Ten bucks for a Hollywood movie just isnt right Ten bucks ...
In Town
AMERICAN MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE 35th Ave. (36th St.), Astoria, 718-784-0077, www.movingimage.us "Finding a Place" looks back at all the films of Ang Lee. From 5/31-6/8, see the modern master's oeuvre, incl. his debut Pushing Hands [5/31] & Eat Drink Man Woman [6/1]. After screening of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon [6/7], Lee will take part in dialogue w/James Schamus. "Dark Dreams, Dangerous Places" is another retrospective, this one to celebrate the career of the long-snubbed Roman Polanski. Polanski's films run in chronological order from Short Films (1957-1963) [6/14] to Bitter Moon (1992) [6/29], the series reacquaints film lovers with greats incl. Rosemary's Baby [6/21] and Chinatown [6/28], as well as the original version of The Fearless Vampire Killers. Go to enjoy Polanski's skillful direction, or to ogle the beauties he cast (Catherine Deneuve & Natassja Kinski, anyone?), or simply to see what he was doing before the Academy finally gave him an Oscar. Call or visit website for full sched., free w/$10, $7.50 st./s.c. museum adm. [through 6/29].
ASIAN AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL Asia Society & Museum, 725 Park Avenue (70th St.) & Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd., Flushing 212-989-1422, www.asiancinevision.org 26th-annual festival screens over 100 films & videos from around the world-plus panels, workshops, screenplay readings & receptions [6/20-6/29]. Tickets $9.50, $7 st./s.c. Call or check website for details.
BAM Brooklyn Academy of Music, Rose Theater, 30 Lafayette Ave. (Ashland Ave.), Ft. Greene, 718-636-4111, www.bam.org Festivals & daily screenings of classic American & foreign films, docs. & retrospectives. This summer's offerings incl. "DanceAfrica Film Festival" [5/22-5/29] & "Village Voice Best of 2002," incl. Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows [6/3] & Imitation of Life [6/4], which inspired Far from Heaven director Todd Haynes. Other film screenings incl. Morvern Callar, feat. dazzling performance by Samantha Morton [6/10], Bloody Sunday, Battle of Algiers-esque re-creation of 1972's deadly Irish-British clashes [6/17] & acclaimed 2001 Inuit film The Fast Runner [6/27]. Multiple showings daily, call for specifics. $10, $7 st., $6 s.c.
BREEDINGGROUND PRODUCTIONS SPRING FILM Brooklyn Lyceum, 227 4th Ave. (betw. Union & President Sts.), 347-683-7698, www.breedingground.com. Artist collective & support structure founded by Tisch School grads pres. new features & shorts illustrating where film is headed. Director Lila Yomtoob schooled her actors in improv & experimental techniques for her film High Life, about group of urban teenagers growing up & apart [5/23, 5/30 & 6/6, 10 p.m.]. Screens w/short The Lives of Inanimate Objects & in special lunch screenings feat. food from local restaurants (free w/admission!). Also, see Short Shorts: The Best of NYU's Class of 2003 to get an hour of really brand-spanking-new filmmaking [5/25 & 6/1]. $12, $18/evening, $25/weekend pass.
CELEBRATE BROOKLYN! Prospect Park Bandshell, 9th St. (Prospect Park W.), Park Slope, 718-855-7882 x45, www.celebratebrooklyn.org Annual festival enhances & revives classics. First, Jazz Passengers, Guy Klucevsek & Phillip Johnston provide music for 1954 thriller Creature from the Black Lagoon, which will be screened in 3-D [7/17]. On 7/24, Alloy Orchestra & Ethel perform original music to introduce & accompany 1926 Douglas Fairbanks silent adventure The Black Pirate. The Four Bags offer "unusual instrumentation & sly humor" alongside Hitchock's Vertigo & for Guys and Dolls, the Howard Fishman Quartet offers up smooth Brooklyn jazz [8/7].
DEN OF CIN 44 Ave. A (E. 3rd), 212-254-0800 The Den of Cin's Mondo Mondays gets in the Gay Pride spirit w/June lineup of classics & classics-to-be, incl. 1980 Village People musical Can't Stop the Music [6/2] & X-rated gay feature Adam & Yves feat. a Greta Garbo cameo [6/30]. In July, Mondays go for "jaw-dropping insanity" w/unbelievably weird films incl. The Philippine Batman, feat. a Tagalog-speaking caped-crusader who must save Manila [7/7] & The Turkish Star Wars, which you gotta see to believe [7/28].
FILM FORUM 209 W. Houston St. (betw. 6th Ave. & Varick St.), 212-727-8110, www.filmforum.com Relish your good luck (& the cool air) if you can get into one of Film Forum's popular premiere runs. Starting things off is new version of an old movie: Sergio Leone's 1967 The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, now in its complete English version w/new footage & restored picture/soundtrack [5/30-6/12]. Then, indulge your inner (or not-so-inner) radical & see The Weather Underground, new documentary about 70s activists' ups & downs of their time on the scene [opens 6/4]. Starkiss: Circus Girls In India records the tragic daily lives of 50 women & girls sold into India's "Great Rayman Circus," where they must perform difficult tricks incl. the "starkiss" [6/11-6/24]. Someone who actually chose to turn his life into a performance of sorts was Joao Francisco dos Santos, aka Madame Sata, who led multifaceted life in Rio de Janeiro & inspired Madame Sata [7/9-7/22]. Talented actors & the influence of Edward Hopper's paintings helped Seaside win Cannes' 2002 Camera d'Or for its look at one of France's no-longer-chic northern resort areas [8/6-8/19]. Modern hobo Sarah George crisscrossed the country by train & filmed experiences of some intriguing people she met along the way for Catching Out [8/20-8/26]. In an entirely different take on road trips, director Diego Lerman's new Argentinean film Suddenly (Tan de Repente) follows a lesbian couple who kidnap a lingerie saleswoman [8/27-9/9]. Call or visit website for times & sched.
FILM IN VOID 16 Mercer St. (Howard St.), 212-941-6492. Free screenings of independent artists' shorts every Thurs., Fri. & Sat., 8 p.m.-10 p.m. Call for specifics.
FREIGHT FILM SALON 410 W. 16th St. (betw. 9th & 10th Aves.), 212-242-6555, www.freightnyc.com. Monday Night Shorts series, which fosters up-and-coming filmmakers, continues w/screenings at 7:30 & 10. Tenementality, a look at "the mentality, circumstances & ingenuity of people living in small spaces" in big cities & 8 1/2 x 11, a dark comedy about seeking work-remarkably poignant this year [6/2]. Matthew Hysell's Lost & Found follows a young man on an inexplicable search [6/9]. Comedy Night [6/16] screens three shorts by Matthew Ehlers w/four by Peppe Holmsten & Sketcetera (online sketch comedy show collaboration between improv & filmmaking), starring Second City alums. Tony Osso's Stand By is an intense look at the relationship between an Italian mother & son [6/23]. Departure is Ian Bricke's examination of reunion of two best friends, while Allergic to Nuts focuses on a woman's first dinner party hijacked by a friend's announcement [6/30].
FRENCH SHORT FILM FESTIVAL Two Boots Pioneer Theater, 155 E. 3rd St. (Ave. A), 212-254-3300, www.frenchshortfilmfest.com. This year's festival of indies from across the pond, w/usual four categories (documentary, experimental, narrative, animation) runs from 6/12-6/15. And don't start calling it the "Freedom Short Film Festival."
GOLDEN AGE OF CINEMA FESTIVAL NYU's Cantor Film Center, 36 E. 8th St. (University Pl.), 917-750-3651, www.goldenageofcinema.org All movies begin at 6:30 p.m., $12, $7 st. Festival dedicated to great New York films & filmmakers, with a host of really rather interesting movie folk.
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, 165 W. 65th St. (B'way), 212-875-5600, www.hrw.org/iff $9.50, $6 st. Call for times & full sched. Festival feat. stories of hope & horror by filmmakers who have been to regions suffering stark humanitarian abuses, i.e. Palestine, Chile under Pinochet & Rwanda. Highlights incl. Welcome to Hadassah Hospital, documenting the life of Jerusalem who must treat both suicide bombers & their victims; Balseros, about the fate of Cuban raft refugees & State of Denial, a hard-hitting examination of AIDS in South Africa-not to mention numerous other films that will leave the audience saddened, stunned & hopefully, ready to take action. $9.50, $6 st. $4.50 s.c. Mon.-Fri. [6/13-6/26].
ISRAEL FILM FESTIVAL Clearview Cinemas, 59th St. (betw. 2nd & 3rd Aves.), 877-966-5566, 212-759-4630, www.israelfilmfestival.com The largest-ever showcase of Israeli films celebrates its 19th year w/new films, documentaries, mini-series & student shorts. $10, $6.50 st./s.c. Call or check website for sched. [6/19-7/3].
JEWISH CULTURAL CENTER 334 Amsterdam Ave. (76th St.), 646-505-5708, www.jccfilm.org. On selected Thursdays, see offbeat documentaries & stay for discussion w/directors & subjects. Films incl. Comedian [5/22], which follows Jerry Seinfeld's search for new material & Last Dance, collaboration between author Maurice Sendak & naked dance troupe Pilobolus-q&a session should be a ball [6/12]. Also showing Facing Arthur & Sid at 90 [both 6/19, 7:30, $10].
LINCOLN CENTER FESTIVAL 2003 Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center, 165 W. 65th St. (B'way), 212-875-5600, www.filmlinc.com Screenings are $9.50. "Films from Along the Silk Road," feat. new & classic movies from Central Asia, continues w/The Sky of Our Childhood, 1967 film out of Kyrgyzstan [5/21 & 5/23-5/25], 1998 "fable of the new Tadjikistan," "The Flight of the Bee," [5/21-5/22 & 5/24] & film from New Directors/New Films series, "Angel on the Right" [5/24]. "Open Roads: New Italian Cinema" looks at the diverse new breed of Italian independent filmmakers, starting w/Piergiorgio Gay's The Power of the Past, psychological thriller about children's book writer & entanglements of his past [5/30-5/31 & 6/8]. Also, Enzo Monteleone's El Alamein, following Italian WWII soldiers in N. Africa [5/30-5/31]; Open My Heart, directed by Giada Colagrande, about prostitute's difficult relationship w/her staid sister [5/31 & 6/2]; Daniele Luchetti's latest, Say It with Words [5/30 & 6/6]; V-Max, something like The Fast & the Furious meets Italy [6/1 & 6/5]; Mimmo Calopresti's Happiness for Free, examination of morality & meaning in a materialistic society [6/1-6/2 & 6/6]; Outsiders of the Crowd by Vicenzo Marra, who without a budget created masterful neorealist documentary of seven Neapolitan soccer fans [6/5 & 6/8]; plus My Name Is Tanino, by Paolo Virzi [6/1-6/2]; Casomai, by Alessandro d'Alatri [6/1 & 6/10-6/11]; Soulmate by Sergio Rubini [6/6-6/7 & 6/12]; Two Friends, by Sprio Scimone & Francesco Sframele [6/6-6/7 & 6/9]; One More Hour with You, by Alina Marrazzi [6/7 & 6/9-6/10]; Adventures of Pinocchio, by Luigi Comencini, not Roberto Benigni [6/8, 6/10, 6/12] & Paterfamilias, by Francesco Patierno [6/9-6/10]. Also don't miss The Last Judgment, 1961 film by Vittorio de Sica, showing in "Tribute to Alberto Sordi," quintessential Italian comic actor & director [6/5], plus "Recent Short Films From Italy," feat. six new works [6/10-6/12].
LONG ISLAND FILM FESTIVAL: SUMMER SHORTS Inter-Media Art Center, 370 New York Ave., Huntington, 631-549-9666, www.imactheater.org Festival's 20th year pres. evening of short films after the main event has come & gone. Eclectic array of almost a dozen short films incl. The Tool (Miles Kahn), Going Down (Dominic Inzana) & Compulsory Breathing (David Munro) [6/19, 7 p.m., $10]
MOVIES UNDER THE STARS Pier A Park, (1st St. & Frank Sinatra Dr.), Hoboken, NJ, 201-420-2207. Outdoor screenings in Hoboken every Wed. on waterfront overlooking the Hudson. Movies begin at 9 p.m. in June & July; at 8:15 p.m. in Aug. Admission is free. Series incl. Far from Heaven [6/4], Bowling for Columbine [6/11], The Lord of the Rings [6/18], Catch Me if You Can [6/25], Frida [7/9], The Hours [7/16], Adaptation [7/23], Chicago [7/30], Big Night [8/6], The Wild Thornberries [8/13), Spirited Away [8/20] Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets [8/27]. Bring a blanket or lawn chairs, picnic basket & some wine for a very civilized & inexpensive evening.
"THE LUBITSCH TOUCH" Film Forum, 209 W. Houston St. (betw. 6th Ave. & Varick St.), 212-727-8110, www.filmforum.com The Goethe-Institut joins w/Film Forum to pres. retrospective of Ernst Lubitsch's German & American films; come to see his famous wit displayed in early spectacles incl. Madame Dubarry [6/19] & Anna Boleyn [6/30], or later Hollywood hits incl. Trouble In Paradise [6/13-6/19] & Ninotchka [6/20-6/21]. On 6/22, hear what the experts have to say about his legacy at free panel discussion. $9.75 general admission for films. Call for complete sched. [6/13-7/03].
MAKOR 35 W. 67th St. (betw. Central Park W. & Columbus Ave.), 212-601-1000, www.makor.org The 92nd St. Y's cutting-edge film venue pres. wide range of films throughout the summer, from Jewish-oriented documentaries to stoner flicks & 80s hits in the new Cult Cafe. Some events incl. discussions, such as the screening of Wet Hot American Summer, feat. cast reunion w/stars Janeane Garofalo, Paul Rudd, Michael Showalter & Amy Poehler [6/9] & The Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story, the first screening is followed by discussion w/guests incl. Louise Hirschfeld, Jules Feiffer & John Darnton [6/11-6/12]. Also weekly events focused on "literature meets the tube" theme w/Columbia professor Jeremy Dauber hosting discussions on Shakespeare & The Sopranos, among other mind-expanding subjects [6/2, 6/9, 6/16 & 6/23]. Call or go to website for complete schedule.
MEDIA THAT MATTERS Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, 165 W. 65th St. (B'way), 212-875-5600, www.MediaThatMattersFest.org Mediarights.org streams this third-annual festival online & on computer installations at Walter Reade. Online format is designed to encourage viewers to watch films & then actually do something about it via links to organizations & political representatives. Festival's 12 shorts & four new media productions incl. dramatizations, documentaries & parodies on wide range of important subjects, from young girls' body image & AIDS to stereotyping. Installation at Walter Reade runs for two days, but can be accessed online all year [6/13-6/15].
MOMA FILM AT GRAMERCY 127 E. 23rd St. (Lexington Ave.), 212-777-4900, www.moma.org The Modern's film extension boasts classics, independents & foreign cinema all summer, so if you need a cool place to duck inside & you don't feel like taking a chance on one of the big-budget action flicks, this is the place to be. From 5/26-6/2, film series "Movie Love in the Fifties" [5/26-6/2] screens 10 films incl. Angel Face, Middle of the Night & Touch of Evil, pres. in tandem w/new book of the same name. Special screenings of films incl. documentary Cuba, Island of Music [5/29], about famous groups from the island & barrio musicians, show that the Gramercy theater is well-loved w/good reason. Call or go to website for complete sched. $12 general admission, $8.50 st./s.c.
NEW YORK IRANIAN FILM FESTIVAL Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Ave. (2nd St.), 212-505-5181, www.nyiff.org. There's something uniquely intense about movies that come out of Iran & many recent ones have become art-house faves. This weekend the first festival of its kind, dedicated to showing works alongside each other in a new context, begins. Samira Makhmalbaf's Blackboards follows teachers in Iran who are searching for Kurdish children to teach & run into all sorts of characters along the way [5/29 & 5/31]. Short film Afghan Alphabet also looks at teachers' trials & tribulations, this time in Afghanistan's environment of extreme religious conviction [5/31]. Fictional tale Kandahar, which had a brief run here last year, is based on the journey of young Afghani woman who escaped but then returned to save her sister; the landscapes are stunning & the documentation of severe repression & suffering is stark [5/29-5/30]. A Time for Drunken Horses offers unflinching portraits of lives of children w/adult burdens living on Iran-Iraq border [5/31 & 6/1]. Also showing are Majid Majidi's Baran [6/1] & Babak Payami's Secret Ballot [5/30 & 6/1].
NEW YORK LESBIAN & GAY FILM FESTIVAL Tischman Aud., the New School, 66 W. 12th St. (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.) & NYU's Cantor Film Center, 36 E. 8th St. (betw. B'way & University Pl.), 212-571-2170, www.newfestival.org for full festival info & sched. Celebrate festival's 15th anniversary! Four focuses ("Camp," "Gender Outlaws," "Homosexuality in the Middle East" & "Politics") join up w/TriBeCa, Human Rights Watch Intl. & NY Intl. Latino Film Festival events. Opening night feature Mambo Italiano, "the gay My Big Fat Greek Wedding," stars Luke Kirby & Peter Miller as closeted lovers, Angelo & Nino who must deal w/Angelo's very traditional family in a Canadian Italian-community [6/5]. Centerpiece films incl. Madame Sata, about 1930s Afro-Brazilian queen-of-all-trades Joao Francisco dos Santos, who "uses his stigmatized race, sexuality & class as source of defiant strength"; director Diego Lerman's Suddenly (Tan de Repente) follows three women in Buenos Aires-a lesbian couple & lingerie saleswoman-who go on life-changing road trip. LGBT narratives & documentaries from around the world range from Lab Ky Mo's 9 Dead Gay Guys to Jennifer Arnold's American Mullet to Bulgarian Lovers, Spanish dramedy directed by Eloy de la Iglesia. Closing night film [6/15] is Merchant Ivory production Merci Docteur Rey, directed by Andrew Litvack, about gay son of an opera diva who must come to terms w/his life after series of shocks. Call or check website for more info [6/5-6/15].
RIVERFLICKS Hudson River Park, Pier 54, West St. (betw. 12th & 13th Sts.) & Pier 25, West St. (Chambers St.), 212-533-PARK, www.hudsonriverpark.org For the seventh year, lavish in New York's newest open space by enjoying a diverse array of free classic movies. This summer's schedule livens up the West Side every Weds. & Fri. Pier 54's R-rated flicks are: Goodfellas [7/9], Mission: Impossible [7/16], Pee Wee's Big Adventure [7/23], Gladiator [7/30], Unforgiven [8/6], 8 Mile [8/13], Road to Perdition [8/20] & Pulp Fiction [8/27]. Pier 25's (slightly) more family-oriented fare feat. Casablanca [7/11], Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone [7/18], Legally Blonde [7/25], Spaceballs [8/1], Chicken Run [8/8], My Big Fat Greek Wedding [8/15], The Ring [8/22] & Field of Dreams [8/29]. Movies begin at dusk, generally betw. 8 & 8:30.
ROOFTOP FILMS SERIES Peter's Car Corp., 265 McKibbin St. (Bushwick Ave.), Bklyn, www.rooftopfilms.com Seventh season of series showcasing independent shorts (documentary, fiction & experimental) every Fri. night w/live music prior to screenings. Opening night [6/13] has live music & "definitive" short films; other highlights are "New York Nonfiction," documentaries that take a closer look at the capital of the world [7/18]; "Sista II Sista Benefit," feat. youth-produced films w/proceeds going to freedom school for young women of color [8/8]; & "Home Movies," night of found cinema, screening personal moments of all kinds [9/5]. [6/13-9/12].
SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS 209 E. 23rd St. (betw. 2nd & 3rd Aves.), 212-592-2010, www.schoolofvisualarts.edu Take workshops in SVA's continuing education division & see if you have what it takes to succeed in film, TV & animation. Sick of terrible reality shows that somehow get greenlighted? Producer Joy Roller's "Reality Television Production" teaches you how to get your (far better) idea for one on the air [3 sessions, 6/2-6/16]. Other workshops incl. "An Interdisciplinary Acting & Writing Workshop," taught by Doris Hicks [10 sessions, 6/3-8/5] & "Stop Motion Animation," taught by Voltaire (not the French intellectual, the stop-motion specialist who has worked for MTV & Epic Records) [8 sessions, 6/11-7/30]. Prices range from $220-$565; some courses offer credit.
THALIA AT SYMPHONY SPACE Leonard Nimoy Theater, 2537 B'way (95th St.), 212-864-5400, www.symphonyspace.org. Duck inside & spend an afternoon w/chills running up & down your spine, or just laughing at what people used to think the future would look like, as the "Sci-Fi Flick Fest" continues w/Cocoon, Soylent Green, A.I. & Minority Report. All will have you thinking twice about how enthusiastically you embrace new technology [5/24 & 5/25]. The following weekend, see a more light-hearted take on extra-terrestrials w/Men in Black, Galaxy Quest, Starman & The Brother from Another Planet [5/31 & 6/1]. Other weekends screen classics & new movies w/all the latest special effects, so you can see how sci-fi has developed over the years, from This Island Earth (1955), Barbarella (1968) & the original The Time Machine (1960) to Contact, Johnny Mnemonic & The Fifth Element. Series concludes 7/12-7/13 w/director's cut of bizarre filmmaking's crowning achievement, Brazil, showing alongside two Star Trek installments. $9, $8 s.c., $5 child. Call or go to website for info & times.
THROUGH THE EYE OF THE WRITER/DIRECTOR: BETTY KAPLAN El Taller Boricua Gallery, Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center, 1680 Lexington Ave. (betw. 105th & 106th Sts.), 212-561-0191. Latina director Kaplan (Of Love and Shadows, Dona Barbara & 2003 Peabody Award-winner Almost a Woman) answers questions about script development, funding, casting, production & marketing in "nuts & bolts session" for aspiring filmmakers [5/24, 3 p.m., $20].
TWO BOOTS PIONEER THEATER 155. E. 3rd St. (Ave. A), 212-254-3300 Pioneer continues its tradition of showing the weird & the wonderful: Catch two classic films illustrating suburbia's dark psychology from 5/28-6/10 when The Honeymoon Killers & The Swimmer screen. Also on tap is the second-annual Paranoia-Thon, dedicated this year to Roman Polanski & two of his thrillers: Repulsion & The Tenant. Series also incl. Francis Ford Coppola's 1974 thriller The Conversation starring Gene Hackman, Hitchcock's masterpiece North by Northwest & that masterpiece in its own right, Invasion of the Body Snatchers. [6/18-7/1]. Call for complete schedule.
UFO FEVER PREMIERE & PARTY Arlene's Grocery, 95 Stanton St. (betw. Ludlow & Orchard Sts.), 212-358-1633 Lee Bennett Sobel, NYC party promoter extraordinaire, shot this totally improvised comedy feature in three days; premise centers around a trailer park family from NJ that attempts to win $1 million by filming a UFO. Soundtrack feat. hot local music & the cast consists of top-notch comedians; Sobel touts it as "Close Encounters of the Third Kind meets Jerry Springer." Premiere feat. q&a w/Sobel & cast, plus performances by the soundtrack's bands, incl. Jones Crusher, Sea Monster & BananaFish Zero-who knows, maybe some aliens will drop by too. [6/1, 5 p.m., $8].
YWCA CINE-CLUB, 610 Lexington Ave. (53rd St.), 212-735-9717. Cine-Club's innovative programming for the summer ensures that you will not lack for high-quality alternatives to the mainstream. Their focus on film noir zeros into director Robert Wise's 1951 mystery House on Telegraph Hill, about a German concentration camp inmate who adopts the identity of one who didn't survive [6/7-6/8]. Other films incl. Kubrick's The Killing [7/26-7/27], Hitchcock's Rope [8/23-8/24] & lesser-known gems incl. This Gun for Hire [5/31-6/1] & Gaslight [6/28-6/29]. All shows at 4:30, $7.
Out of Town
CZECH FILM FESTIVAL Sosnoff Theater, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, 845-758-7950, www.bard.edu/fishercenter As part of the Bard SummerScape performing arts festival, Czech gems, rarely seen in this country, screen incl. The Joke [7/24], The Lion with a White Mane [7/26], Ballad for a Bandit [7/31] & the new Year of the Devil [8/3]. Call for details & tickets.
LAKE PLACID FILM FORUM Various locations in Lake Placid, NY, 518-523-3456, www.lakeplacidfilmforum.com Olympic village hosts film festival w/screenings (48-hour marathon), teen program, workshops & masters classes as well as celebrity presenters too numerous to name. Faculty incl. Tony Shaloub ("Acting") & Campbell Scott ("Directing Narratives"). Forums & panels on topics incl. "Whatever Happened to Free Speech?," "The Future of Free Speech in New York State" & "What's So Great About Great?" w/prominent industry members serving as panelists & moderators. [6/11-6/15].
NANTUCKET FILM FESTIVAL Various locations, Nantucket Island, MA, 508-325-6274, www.nantucketfilmfestival.org Four-day festival focuses on screenwriting & draws an assortment of movie stars, film buffs, directors & screenwriters to the island. Screenings of over 40 feature-length films & shorts from all over the world, plus the "Tony Cox Screenwriting Award," as well as trophies for best feature, short & writer/director. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala will receive tribute for her achievements (mastering the art of bringing stuffy Brits to life w/A Room with A View, Howard's End & The Remains of the Day). Also, staged readings, panel discussions & "Morning Coffee with?" events. Check website for updates [6/19-6/22].
TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL Throughout Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 416-968-FILM, www.bell.ca/filmfest The lauded Toronto International Film Festival continues in its 28th year. For sched., visit festival website or call [9/4-9/13].