINGS OF NOTE: "Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock" has its Boston premiere at the Institute of Contemporary Art today at 2 p.m. It plays again next Sunday, also at 2 p.m. (617-478-3103 and icaboston.org).
Today at 2 p.m. and Saturday and next Sunday, also at 2 p.m., the documentary "Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure" plays the Harvard Museum of Natural History. The screening is in conjunction with the new exhibit "Echoes in the Ice: Collages of Polar Explorers." Author and historian Kelly Tyler-Lewis will give a talk after Saturday's show about Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914-1916 trans-Antarctic expedition and how his team survived for nearly two years after their ship was crushed by ice (617-495-3045 and www.hmnh.harvard.edu).
The exhilarating Mirrorball collection of international music videos returns to the Museum of Fine Arts this month. The videos have been grouped into four collections: "Fresh Tracks," "Animation," "Made in Japan," and "Global Selections." The "Fresh Tracks" program plays Thursday at 8:30 p.m. and includes videos for the bands Boards of Canada and Cat Power. The "Animation" program plays Saturday at 2:30 p.m. (For more information, call 617-267-9300 or go to mfa.org/film).
And at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, prepare for Valentine's Day with "Love Bites: The '80s Power Ballad Sing-a-Long" Friday at midnight and the "Moulin Rouge Sing-a-Long" Saturday, also at midnight. Both extravaganzas will be hosted by Henri Mazza of the Austin, Texas, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema (617-734-2500 and coolidge.org).
Leslie Brokaw can be reached at lbrokaw@globe.com. 
