Film festival season coming into full bloom
With the very major Indepen-dent Film Festival of Boston (IFFB) opening Wednesday (see page N9 for our preview), the city is going to be awash with hundreds of directors, actors, and film fanatics.
One of the best opportunities to join the crowd and meet some of the top players in the state is happening Saturday, when Nick Paleologos, executive director of the Massachusetts Film Office, and Adam Roffman, program director of the IFFB, will be featured guests at a champagne buffet brunch hosted by Women in Film & Video/New England.
The event takes place from 10 a.m. to noon at the Burren restaurant in Davis Square. Admission is free to WIFV/NE members, festival passholders, festival filmmakers, and their guests, but reservations are required: call 781-788-6607 or e-mail info@womeninfilmvideo.org. IFFB information is online at iffboston.org.
OTHER FESTS TO CHOOSE FROM: In addition to IFFB, there are two smaller festivals this week : the White River Indie Films festival 2 1/2 hours north in White River, Vt. , and the Naked Eye Student Film Festival, at the Coolidge Corner Theatre.
The White River fest started yesterday and runs through next Sunday. Events include a conversation with Vermont filmmakers John DiGeorge, Nora Jacobson, Anne Macksoud, George Woodard, and others Friday at 4 p.m. In true Vermont style, the festival hosts a contra dancing party Friday night.
Also featured, of course, are films. Highlights include a program on Vermont films and filmmakers from 1896-2006, today at 4 p.m.; a 2 1/2-hour work on the hidden language of movies called "The Pervert's Guide to Cinema," presented over three nights on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 5:30 p.m.; and Deborah Scranton's "The War Tapes," drawn from footage shot by New Hampshire National Guardsmen in Iraq, on Saturday at 10 a.m. ("The Pervert's Guide" is also being screened during the IFFB, Saturday at noon.)
Details on the White River festival are at wrif.org and 802-738-5550.
Closer to home, the annual Naked Eye Student Film Festival is a three-evening event. The first night, Tuesday, is devoted to a program of student films from around the country, selected by students at The New England Institute of Art. The second night, Wednesday, showcases student films recently honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. This is the only area screening of these films. The final night, Thursday, features a conversation with filmmaker Joe Swanberg, whose "Hannah Takes the Stairs" is part of the IFFB . (Swanberg will also be part of a panel discussion on the realities of indie filmmaking Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at Jimmy Tingle's Off Broadway Theater as part of the IFFB .)
All three evenings start at 7 at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. Information is at nakedeyefestival.com.
BERLIN MINI-FEST: Germany's capital is a social petri dish these days, with massive amounts of construction where the old Berlin Wall once stood, a vibrant arts scene, and an influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe and beyond. The Harvard Film Archive presents four recent films in its "New Berlin" series tonight and tomorrow that give a peek at what life is like in this changing city.
"Berlin Babylon" (today 7 p.m.) talks (over a soundtrack by Einstürzende Neubauten) to the architects who are behind the emerging cityscape, while "Tough Enough" (8:45 p.m.) is a drama about the very rough edges of the largely immigrant Neukölln neighborhood.
Monday's two films are both directed by Andreas Dresen: "Summer in Berlin" (7 p.m.) is a slice of life about the friendship between two women living in the vivacious Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood (which has one of the world's highest concentrations of hipsters with baby carriages), while "Night Shapes" (9:15 p.m.) is a more contemplative look at how easy it is to feel lost in a big city. Details are at 617-495-4700 and hcl.harvard.edu/hfa.
P-TOWN FEST NEWS: Kathleen Turner will get the Lifetime Achievement Award and Alan Cumming the Excellence in Acting Award during the June 13-17 Provincetown International Film Festival, the fest has announced. Longtime insider Connie White has rejoined the staff as artistic director, and a $10,000 grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will help it put together a Portuguese-specific program. Info is at ptownfilmfest.org.
SCREENINGS OF NOTE: "Beauty in Trouble," by Czech director Jan Hrebejk, plays tonight at 7:30 at Studio Cinema in Belmont. At the film's center is a young woman who, when her husband is locked up for running a stolen-car chop shop, takes up with an older businessman. The movie played at the New Films From Europe series at the Harvard Film Archive in January (617-484-1706 and studiocinema.com).
Jeff Silva and Alla Kovgan, co-curators of the local Balagan experimental film series, both worked on "Movement (R)evolution Africa," a documentary about nine contemporary African choreographers that gets its Boston premiere Friday (Silva was director of photography and Kovgan co-director and editor). The film plays at 8 p.m. at the Museum of Fine Arts (617-267-9300 and mfa.org/film).
On Saturday, writer Iris Yamashita, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her very first screenplay, "Letters From Iwo Jima," will be at the Harvard Film Archive to talk about putting the script together and how she got the job in the first place -- apparently writer/director Paul Haggis read some of her work, met her, and recommended her to director Clint Eastwood. Her discussion will follow a 7 p.m. screening of Eastwood's "Letters," which stars Ken Watanabe as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, the leader of Japanese troops during the Battle of Iwo Jima.
Also on Saturday, as part of the Boston Cyberarts Festival, there's a 12-hour event of film, video, and computer animation that explores the visual representation of music. Called the Visual Music Marathon, it will include film from the 1920s by Hans Richter and the 1940s by Oskar Fischinger and Norman McLaren, contemporary works, and an hour of live video performance. It takes place at 120 Forsyth St. on the Northeastern University campus starting at 10 a.m. For the full schedule plus video previews, go to www.music.neu.edu/vmm / .
Leslie Brokaw can be reached at lbrokaw@globe.com. 