L.A. film fans! This one's for you... This website is a proud online sponsor of Film Independent's Los Angeles Film Festival, which starts today. Now in its sixteenth year, and making its debut appearance Downtown, the festival showcases over 200 features, music videos and shorts from over 40 countries.
Things kick off tonight with the Opening Night presentation of Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right, and continues through June 27 with a full schedule of outdoor screenings, parties, panels and other cool film events. Here's a sampling of some of the programs I'm looking forward to checking out:
Where Are You Taking Me?
Dir: Kimi Takesue
(Uganda, USA, 2010, 72 min)
Documentary Competition
Allowing the sights and sounds -- and the people -- of Uganda to speak for themselves, this observational documentary says volumes about the country's often dynamic culture, its tragic recent history, and the act of non-fiction filmmaking.
1428
Dir: Du Hai-bin
(China, Hong Kong, 2009, 117 min)
International Showcase
Filmmaker Du Haibin artfully hones in on the aftermath of the great Sichuan earthquake of 2008, capturing the intimate reactions of the survivors and the government's response, both ten days after the tragedy and seven months later.
Cafe Noir
Dir: Jung Sung-Il
International Showcase
(South Korea, 2009, 197 mins)
Combining classical European literature with leftist politics and sly homages to the past decade of Korean cinema, this sprawling, playful examination of unrequited love is the directorial debut of film critic turned audacious auteur Jung Sung-il.
Big in Japan: A Selection of Japanese Music Videos
(87 min)
Music Videos
As the title suggests, this program is stacked with a whole bunch of crazy cool music videos by various bands and artists from Japan.
Make Believe
Dir: J. Clay Tweel
Documentary Competition
(Japan, South Africa, USA, 2010, 90 mins)
Armed with magic hoops, decks of cards and homegrown illusions, six hopefuls from around the world prepare for Las Vegas' World Magic Seminar, and the chance to win the title of Teen World Champion.
And that's just a small sampling of the programming. I've only just started to peruse the Festival catalog. For more information about the Los Angeles Film Festival, including tickets, venue details and the full program schedule go to the festival website here.
