Latino film fest comes on strong
In the five years since its founding, the Boston Latino International Film Festival has become a regional powerhouse, presenting an eclectic program of both new and internationally recognized films.
Running from Oct. 20 to 29, the 10-day fest opens Friday with a 5 p.m. reception at Harvard's David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and a 7 p.m. screening of Juan Carlos Cremata Malbertí's ``Viva Cuba" at the Harvard Film Archive. The film is a family-friendly story of two children whose parents want to keep them from being friends because of their class differences. It was Cuba's official entry to this past year's Academy Awards.
Saturday features Mylène Moreno's ``Recalling Orange County," a documentary about Moreno's life in California and her observations about what it means to be an American of Mexican descent. That's at 2:15 p.m.
At 6 p.m. it's Boston College professor Ernesto Livon-Grosman's ``Cartoneros," about the people of Buenos Aires who collect and sell other people's cardboard and bottles and the cultural implications of this informal recycling. A reception with Grosman, who teaches Hispanic studies, follows at 7 p.m.
Closing out Saturday evening at 9:40 p.m. is the documentary ``En el hoyo," director Juan Carlos Rulfo's look at the freeway that circles Mexico City and the workers who built it. ``En el hoyo" won the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema-Documentary at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.
The festival is curated by director Jose Augusto Barriga. This year's 82 films highlight the many sides of the Latino community and challenge the stereotypes of ``Latino culture" seen in mainstream media.
The festival takes place in Boston at the Center for Latino Arts at 85 West Newton St. and Massachusetts College of Art's Tower Auditorium and in Cambridge at the Harvard Film Archive and on the Harvard campus. The full program, with details on all films, panels, and parties, is at bliff.org.
CONVERSATIONS WITH: Film scholar Donald Richie, whose works on Japanese cinema are considered seminal, will be at the Harvard Film Archive tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. He'll be discussing Japanese film and will introduce a screening of the 1956 film ``Street of Shame." Details at 617-495-4700 and http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa.
Karen Schmeer, who edited the Academy Award-winning ``The Fog of War" and the recent ``Sketches of Frank Gehry," will introduce and discuss another work she edited, ``Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.," on Thursday at 7 p.m. The event takes place at Boston University's College of Communication, 640 Commonwealth Ave. Directly following at 8:45 p.m., film editor William Anderson will introduce ``XX/XY," which stars Mark Ruffalo. Both editors are BU graduates.
Also on Thursday, , filmmakers Ash Christian and Jonathan Caouette will be at the Coolidge Corner Theatre at 7 p.m. for the area premiere of ``Fat Girls," a film about a gay teenager in Texas. It's directed by Christian and features both men. (Caouette wrote the autobiographical documentary ``Tarnation," a collage of home movies and still photographs about growing up with a schizophrenic mother. That film will screen at the Coolidge on Friday at 9 a.m.)
The program is co-presented by the New England Institute of Art's Naked Eye College Film Festival and the Independent Film Festival of Boston and is free to anyone with a school or college ID. Info at 617-734-2500 and coolidge.org.
RESOURCES FOR FILMMAKERS: The Sharon-based Center for Independent Documentary hosts a Filmmakers Workshop on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Bernard Toale Gallery, 450 Harrison Ave. in Boston. This week's workshop is about lighting and how to get the most out of limited resources. The event is free but RSVP is required: E-mail susi@documentaries.org.
The Digital Filmmaking Workshop in Manchester, N.H., is hosting a two-day seminar next Saturday and Sunday on ``Producing, Marketing, and Screening Your Independent Film." Instructors are Bill Millios of Back Lot Films in New Boston, N.H., and Marc Vadeboncoeur of Goodheart Media Services in Raymond, N.H. Information is at 603-206-4364 and digitalfilmmakingworkshop.com.
MINI-FESTIVALS OF NOTE: The Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film presents its seventh annual ``Short Film Festival," a free one-night event on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Boston Public Library in Copley Square ( chlotrudis.org). . . . The Boston Fantastic Film Festival, a sci-fi and horror extravaganza, takes place Thursday through the following Tuesday at the Brattle Theatre (617-876-6837 and brattlefilm.org).
SCREENINGS OF NOTE: ``Les Palmes de M. Schutz," based on the early romance of Pierre and Marie Curie and starring Charles Berling and Isabelle Huppert, tonight at 8 p.m. at the Museum of Fine Arts, presented with the support of the French Cultural and Scientific Services and the Curie Institute (617-267-9300 and mfa.org/film).
``Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers," at scores of grass-roots events between now and Election Day. Among the organizations hosting events are MoveOn.org (Wednesday in Holliston) and Arlington United for Justice with Peace (October 26 at the First Parish Unitarian Church in Arlington). Screenings are listed by ZIP code at http://iraqforsale.org/screenings.php.
``The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," Thursday at 7 p.m. at the New Art Center in Newtonville (617-964-3424 ). . . . ``British Advertising Films of 2005," including a Honda spot with Garrison Keillor singing about the joys of diesel, at the MFA this week (you can also peek at the ads at btaa.co.uk) . Peter Bigg of the British Television Advertising Awards will be at three screenings: Thursday at 8:15 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., and Saturday at 4:10 p.m.
``Border War: The Battle Over Illegal Immigration," Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Kendall Square Cinema. The film's production company, Citizens United, describes itself as a conservative advocacy organization that ``seeks to reassert the traditional American values of limited government, freedom of enterprise, strong families, and national sovereignty and security" ( borderwarmovie.com).
Leslie Brokaw can be reached at lbrokaw@globe.com. 
